Pathfinder has firearms, and spells that dampen powder, force misfires, and the like totally exist.I was thinking more along the lines of a "Seek Gunpowder" spell that sent out a cloud of sparks. But there are many options.
Pathfinder has firearms, and spells that dampen powder, force misfires, and the like totally exist.I was thinking more along the lines of a "Seek Gunpowder" spell that sent out a cloud of sparks. But there are many options.
There hasn't exactly been a demand for firearms in my games, which is unsurprising given how infrequently they're represented in fantasy fiction. But if we did, those kind of spells are something I would look to add.Pathfinder has firearms, and spells that dampen powder, force misfires, and the like totally exist.
Firearms occupy this strange space in gaming. Some people are convinced that such weapons would instantly destroy the faux medieval setting with an industrial revolution, make armor useless, and obliterate monsters left and right. The reality is, full plate armor and cannons didn't exist until the 1300's in our world, we had hand cannons in the 1200's, and both the bastard sword, arquebus, matchlock, and the rapier were all invented in the 1400's.There hasn't exactly been a demand for firearms in my games, which is unsurprising given how infrequently they're represented in fantasy fiction. But if we did, those kind of spells are something I would look to add.
Firearms occupy this strange space in gaming. Some people are convinced that such weapons would instantly destroy the faux medieval setting with an industrial revolution, make armor useless, and obliterate monsters left and right. The reality is, full plate armor and cannons didn't exist until the 1300's in our world, we had hand cannons in the 1200's, and both the bastard sword, arquebus, matchlock, and the rapier were all invented in the 1400's.
The limitations of early firearms make them very difficult to use in the short skirmishes D&D is known for. Conversely, if you add firearms to a game and they aren't immediately superior to other weapons in all respects, some people will reject that outright! It's somewhat akin to the "katana madness" that once infected the gaming sphere where people who have bought into the mythology surrounding a weapon insist that it should be reflected in the game's mechanics.
All of this is quite silly when you consider D&D, in particular, which in the past deliberately made certain weapons strictly inferior to others based on designer bias and wanting to elevate certain forms of combat in the game- look at all the various times weapons that were once feared on battlefields are barely worth using over the years, like slings, crossbows, warhammers (really Gary, d4+1?) and so on.
It's especially amusing when one considers siege weaponry, since the Magic-User was originally designed to be an analog for such weapons on the battlefield!
Ahhh, yeah I have to imagine "combat plays fast" is relative.Oh, I've enjoyed @pogre 's photos of their gaming table, and I was struck by their comments "our combats play fast" and "we just wrapped at 19th/20th level" – which AFAICT seem to be exceptional as I've more often heard that combats take longer at higher levels.
The context was they have a very combat-centric fast-and-fun beer-and-pretzels D&D game.
I don't have any context for your high-level games, so no questions right now, but if you'd like to share something on your mind, go ahead!
Ahhh, yeah I have to imagine "combat plays fast" is relative.
If you're finishing a 5e level 19-20 encounter in<60<180 mins that isn't a pushover, I can't imagine a secret that's anything other than "my players and I all know exactly what we're going to do each round, we pre-roll or roll dice online, and few surprising or unexpected events occur."
Either that, or you're upping enemy damage and lowering HP- which I have considered but never pulled the trigger on.
It's high level. You have more options, features, and dice to take into consideration- not to mention more math. The stakes are usually higher, you're more invested... Everything is going to take more time.
Striker yes.That's not actually the best way to be a defender or striker. IMHO.
. The issue is the people demanding faster turns also the same people demanding tons of options.High level play is slower than low level play. That doesn't make it unplayable.
Where was the pain point with the Peace cleric? Was it that everyone suddenly had a reaction to choose from with Protective Bond? I’m guessing that high level PCs usually have at least one reaction option already, so more an intensification of an existing problem rather than creation of a new problem from scratch. Was it having to remind everyone about the d4 from the Empowering Bond? So an intensification of the Bless problem encountered at 1st level?You want to see combat grind to a halt. Try running a few high level combats (of any complexity) with a Peace domain cleric!
Wow, that was painful and I wasn't even DMing!
Fair enough. I just looked them up and it says that the 12 pounder was a 1 per minute rate of fire and the 8 pounder was 2 per minute. The 4 pounder shows 2-3 per minute. None of which are fast enough to take out a group of mid to high level PCs.