In the "Keep your powder dry" and ZEITGEIST 5E rules, most firearms have the muzzle-loading property: "Because of the extreme times required to reload this weapon, you must spend an action or bonus action to reload before you can shoot again".
I am a bit confused about the "bonus action" part of this. Does every character and NPC who is proficient with those firearms have the ability to spend a bonus action to reload? In other words, is the only disadvantage of a muzzle-loading firearm that you can't spend your bonus action on something else? Can somebody proficient with a musket shoot every turn? If he has two attacks, can he shoot, reload as bonus action and shoot again in the first turn?
The alternative would be that one needs a special ability that allows you to spend a bonus action in order to use it to reload. Characters without that ability (thus all player characters) can only shoot a muzzle-loading firearm every second round.
Which one is it?
I am a bit confused about the "bonus action" part of this. Does every character and NPC who is proficient with those firearms have the ability to spend a bonus action to reload? In other words, is the only disadvantage of a muzzle-loading firearm that you can't spend your bonus action on something else? Can somebody proficient with a musket shoot every turn? If he has two attacks, can he shoot, reload as bonus action and shoot again in the first turn?
The alternative would be that one needs a special ability that allows you to spend a bonus action in order to use it to reload. Characters without that ability (thus all player characters) can only shoot a muzzle-loading firearm every second round.
Which one is it?