Gunfighter build advice

[Colmarr]

A player in my upcoming Zeitgeist campaign wants to play a gunfighter, and we're currently leaning toward rogue as a class. However, he doesn't particularly want to rely on hiding for CA. He's also quite invested in the rogue's social class skills.

The zeitgeist firearms rules are as follows:

Firearms use explosive alchemicals to fire metal ammunition. Reloading involves drawing and tearing open a paper cartridge, which contains firedust and a bullet. The gunman pours firedust down the barrel, then packs in the bullet with a ramrod. Pistols and carbines are fairly easy to aim, but the extreme length of muskets (over five feet long) makes them unwieldy for untrained users.

Reloading takes a standard action. Normally powers that let you make multiple ranged attacks let you reload freely between attacks, but you cannot freely reload firearms in this way. For that reason, a typical character might carry a loaded firearm to use as a once-per-encounter weapon. A character who wants to use a firearm as a primary weapon should take the Firearm Expertise feat, which lets him reload as a minor action. A fully specialized gunman may also want Speed Loader, which turns it into a free action.

We understand that many gaming groups use Wizard of the Coast’s Character Builder, and that – barring revisions to the software – adding new items is impossible. For that reason, we have based each firearm on an existing crossbow. The firearms trade a slower reload time for the brutal 2 and high crit properties.

To give your character a firearm, just equip the analogous weapon. When you print out your character sheet, you just need to remember or mark the different traits. To give your character Firearm Expertise, instead take the feat Crossbow Expertise. You gain the same attack bonus benefit, but use the firearm feat’s faster reloading in place of the secondary benefit of the crossbow feat. Feats, abilities, and powers that apply to crossbows also apply to firearms, and any character proficient in a crossbow is proficient in the equivalent firearm.

We admit this is a bit of a kludge, but it should let you take advantage of the Character Builder’s automatic calculations of attacks and damage, while giving firearms their own unique identity.

Pistol. This weapon is analogous to a hand crossbow.

Carbine. This weapon is analogous to a crossbow.

Musket. This weapon is analogous to a superior crossbow, from the Adventurer’s Vault.

As you can see, using a firearm as a main weapon is quite feat-intensive. His human bonus feat pretty much has to be Firearms Expertise (for the reload minor), leaving him with one other feat at level 1.

Does anyone have any ideas about how this character can be made to work?

I've considered the Distant Advantage feat. I've also considered the rogue powers that grant CA until the end of the PC's next turn (especially Preparatory Shot).

I've considered building the PC as a ranger instead, but the skills issue might be a roadblock. I've considered creating a variant 'urban ranger' that replaces some of the ranger's traditional skills with more urban-oriented ones but the MAD of having to pursue Cha as well as Dex and Wis seems obstructive.

I've even considered hybrid ranger/rogue for the former's striker damage feature and the latter's skills, but I'm a noob with hybrids and don't know how functional the resulting PC would be.

So, does anyone have any input or suggestions?

 

[Klaus]

What you want is a thief (the Essentials rogue). The class relies on basic attacks (Dex-based) for its attacks, and uses Move-action "movement tricks" to gain CA or deal additional damage to creatures not granting CA to it. Slap on Two-Fisted Shooter and you're golden.

 

[Colmarr]

What you want is a thief (the Essentials rogue).

Interesting!

Does a human thief gain an extra trick, or are they forced to take Heroic Effort instead?

 

[Neverfate]

Interesting!

Does a human thief gain an extra trick, or are they forced to take Heroic Effort instead?

Oddly enough, according to Customer Service, you cannot take an extra Trick but instead an At-will from the Rogue class. Though it will feel largely unnecessary in comparison to the Thief trick/basic attack set-up.

 

[Klaus]

Interesting!

Does a human thief gain an extra trick, or are they forced to take Heroic Effort instead?

You can either take a regular Rogue at-will, or you can take the encounter power humans got in Essentials as an alternative to the extra at-will.

 

[RangerWickett]

Alternately, be a Hunter (from the Essentials), and use the Crossbow Expertise option (which lets you reload free if normally it would be reload minor) to basically fire guns all the time. Use Rapid Shot with a carbine to unleash volleys of bullets, and you can reflavor it as firing dual pistols.

With the appropriate background, you should be able to get the right trained skills for your character concept. Then just only take martial powers, not primal ones.

 

[Colmarr]

Thanks Klaus and RW. Excellent advice from you both. I've spoken with the player concerned and we're going down the thief path.

RW, I'd xp you but for this darned 'must spread xp around' business.

 

[chris.crouch]

If you use inherent bonuses, he could just buy lots of pistols.

 

[Klaus]

Alternately, be a Hunter (from the Essentials), and use the Crossbow Expertise option (which lets you reload free if normally it would be reload minor) to basically fire guns all the time. Use Rapid Shot with a carbine to unleash volleys of bullets, and you can reflavor it as firing dual pistols.

With the appropriate background, you should be able to get the right trained skills for your character concept. Then just only take martial powers, not primal ones.

No choice, every hunter has primal Aspects (similar to stances) and Utilities (which *could* be traded for magic-less skill powers). But then the character would be a controller, not a striker.