Eberron Dragonshard handgun

[Stormborn]

OK, thinking about incorporating, to a limited degree, guns in Eberron. But to make them unique they are going to be dragonshard items only useable by arcane casters.

Simply put the gun would be made of a handle that holds the dragon shard, a trigger, and a small hammer (possibly with a piece of dragonshard in it) that would strike the shard and close the magical circuit+arcane runes etc for flavor's sake.
To use the gun the wielder must first invest it with the energy of an arcane spell as a standard action. This charges the shard. Damage done would be 1d6x the spell level used to empower the shard, 60ft range, ranged touch attack, does arcane energy damage similar to a warlock's blast, SR would apply. Artificers could sacrifice infusions to charge the weapon as well. I see them having been developed by the gnomes in Zilargo so that arcane spellcasters could concentrate on utility and divination spells and still have a way to protect themselves. Came into limited use during the war, but since then have begun to proliferate.Requires Craft Wonderous Item to make.

Thoughts? Cost is one of the things I have yet to sit down and try and figure out. We have the cost of the dragonshard + what? Its obviously very useful, so should there be any downside to it? Like requiring a feat to use? Or guns with set levels, so that one would only be useful for spells of 3rd or below, one for 6th, one for 9th? How about a possiblity of misfire? Say 1% everytime the weapon is fired, culmulative? and once it breaks it unleashes the charge on the caster?

I am also considering feats that would allow a caster to bond with the weapon, granting the PC increased damage or range or other benifits when using the item.

 

[Jack Simth]

Oh, it doesn't need to be particularly expensive, as long as it's not too terribly common.

1) You can use one, at most, once every other round (standard to charge, standard to fire) without multiples. Now, theoretically somone with Quickdraw could have multiple guns, and thus a Wiz-8 Paladin-2 Eldritch Knight 10 (BAB +16, four base attacks) could be just evil with the two-weapon chain (Dex +14/+9/+4/-2/+14/+9/+4, assuming the thing counts as light) and theoretically get 54d6 rolled out in a single round (by grabbing the gun as a free action, firing as an attack action, and dropping the gun as another free action - a very cool image....) but would burn through seven spells per round (would take a LONG time to reload....). A 1st level wizard will only ever do more than 1d6 on a crit.
2) You burn through spells FAST if you plan on doing anything much with it - a 5-th level Wizard's Fireball does 5d6 reflex half Fire damage to everyone in an area; the gun, with that same 3rd level spell slot, does 3d6 arcane to a single target, on a successful touch attack roll (assuming no SR....). At 10th level, that Fireball does 10d6, while it's still 3d6 from the gun.

The benefit, though, is that it lets a wizard sacrafice spell slots for something he didn't prepare for.

Alternately, it lets the Wizard charge this nifty gun for his Fighter bodyguard.... who then can pull the Two-Weapon chain trick....

It's a lesser version of the Archmage's Arcane Fire, and can only do massive damage at higher levels.

 

[Nyaricus]

dude, you could probably sell this idea!!

seriously, cool idea! I don't even play Eberron, and that sounds cool

can't wait to see it fleshed out

 

[evolved]

why not let them infuse as a free action it is still weaker than arcane strike and allows full attacks, then those gish build could be badass, have a few utility spells left over and still be balanced, requires an exotic weapon feat

 

[Stormborn]

Still haven't worked out the pricing, but have thought more about the mechanics.

Its a simple weapon, useable only by arcane casters, artificers, or on a succesful UMD check (this would allow a rogue to use a charged weapon but no to charge an empty one). The logic is that there is something inherent in the nature of an arcane caster that allows the firing circuit to be completed, something not present in other classes. Charging would me a move action (kind of like loading a crossbow). A feat would allow the charging to be a free action. Another feat would allow the damage to be increased by one die type, and require the first as a prereq.

I am kind of imagining a bardic gun slinger who has loaded up on ranged fighting feats and carries a pair of these weapons.