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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DreadPirateMurphy" data-source="post: 3636258" data-attributes="member: 20715">You're assuming that the cost of a musket in the real world has any relevance to the cost in the DMG.  The DMG price seems to be based on presumed rarity as much as on actual cost to manufacture.  In a world like Eberron, you could assume that mass production techniques would make guns much cheaper.The real question is whether or not firearms would ever evolve.  From the 14th to the 16th centuries, real world armies used a mixture of cavalry, cannon, firearms, crossbows, pikes and longbows.  Things changed gradually over hundreds of years.  There was no "Eureka!" moment when everybody suddenly started using firearms to the exclusion of everything else.If you assume a medieval period of technology, then any firearms would be relatively primitive.  Cannon were originally large and expensive, but they were used for seige warfare because they could bring more power to bear than mechanical seige weapons.  In a world like Eberron, I find it hard to believe that a nation would invest in large cannon when they could have a spellcaster serve the same purpose.  Mobile horse artillery would certainly be useful, but they weren't developed until much later after much technological evolution.Small firearms such as the arquebus were relatively cheap compared to longbows, which required years of training, or crossbows, which required expensive steel.  Magic is certainly not cheap by comparison, so there is an argument to be made for the development of small arms.  I could see ranks of arquebus protected by pike on the battlefields of Eberron, just as in the real world.  Artillery would be replaced by magic.  As firearms advanced, they would gradually become more expensive, too, but the efficacy would also increase to the point when nobody would choose a crossbow over a musket.There is one obvious reason why, in a world of magic, firearms are problematic.  The technology is dependent upon a chemical powder that is highly combustible.  Imagine the effect of even a small fire elemental on a troop armed with firearms.  How many low-level spells can create flames or sparks?  Unlike the real world, in Eberron, it is relatively easy to spread flame over a broad area at a distance.  Who wants to literally be sitting on a powder keg when the pyromancer shows up?  The DM could logically rule that firearms are just too vulnerable to common magic to justify common usage.  If utility is lower, then the cost advantage disappears.I think a DM could justify firearms or exclude them in a plausible way, depending upon personal taste.</blockquote>

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