Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 8524035" data-attributes="member: 7006">Best way I think to figure it out and determine if it is balanced is to find the most applicable and comparable spell or magic item whose mechanics match up to what you are thinking of.&nbsp; Then refluff said spell or magic item to be something your Rogue/Thief/Assassin can do.That's what I did in my Curse of Strahd campaign, when the party found the ancient and anachronisitic &quot;rifle&quot; in one of the tombs beneath Castle Ravenloft.&nbsp; As I find the standard gun rules in the game to be rather underpowered I wanted to make this rifle really have punch.&nbsp; So I just decided to refluff a Wand of Lightning Bolts as the rifle-- same 8d6 damage (with DEX save), same ability to hit several people lined up in a row.&nbsp; Changed the damage type from lightning to piercing, added a Bonus action requirement to &quot;reload&quot; after each firing, and kept the &quot;7 charges&quot; idea by saying that the rifle had to be cleaned thoroughly after 7 shots (which required a Long rest).As the &quot;rifle&quot; was pretty much just exactly like the magic wand, I knew the game was balanced and set up to accommodate it... and it gave that player something more powerful and interesting to fire than the typical &quot;uber-crossbow&quot; the DMG makes ballistic weapons.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="DEFCON 1, post: 8524035, member: 7006"] Best way I think to figure it out and determine if it is balanced is to find the most applicable and comparable spell or magic item whose mechanics match up to what you are thinking of. Then refluff said spell or magic item to be something your Rogue/Thief/Assassin can do. That's what I did in my [I]Curse of Strahd[/I] campaign, when the party found the ancient and anachronisitic "rifle" in one of the tombs beneath Castle Ravenloft. As I find the standard gun rules in the game to be rather underpowered I wanted to make this rifle really have punch. So I just decided to refluff a Wand of Lightning Bolts as the rifle-- same 8d6 damage (with DEX save), same ability to hit several people lined up in a row. Changed the damage type from lightning to piercing, added a Bonus action requirement to "reload" after each firing, and kept the "7 charges" idea by saying that the rifle had to be cleaned thoroughly after 7 shots (which required a Long rest). As the "rifle" was pretty much just exactly like the magic wand, I knew the game was balanced and set up to accommodate it... and it gave that player something more powerful and interesting to fire than the typical "uber-crossbow" the DMG makes ballistic weapons. [/QUOTE]

Verification