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Character Builds & Optimization
The Railgun (no, not the peasant kind)
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<blockquote data-quote="TKDB" data-source="post: 6194583" data-attributes="member: 6690697"><p><span style="font-size: 18px"><strong>Test Firing the Railgun</strong></span></p><p></p><p>Now, let's look at the output of the Railgun's signature attack at various levels. The calculations here assume our Railgun is a human with starting ability scores of 12 Str, 16 Dex, 14 Con, 16 Wis, 10 Int, and 8 Cha, as noted above, and cannot use Str-boosting items to qualify for Power Throw (and thus must put a point from leveling up into Str at level 16). We will also assume that the DM is not using the optional damage adjustment rules for pyrokineticist variants; even if they were being used, the difference in damage is relatively trivial.</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 15px"><strong>Railgun Mk. I: Prototype</strong></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p><p>While a basic form of the railgun attack can be attempted from fairly early on, I personally wouldn't consider it a proper railgun until level 9, when it becomes possible to add electricity damage to the attack. At this point, the Railgun has increased her Dex to 18 by level bonuses, and presumably has acquired at least a +2 Dex item. Assuming she's invested in her shurikens as a secondary weapon, a value comparable to a +1 weapon would be appropriate. Two or three +1 <em>Collision Returning</em> adamantine shuriken would be in about the right price range; the Railgun really only needs one, but a few extras wouldn't be a bad idea. Here's how it looks:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px"><strong>To hit:</strong> +6 BAB +5 Dex +1 enhancement +1 Weapon Focus +1 Point Blank Shot -1 Decisive Strike</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 40px">= +13 ranged</p> <p style="margin-left: 40px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><strong>Damage:</strong> 2*(1d2 +1 Str +5 Dex +1 enhancement +2 insight +5 collision +1 Point Blank Shot) +2d6 electricity +4d6 Greater Psionic Shot</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 40px">= 2d2 +30 +6d6 (<strong>average 54</strong>)</p> <p style="margin-left: 40px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 40px"></p><p>Outside point-blank range, the Railgun loses 1 to-hit and 12 damage. The damage loss against targets immune to critical hits is nearly identical, and in fact there is no difference between damage to crit-susceptible and crit-immune targets outside of point-blank range.</p><p></p><p>...Ok, so maybe <em>actual</em> optimized damage-dealers are trying politely not too laugh too hard at what little sparky here thinks is a lot of damage, but still, you gotta admit, that's not too shabby for just one measly shuriken, right?</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 15px"><strong>Railgun Mk. II: Basic Model</strong></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p><p></p><p>Just one level later, at level 10, the Railgun gets a tremendous boost in power to her signature move thanks to the Palm Throw trick from master thrower. She loses her Str bonus to damage from this, but doubles everything else (including the electricity and Psionic Shot damage!). She will need to use twice as many shuriken now, but since she’s been budgeting for an excess anyway she should have no difficulties there. I won’t go through the full detailed calculations here, since it’s nearly identical to the Mk. I – just a simple matter of removing the Str to damage and doubling everything else. This gives an average damage of <strong>104. </strong>However, the drop in damage from shooting out of point blank range also increases proportionally (to 24 damage lost).</p><p></p><p>At this stage, the Railgun will probably begin budgeting more and more toward improving her railgun attack.</p><p></p><p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 15px"><strong>Railgun Mk. III: Rapidfire Model</strong></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p><p></p><p>The next major improvement in the Railgun’s eponymous attack comes at level 14, where both her electricity damage and decisive strike improve. At this point, she’s also acquired the Psionic Meditation feat, allowing for sustained firing of the railgun attack as described above with dorjes of <em>Hustle</em>. Let’s see what her two shots might look like with the improved gear available to her at this level. She should easily have a +4 Dex item by this point, giving her a Dex score of 23, and if we assume she’s budgeting the shuriken as a primary weapon she could easily afford a collection of +4 <em>Collision Returning Bane</em> shuriken of various types – up to 9 bane types, if she gets just enough for a single decisive strike (a total of 36 shuriken). Since she can Power Attack with the electricity lash (now dealing 1d8+4d6 electricity damage plus Power Attack as a two-handed weapon while making ranged touch attacks) and use Bolts of Electricity for general attacking, she can afford to focus more on this more specialized attack rather than investing in a more standard weapon. That many bane types ought to be enough to cover the large majority of enemies that will really need railgunning, so we’ll assume bane is in effect for the calculations now:</p><p></p><p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><strong>To hit:</strong> +10 BAB +6 Dex +6 enhancement +1 Weapon Focus +1 Point Blank Shot</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p><p> <p style="margin-left: 40px">= +24</p> <p style="margin-left: 40px"></p><p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><strong>Damage:</strong> 2 attacks @ 2*( 2*(1d2 +6 Dex +6 enhancement +2 insight +5 collision +1 Point Blank Shot) +4d6 electricity +4d6 Greater Psionic Shot +2d6 bane)</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p><p> <p style="margin-left: 40px">= 4d2 +80 +20d6 per attack (average 156); <strong>combined average damage if both hit = 312</strong></p> <p style="margin-left: 40px"></p><p> </p><p>Outside point-blank range, the total damage drops by 56. Losing the Greater Psionic Shot damage after the first round drops the average damage to 128 per attack (256 total) for sustained fire at point-blank range after the initial round.</p><p> </p><p>Over the next several levels, she’ll move up to a +5 enhancement bonus on her shuriken and expand her library of bane types. She’ll also want to pick up Goggles of the Ebon Hunter (MIC) at some point for a +1 competence bonus to hit and damage. If she wants to increase her range, she can add the effect of Horizon Goggles (CM) to her Goggles of the Ebon Hunter (or, more likely, she’ll do the reverse, as the Horizon Goggles are cheaper and also benefit her ranged touch attacks from electromaster, and so would presumably be bought before the Ebon Hunter), pick up Gauntlets of Extended Range (MIC), and get <em>Distance</em> shuriken. Between these three together, the range increment on the Railgun’s signature attack is 40 ft – not exceptional, but sufficient for most combat scenarios.</p><p></p><p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 15px"><strong>Railgun Mk. IV: High-Power Penetrating Model</strong></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p><p></p><p>At level 18, the Railgun’s signature move hits its full potential, with the acquisition of the Weak Point thrown weapon trick and the Power Throw feat. By this point she should easily have a set of +5 <em>Collision Bane Returning</em> adamantine shuriken for the large majority of bane types she’s likely to need (between 11 different monster types plus Magebane), further increasing the likelihood that she’ll have an appropriate bane shuriken set on hand. Most if not all of her shuriken could also have the <em>Distance</em> property as well. She should also be able to afford Goggles of the Ebon Hunter by now, giving another small boost to damage, as well as an upgrade to a +6 Dex item, making her Dex score 25 now.</p><p>Here’s how the attack looks at this stage:</p><p></p><p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><strong>To hit: </strong>+7 Dex +7 enhancement +1 competence +1 Weapon Focus +1 Point Blank Shot</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p><p> <p style="margin-left: 40px">= +17 ranged touch</p> <p style="margin-left: 40px"></p><p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><strong>Damage: </strong>2 attacks @ 2*( 2*(1d2 +7 Dex +7 enhancement +2 insight +1 competence +5 collision +1 Point Blank Shot +14 Power Throw) +4d6 electricity +2d6 bane +4d6 Greater Psionic Shot)</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p><p> <p style="margin-left: 40px">= 4d2 +148 +20d6 per attack (average 224); <strong>combined average damage if both hit = 448</strong></p> <p style="margin-left: 40px"></p><p></p><p>The damage dropoff for firing outside point-blank range at this point is 64 damage out of the total (32 per attack). Sustained fire at point-blank range deals 196 damage per attack after the first round, for a total of 392 per round after the first.</p><p></p><p>By level 20, the Railgun will pick up Giant Killing Style for an extra +2 to hit and +16 damage per attack against any target of a larger size category (ie, the vast majority of high-hp creatures in need of the railgun treatment, and a dorje of <em>Compression</em> can help to get the benefit even more often), an additional point of BAB (which translates to +4 damage per attack with Power Throw), and a Manual of Quickness of Action to get her Dex bonus up to a solid +10. Thus, the level 20 Railgun makes ranged touch attacks at +22 to hit, and deals 4d2 +180 +20d6 damage per attack, for a total average damage of <strong>512 if both attacks hit</strong>. Outside point-blank range, the damage is reduced by 44 per attack, bringing the average total down to 424. For sustained fire at point-blank range, each attack after the first round deals 228 damage on average, for an average total of 456 per round if both hit.</p><p></p><p>If the DM doesn’t allow Power Throw to work with the Palm Throw trick, the Railgun would want to take four levels of fighter instead of master thrower for Weapon Specialization and Ranged Weapon Mastery to crank the damage up. She won’t be making ranged touch attacks (at least not necessarily; this route does free up her level 15 feat slot, so she could take Fell Shot and use her psionic focus for that instead of Greater Psionic Shot if an enemy’s AC is problematic), and the damage bonus won’t be quite as high, but every little bit helps. With this build, the damage at level 20 is 4d2 +136 +20d6 per attack (average 424 if both hit) with Greater Psionic Shot, or 4d2 +136 +12d6 per attack (368 if both hit) without Greater Psionic Shot – not quite as good as with Power Throw, but still quite respectable.</p><p> </p><p>So there you have it. It may be a bit on the modest side compared to the levels of damage optimization you can get with other builds in 3.5, but I’d say anything that can drop a dragon with just four shuriken is still rather impressive, wouldn’t you?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="TKDB, post: 6194583, member: 6690697"] [SIZE=5][B]Test Firing the Railgun[/B][/SIZE] Now, let's look at the output of the Railgun's signature attack at various levels. The calculations here assume our Railgun is a human with starting ability scores of 12 Str, 16 Dex, 14 Con, 16 Wis, 10 Int, and 8 Cha, as noted above, and cannot use Str-boosting items to qualify for Power Throw (and thus must put a point from leveling up into Str at level 16). We will also assume that the DM is not using the optional damage adjustment rules for pyrokineticist variants; even if they were being used, the difference in damage is relatively trivial. [INDENT][SIZE=4][B]Railgun Mk. I: Prototype[/B][/SIZE] [/INDENT] While a basic form of the railgun attack can be attempted from fairly early on, I personally wouldn't consider it a proper railgun until level 9, when it becomes possible to add electricity damage to the attack. At this point, the Railgun has increased her Dex to 18 by level bonuses, and presumably has acquired at least a +2 Dex item. Assuming she's invested in her shurikens as a secondary weapon, a value comparable to a +1 weapon would be appropriate. Two or three +1 [I]Collision Returning[/I] adamantine shuriken would be in about the right price range; the Railgun really only needs one, but a few extras wouldn't be a bad idea. Here's how it looks: [INDENT][B]To hit:[/B] +6 BAB +5 Dex +1 enhancement +1 Weapon Focus +1 Point Blank Shot -1 Decisive Strike [/INDENT] [INDENT=2]= +13 ranged [/INDENT] [INDENT][B]Damage:[/B] 2*(1d2 +1 Str +5 Dex +1 enhancement +2 insight +5 collision +1 Point Blank Shot) +2d6 electricity +4d6 Greater Psionic Shot [/INDENT] [INDENT=2]= 2d2 +30 +6d6 ([B]average 54[/B]) [/INDENT] Outside point-blank range, the Railgun loses 1 to-hit and 12 damage. The damage loss against targets immune to critical hits is nearly identical, and in fact there is no difference between damage to crit-susceptible and crit-immune targets outside of point-blank range. ...Ok, so maybe [I]actual[/I] optimized damage-dealers are trying politely not too laugh too hard at what little sparky here thinks is a lot of damage, but still, you gotta admit, that's not too shabby for just one measly shuriken, right? [INDENT][SIZE=4][B]Railgun Mk. II: Basic Model[/B][/SIZE] [/INDENT] Just one level later, at level 10, the Railgun gets a tremendous boost in power to her signature move thanks to the Palm Throw trick from master thrower. She loses her Str bonus to damage from this, but doubles everything else (including the electricity and Psionic Shot damage!). She will need to use twice as many shuriken now, but since she’s been budgeting for an excess anyway she should have no difficulties there. I won’t go through the full detailed calculations here, since it’s nearly identical to the Mk. I – just a simple matter of removing the Str to damage and doubling everything else. This gives an average damage of [B]104. [/B]However, the drop in damage from shooting out of point blank range also increases proportionally (to 24 damage lost). At this stage, the Railgun will probably begin budgeting more and more toward improving her railgun attack. [INDENT][SIZE=4][B]Railgun Mk. III: Rapidfire Model[/B][/SIZE] [/INDENT] The next major improvement in the Railgun’s eponymous attack comes at level 14, where both her electricity damage and decisive strike improve. At this point, she’s also acquired the Psionic Meditation feat, allowing for sustained firing of the railgun attack as described above with dorjes of [I]Hustle[/I]. Let’s see what her two shots might look like with the improved gear available to her at this level. She should easily have a +4 Dex item by this point, giving her a Dex score of 23, and if we assume she’s budgeting the shuriken as a primary weapon she could easily afford a collection of +4 [I]Collision Returning Bane[/I] shuriken of various types – up to 9 bane types, if she gets just enough for a single decisive strike (a total of 36 shuriken). Since she can Power Attack with the electricity lash (now dealing 1d8+4d6 electricity damage plus Power Attack as a two-handed weapon while making ranged touch attacks) and use Bolts of Electricity for general attacking, she can afford to focus more on this more specialized attack rather than investing in a more standard weapon. That many bane types ought to be enough to cover the large majority of enemies that will really need railgunning, so we’ll assume bane is in effect for the calculations now: [INDENT][B]To hit:[/B] +10 BAB +6 Dex +6 enhancement +1 Weapon Focus +1 Point Blank Shot [/INDENT] [INDENT=2]= +24 [/INDENT] [INDENT][B]Damage:[/B] 2 attacks @ 2*( 2*(1d2 +6 Dex +6 enhancement +2 insight +5 collision +1 Point Blank Shot) +4d6 electricity +4d6 Greater Psionic Shot +2d6 bane) [/INDENT] [INDENT=2]= 4d2 +80 +20d6 per attack (average 156); [B]combined average damage if both hit = 312[/B] [/INDENT] Outside point-blank range, the total damage drops by 56. Losing the Greater Psionic Shot damage after the first round drops the average damage to 128 per attack (256 total) for sustained fire at point-blank range after the initial round. Over the next several levels, she’ll move up to a +5 enhancement bonus on her shuriken and expand her library of bane types. She’ll also want to pick up Goggles of the Ebon Hunter (MIC) at some point for a +1 competence bonus to hit and damage. If she wants to increase her range, she can add the effect of Horizon Goggles (CM) to her Goggles of the Ebon Hunter (or, more likely, she’ll do the reverse, as the Horizon Goggles are cheaper and also benefit her ranged touch attacks from electromaster, and so would presumably be bought before the Ebon Hunter), pick up Gauntlets of Extended Range (MIC), and get [I]Distance[/I] shuriken. Between these three together, the range increment on the Railgun’s signature attack is 40 ft – not exceptional, but sufficient for most combat scenarios. [INDENT][SIZE=4][B]Railgun Mk. IV: High-Power Penetrating Model[/B][/SIZE] [/INDENT] At level 18, the Railgun’s signature move hits its full potential, with the acquisition of the Weak Point thrown weapon trick and the Power Throw feat. By this point she should easily have a set of +5 [I]Collision Bane Returning[/I] adamantine shuriken for the large majority of bane types she’s likely to need (between 11 different monster types plus Magebane), further increasing the likelihood that she’ll have an appropriate bane shuriken set on hand. Most if not all of her shuriken could also have the [I]Distance[/I] property as well. She should also be able to afford Goggles of the Ebon Hunter by now, giving another small boost to damage, as well as an upgrade to a +6 Dex item, making her Dex score 25 now. Here’s how the attack looks at this stage: [INDENT][B]To hit: [/B]+7 Dex +7 enhancement +1 competence +1 Weapon Focus +1 Point Blank Shot [/INDENT] [INDENT=2]= +17 ranged touch [/INDENT] [INDENT][B]Damage: [/B]2 attacks @ 2*( 2*(1d2 +7 Dex +7 enhancement +2 insight +1 competence +5 collision +1 Point Blank Shot +14 Power Throw) +4d6 electricity +2d6 bane +4d6 Greater Psionic Shot) [/INDENT] [INDENT=2]= 4d2 +148 +20d6 per attack (average 224); [B]combined average damage if both hit = 448[/B] [/INDENT] The damage dropoff for firing outside point-blank range at this point is 64 damage out of the total (32 per attack). Sustained fire at point-blank range deals 196 damage per attack after the first round, for a total of 392 per round after the first. By level 20, the Railgun will pick up Giant Killing Style for an extra +2 to hit and +16 damage per attack against any target of a larger size category (ie, the vast majority of high-hp creatures in need of the railgun treatment, and a dorje of [I]Compression[/I] can help to get the benefit even more often), an additional point of BAB (which translates to +4 damage per attack with Power Throw), and a Manual of Quickness of Action to get her Dex bonus up to a solid +10. Thus, the level 20 Railgun makes ranged touch attacks at +22 to hit, and deals 4d2 +180 +20d6 damage per attack, for a total average damage of [B]512 if both attacks hit[/B]. Outside point-blank range, the damage is reduced by 44 per attack, bringing the average total down to 424. For sustained fire at point-blank range, each attack after the first round deals 228 damage on average, for an average total of 456 per round if both hit. If the DM doesn’t allow Power Throw to work with the Palm Throw trick, the Railgun would want to take four levels of fighter instead of master thrower for Weapon Specialization and Ranged Weapon Mastery to crank the damage up. She won’t be making ranged touch attacks (at least not necessarily; this route does free up her level 15 feat slot, so she could take Fell Shot and use her psionic focus for that instead of Greater Psionic Shot if an enemy’s AC is problematic), and the damage bonus won’t be quite as high, but every little bit helps. With this build, the damage at level 20 is 4d2 +136 +20d6 per attack (average 424 if both hit) with Greater Psionic Shot, or 4d2 +136 +12d6 per attack (368 if both hit) without Greater Psionic Shot – not quite as good as with Power Throw, but still quite respectable. So there you have it. It may be a bit on the modest side compared to the levels of damage optimization you can get with other builds in 3.5, but I’d say anything that can drop a dragon with just four shuriken is still rather impressive, wouldn’t you? [/QUOTE]
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