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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 9827444" data-attributes="member: 7006">Same.  When I adapted the "rifle" that gets found in the crypts of Castle Ravenloft in Curse of Strahd I kept things as simple as possible by just using the mechanics of a Wand of Lightning Bolts and changing the damage type from lightning to piercing damage.  Everything else stayed the same-- the range and area of effect (5' wide, 100' long), the higher damage output (8d6 piercing), the DEX saving throw for half-damage, 7 shots (charges) allowed per day with time spent after a long rest to "clean" and "reload" the weapon in order regain shots (charges), using the 7th shot causing a possibility of a 1 on a d20 of having the "rifle" blow up in your hand.  Basically treating the "rifle" as though it was a magic item (even though 'in-game' it wasn't magical).Now granted, if you want firearms available at 1st level, using a magic item-equivalent for the weapons might be "overpowered" per se because you'd have low-level characters getting "magic items" earlier than one might otherwise ordinarily give them out.  But at least you'd know the mechanics of the items were balanced because they were based on magic items already designed to be balanced within the game.  The game allows a DM to give out a Wand of Lightning Bolts to a character at 1st level if they want to... so doing the same with the Wand being a "rifle" instead isn't going to be that much of an issue other than some really powerful attacks compared to the other PCs.And you could do the same for all the firearms you might want... use the Wand of Magic Missiles for your "pistol" mechanics, and the Wand of Lightning Bolts for your "rifle" mechanics, and just change the damage types from force/lighting to piercing.  Now does the "narrative" of these items work make complete sense as far as how "real" weapons of these types worked back in the medieval / Rennaissance age?  Nope.  No rifle "of the time" could shoot 7 times without reloading, nor probably have a range of 100'... but at least for me there are already so many "that's not how things actually work!" issues across the entire game when trying to equalize game mechanics to narrative reality that I stopped concerning myself with that aspect of it decades ago.  I'd rather just use the simplicity of treating firearms as magic items (including making them use an "attunement" slot even though they aren't considered magic items in-game) and not have to worry about it.</blockquote>

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