EN Arsenal
istol
Review by Noffham
EN Arsenal: Pistols is a 24 page PDF from EN Publishing which I received as a free review copy. Three pages are taken up by the Open Game license, the Table of Contents and the cover. Illustrations were sparse but captured the feel of the topic fairly well. There were some typos but nothing that made the rules incomprehensible.
Chapter one provides a brief history of flint- and wheel-lock pistols. It provides the stats for pistols of all sizes from fine to colossal. The author does a solid job of scaling the weapon, although the stats for the medium weapon are not the same as those found in the DMG (e.g. damage 2d6 here and 1d10 in the DMG). The chapter also discusses how the “standard” fantasy races feel about pistols. There is a side-bar discussing the use of pistols in fantasy settings and it makes the point that using pistols will change the tone of the game, recommending the user try out various combinations of optional rules to find the feel they most like. The optional rules presented cover making pistols more common in the campaign, more deadly from increased threat range, using skill checks to reload and the effects of gun smoke.
Chapter two goes over a number of pistol variants; axe-pistols, hilt-pistols, etc. None of these particularly stood out for me, but all made sense and were historically accurate. One interesting section involved using crafting rolls to enhance the weapons range, durability (hit points), hardness, and accuracy. Most of these craft attempts can be made multiple times on a weapon.
Chapter Three covers Tricks and Techniques. This includes pistol related feats and a brief discussion of tactics to increase the usefulness of the pistol. I found some of these feats to be slightly overpowered. For example, the “lightning draw” feat automatically denies the opponent their dex bonus the first time you draw and fire your pistol in combat against an opponent within 30 feet. Although it requires two pre-requisite feats and DEX of 19, it still seems too powerful. What rogue wouldn’t consider this combination?
Chapter Four presents three prestige classes focused on Pistols. The stalwart gunman (a five level class), the floating marksman and the prescient duelist (both ten level classes). The last being a psionics based class, although a sidebar presents arcane options to use the class. The Stalwart Gunman looks to be a solid class that captures the pistol-specialized character. The floating marksman just doesn’t feel right to me. The class is based on the idea that fluid tumbling movement can be combined with using pistols. Interesting, but I just can’t picture a tumbling gunman reloading a muzzle-loader while on the move. Maybe it’s just a lapse in my imagination.
Chapter Five covers spells and magical enhancements for Pistols. This includes a generic “God of gunpowder” with associated domains. These were about what I expected, such as a spell to dry powder or one to cause an opponents' weapon to misfire. The magic item properties were fairly standard for a missile weapon. I was surprised to see that there were no spells to increase rate of fire. (For some reason, I thought of the old Runequest spell multi-missile that duplicates a fired missile in flight to deliver extra damage to the target. I think such a spell would be a natural for pistols.) There are four specific magical pistols. One, the Breath of Dead Men is an interesting necromantic pistol that can capture the soul of those it kills and transform that power into a potent “soul bullet”. High cool factor there!
Overall, I liked the book more for the ideas it sparked about ways to include pistols in my game than for the content as written. I can see the most value from the pdf by picking bits out to customize to my world, but I don’t see that I would adopt a lot of it as is. Overall, I give it a 3.
