Celebrim
Legend
Well, so much of this depends on your assumptions, and that's to not even get into the whole problem of hit points are a narrativist device and not a simulationist device. They exist to provide characters plot armor more than they exist to model real world wounds.
For example, let's say we are playing 3.X edition. Commoners have the same 4 h.p. on average, but they don't instantly die until -10 h.p.
So now we are saying that 1/3rd of bullet wounds do ~14 or more damage, and less than 2/3rds do ~13 or less damage - leaving the target dying but capable of being saved if they receive immediate medical attention. Perhaps a few ordinary people get hit on rare occasions for 3 or less damage and so would survive without medical attention, and a few stabilize despite being in the dying condition.
With this new set up, it's possible to argue that bullets do 1d20 damage.
Personally, I have set guns doing damage along the lines of 1d10 with a 19-20 critical and a x3 modifier on damage.
As for ignoring armor, they don't really ignore armor, they are just comparatively good at penetrating armor; that is to say, when attacking a target that reduce the effective AC granted by armor by a certain amount. They don't always reduce it to zero. But the first sorts of "gonne" that would be invented are actually only slightly better at penetrating armor than ancient weapons, so the advantage I generally use is a reduction in AC of 1 or 2 depending on how advanced the weapon is.
There are a couple of other import advantages of a firearm. The first, and the one most overlooked in most games and the one least represented in typical D&D rules, is that firearms are very simple weapons to learn and operate. It's very easy to levy a peasant militia and teach them how to use firearms with reasonable effectiveness. They are 'simple' weapons which all classes are proficient in, even commoners and the like. It's much easier to learn how to use a firearm with reasonable effectiveness than even a spear or a dagger. You just load, point, and fire. You can learn this in a week or two, whereas learning to use a longbow might take 10 years.
The other aspect of a firearm that gives them an advantage is related - it's much easier to be accurate with a firearm than with other missile weapons because they shoot straight and at a high velocity. You have to lead your target less and adjust your aim less. While there might be some inherent limits in the accuracy of a smoothbore weapon, that's vastly overcome in the initial phases of learning how to shoot one because they are just so easy to aim (and impossible to dodge). The result is that I give an accuracy bonus to most even primitive firearms, usually just +1 for most weapons that would show up in a D&D campaign.
One advantage early firearms most certainly DO NOT have is high rate of fire. An early hand gonne might take 6 full rounds to reload, and lowering that rate of fire requires as much practice as it takes to get really accurate with say a bow. Long training with a hand gonne or smoothbore musket is generally focused on increasing the rate of fire, and less on getting them accurate.
What is the result of all of this?
Well the result is terrible for heroes, that's what.
You have a weapon that is practically a one shot weapon which gives a relatively unskilled warrior a high damage attack that effectively has a significant bonus to hit, both because it partially ignores armor and because it has an inherent bonus to accuracy. For a hero, the fact that you only get one shot and you are tending to get into fights where you are heavily outnumbered makes the firearm really unattractive. But if you are say a goblin mook, who is forced to face off against heroes who can cut through you by the dozens, the gonne evens the odds immensely.
If you get up to the level of something like a flintlock rifle, it's probably not even particularly attractive to heroes compared with the longbow, but by golly it becomes a problem when facing off against masses of foes. Suddenly they have the means of hitting you despite your high AC, and when they hit they tend to hit pretty hard. Massed volleys of musket fire is a significant problem for mid-level characters, even if it is just 1st level warriors doing it.
For example, let's say we are playing 3.X edition. Commoners have the same 4 h.p. on average, but they don't instantly die until -10 h.p.
So now we are saying that 1/3rd of bullet wounds do ~14 or more damage, and less than 2/3rds do ~13 or less damage - leaving the target dying but capable of being saved if they receive immediate medical attention. Perhaps a few ordinary people get hit on rare occasions for 3 or less damage and so would survive without medical attention, and a few stabilize despite being in the dying condition.
With this new set up, it's possible to argue that bullets do 1d20 damage.
Personally, I have set guns doing damage along the lines of 1d10 with a 19-20 critical and a x3 modifier on damage.
As for ignoring armor, they don't really ignore armor, they are just comparatively good at penetrating armor; that is to say, when attacking a target that reduce the effective AC granted by armor by a certain amount. They don't always reduce it to zero. But the first sorts of "gonne" that would be invented are actually only slightly better at penetrating armor than ancient weapons, so the advantage I generally use is a reduction in AC of 1 or 2 depending on how advanced the weapon is.
There are a couple of other import advantages of a firearm. The first, and the one most overlooked in most games and the one least represented in typical D&D rules, is that firearms are very simple weapons to learn and operate. It's very easy to levy a peasant militia and teach them how to use firearms with reasonable effectiveness. They are 'simple' weapons which all classes are proficient in, even commoners and the like. It's much easier to learn how to use a firearm with reasonable effectiveness than even a spear or a dagger. You just load, point, and fire. You can learn this in a week or two, whereas learning to use a longbow might take 10 years.
The other aspect of a firearm that gives them an advantage is related - it's much easier to be accurate with a firearm than with other missile weapons because they shoot straight and at a high velocity. You have to lead your target less and adjust your aim less. While there might be some inherent limits in the accuracy of a smoothbore weapon, that's vastly overcome in the initial phases of learning how to shoot one because they are just so easy to aim (and impossible to dodge). The result is that I give an accuracy bonus to most even primitive firearms, usually just +1 for most weapons that would show up in a D&D campaign.
One advantage early firearms most certainly DO NOT have is high rate of fire. An early hand gonne might take 6 full rounds to reload, and lowering that rate of fire requires as much practice as it takes to get really accurate with say a bow. Long training with a hand gonne or smoothbore musket is generally focused on increasing the rate of fire, and less on getting them accurate.
What is the result of all of this?
Well the result is terrible for heroes, that's what.
You have a weapon that is practically a one shot weapon which gives a relatively unskilled warrior a high damage attack that effectively has a significant bonus to hit, both because it partially ignores armor and because it has an inherent bonus to accuracy. For a hero, the fact that you only get one shot and you are tending to get into fights where you are heavily outnumbered makes the firearm really unattractive. But if you are say a goblin mook, who is forced to face off against heroes who can cut through you by the dozens, the gonne evens the odds immensely.
If you get up to the level of something like a flintlock rifle, it's probably not even particularly attractive to heroes compared with the longbow, but by golly it becomes a problem when facing off against masses of foes. Suddenly they have the means of hitting you despite your high AC, and when they hit they tend to hit pretty hard. Massed volleys of musket fire is a significant problem for mid-level characters, even if it is just 1st level warriors doing it.
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