Pistol in off-hand

[phoffman]

The Gunsmith theme seems tailored to rogues or rogue multi-classing, for Two-fisted Shooter. This way they can fully take advantage of the Power "The Man with Two Guns is God" Even with the special ability of not provoking attacks of opportunity, this power seems underwhelming for an encounter power _IF_ they only have one ranged weapon. Remember there is no stat damage added on this power, its just the [w].

Perhaps this theme could also allow the person to wield pistols in their off-hand. It seems pretty reasonable to me.

 

[RangerWickett]

Why couldn't you wield pistols in your off hand? I mean, aside from the fact that the game very rarely has powers that let you attack with two different weapons in the same action, it's certainly feasible to have a melee weapon and a pistol, or two pistols, and just use them in separate actions. Cuts down on the time needed to reload and re-draw weapons.

 

[phoffman]

It makes sense that some one would be able to hold a pistol in their off-hand, and fire it. Allowing the (pistol) hand crossbow in the off-hand all the time wouldn't unbalance anything.

Putting a hand crossbow in your off-hand is one of those things that the Character Builder prevents you from doing, without the proper feat. Its a minor annoyance in 4e when that happens.

The solution is to acquire two pistols, but not to equip the second one, within the character builder and then just write on your sheet that your wielding both.

 

[benfromidaho]

Maybe it's just my miniature wargaming background, but I've always thought the off-hand was the best place for a pistol. Sure there are some negative modifiers, but if you're close enough to shoot a pistol, then you're close enough to need to use a melee weapon next round.

Updated: I forgot to mention that I am playing Pathfinder, and it seems after reading a few replies there are a lot more things that go into being an "off-hand weapon" in 4th Edition.

 

[Redbadge]

Why couldn't you wield pistols in your off hand? I mean, aside from the fact that the game very rarely has powers that let you attack with two different weapons in the same action, it's certainly feasible to have a melee weapon and a pistol, or two pistols, and just use them in separate actions. Cuts down on the time needed to reload and re-draw weapons.

Hand crossbows do not have the offhand property. If your intention was that pistols do have the offhand property, let me know so I can alert our dungeon master. He already ruled against our tiefling weaponsmith hunter. The hunter is currently under the impression that he'll have to abandon his original seeker multiclass plan if he wants Two-fisted Shooter.

 

[phoffman]

I modified the Gunsmith theme for our campaign. It now also adds the off-hand property to the pistol.

I also modified Two Fisted Shooter to include pistols, but it does not reduce the reload time.

If I can convince a friend to be the GM for this arc over the next 2 years then I myself might just play a Elf Hunter Gunsmith and have the Crossbow-expertise swapped with Firearm Expertise. Thematically that character is no more powerful than using the Crossbow Hunter with any other theme.

p.s. there is a link in my sig, if you know how to modify the old character builder that might help you along.