Jack Daniel
Legend
The Hit Points/Mortal Points System
These rules are designed to incorporate the Star Wars rules for vitality and wounds into a fantasy setting typical to Dungeons & Dragons, while adding a bit of that ol' school anime/video game flavor to the otherwise basic tactical rules of D&D.
Hit Points
Hit points remain largely unchanged, with the exception that characters no longer gain the full amount of their first hit die; this is replaced by at allotment of mp (mortal points). Note that whereas Star Wars grants only wound points to non-elite characters (or in layman's terms those that wouldn't gain the full hit die at level 1), these rules grant only hit points to these characters.
Being reduced to 0 hp requires that you make a Fortitude save vs. DC 10 or be stunned for 2d6 rounds. Characters with no hp are fatigued, but may otherwise continue to fight normally. With these rules, "normally" is a more-or-less thing, because if you have 0 hp, you can also execute Limit Breaks.
Note: Characters gain +3 hp by taking a feat called Quickness.
Mortal Points
Characters have mortal points equal to their Constitution score. While hit points represent your ability to avoid damage (in effect, your level-based defense), mortal points represent your actual capacity to survive wounds. Characters with 0 hp apply all further damage to their mortal points.
Running out of mortal points is very bad, because it means that you are unconscious and in danger of dying. You must make an immediate Fortitude save vs. DC 10, and if you fail, you die. If you save, you remain alive, but you have to make another save every hour at a cumulative +1 DC until you die or stabilize. Stabilization occurs on a natural 20, or by beating the DC by 10 or more.
Note: Characters gain +3 mp by taking the Toughness feat. This feat no longer raises hp.
Healing
Hit point damage is healed by spells and psionics as normal. Polymorphs and other effects restore the same percentage of mp as they do of hp. Psionic powers that restore either hp or ability damage can also be used to heal mp as if it were ability damage. Divine spells heal either hp or mp damage as the caster desires:
Cure Minor Wounds: 1 hp or 0 mp
Cure Light Wounds: 1d8+1/lvl hp or 1d4+1 mp
Cure Moderate Wounds: 2d8+1/lvl hp or 1d6+2 mp
Cure Serious Wounds: 3d8+1/lvl hp or 1d8+4 mp
Cure Critical Wounds: 4d8+1/lvl hp or 2d6+6 mp
Healing Circle: 1d8+1/lvl hp or 2d3+1 mp
Critical Hits
Critical hits are somewhat deadlier under these rules, because critical hits represent actual wounding blows rather than the scrapes, bruises, and near misses represented by normal "hits". Critical damage is applied to mortal points rather than hit points.
Threat ranges do not change, but multipliers are removed. Former x2 weapons now deal one time damage to a character's mp. x3 weapons now increase their die one step on a critical, so a waraxe that normally deals 1d10 damage deals 2d6 when it crits. Former x4 weapons are devastating when they wound, increasing their die type twice on a critical hit (a scythe that normally deals 2d4 damage now crits for 2d8). For every increased multiplier, raise the damage dice another step; a kensei using his Ki Multiplier ability with a scythe would deal 4d6 base damage on a critical hit.
Crit damage from other sources is changed only slightly. Burst weapons are reduced so that they only increase the bonus energy damage by one step; burst weapons deal +1d8, +1d10, and +2d6 damage instead of one, two, or three d10.
Subdual attacks, like unarmed strikes and saps, cannot deal mortal points when they critically hit. Instead, they deal normal damage and force the victim to make a Fortitude save (DC 10 for an unarmed strike, DC 12 for a sap) or be stunned for 2d6 rounds. Monks and other martial artists who deal real damage with unarmed strikes cause mortal damage as normal when they crit, and only stun if they originally declared their unarmed attack to be a subdual attack.
Limit Breaks
Characters with no hp but who still have mp left can execute Limit Breaks, if they have enough levels to access them. Characters earn Limit Breaks in place of stat increases - levels 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20 (a new system for raising statistics is covered at the end). Limit Breaks are quite powerful, but they are dangerous to use: you must sacrifice mortal points in the round you use a Limit Break. A Limit Break is a standard action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity.
The Limit Breaks
Critical Strike [Limit Break]
Prerequisites: Str 13+, Int 13+
Benefit: Your next single attack roll is an automatic natural 20, guaranteeing a hit in most circumstances (percental miss chances still apply) and entitling you to a free threat roll.
MP Cost: 3
Double the Magic, Double the Fun [Limit Break]
Prerequisites: Spellcaster or psionicist
Benefit: You may cast/manifest two spells or powers in the next round, each as a move-equivalent action. The spell slot used or the cost in power points is not increased.
MP Cost: 3
Frenzied Dance of Death [Limit Break]
Prerequisites: Dex 13+, Con 13+
Benefit: You can make one melee attack against up to one opponent per level, provided they are all within the radius of a single move action (for example, 30 feet for an unarmored human, or 15 feet for a Dwarf in plate mail). Use your highest bonus for the first attack and continue to subtract 3 from each subsequent attack.
MP Cost: 4
Gambling with Fate -- and Cheating [Limit Break]
Prerequisites: Cha 13+, Int 13+
Benefit: You may reroll your next single roll of any kind, be it an attack roll, a damage roll, a saving throw, or something else.
MP Cost: 2
Heroic Desperation [Limit Break]
Prerequisites: Character level 8+
Benefit: Choose one of your six ability scores (this limit break may be taken multiple times, and it applies to a different score each time). Your next single skill check, ability check, or saving throw tied to that ability is an automatic natural 20, resulting in a critical success.
MP Cost: 3
Ki to Success [Limit Break]
Prerequisites: Monk, Sohei or ki-using prestige class
Benefit: You direct a fiery missile of your own life energy at a target area. The attack deals 4d6 damage in a ten-foot radius and has a range of sixty feet. Foes are granted a Reflex save vs. DC 15 for half damage.
MP Cost: 2
Last Rites [Limit Break]
Prerequisites: Divine spellcaster
Benefit: For each mortal point you sacrifice (up to a maximum of 5) you heal 1d8 hit points to yourself or an ally within 30 feet. The dice of hit points healed may be divided as you see fit. For example, if you wish to sacrifice 4 MP as your limit break, you may heal 2d8 HP to yourself and 1d8 HP to two nearby allies.
MP Cost: varies
Maximum Strike [Limit Break]
Prerequisites: Str 13+, Cha 13+
Benefit: Any and all physical attacks made in the next round strike for maximum damage if they hit.
MP Cost: 3
Not Going Anywhere [Limit Break]
Prerequisites: Str 13+, Wis 13+
Benefit: For the remainder of the encounter, you gain a luck bonus to AC equal to the number of mortal points you sacrifice (maximum 5).
MP Cost: varies
Resistance is Futile [Limit Break]
Prerequisites: Spellcaster or psionicist
Benefit: Your next spell or psionic power has a save DC of +10.
MP Cost: 5
Run Away!!! [Limit Break]
Prerequisites: Rouge, Bard, or thievery-based prestige class
Benefit: When beaten, battered, and down on luck, a person of the street depends on one strategy, "Getting the Hell out of there." You gain a +10 bonus to speed, Hide checks, and AC against attacks of opportunity drawn from fleeing.
MP Cost: 3
Travolta's Uncontrollable Hideous Disco [Limit Break]
Prerequisites: Bardic music
Benefit: All foes within 60' feet who hear this insult to music are nauseated and must make Will saves vs. DC 15 or begin dancing, disco style, for the next full minute (ten rounds).
MP Cost: 5
Turbo Shot [Limit Break]
Prerequisites: Dex 13+, Int 13+
Benefit: You can make one ranged attack against up to one opponent per level, provided they are all within point-blank range (a 30' radius around your character) provided you have enough ammunition and are not using a weapon that requires reloading. Your first attack is made at the highest bonus, while all subsequent attacks take a cumulative -3 penalty.
MP Cost: 4
Unbelievabullet [Limit Break]
Prerequisites: Proficiency in a crossbow, pistol, or musket
Benefit: Using a weapon that fires a bolt or a bullet, you may attempt to fire a shot that goes through an opponent and into any foes standing behind that opponent, and so on in a straight line out to the weapon's maximum range. Each attack should be made separately, all at the highest bonus, and should one fail that only means that it misses -- the bolt continues to fly onward until a natural 1 is rolled.
MP Cost: 2
Limit Breaks and NPCs
Only characters with mortal points can access Limit Breaks. Remember, any NPC with class levels, or special monsters who would have the full first hit die, have mortal points. NPCs and leveled monsters get Limit Break techniques just like PCs - one per four levels. Monsters without levels get Limit Break techniques like feats, but slower:
Graduated Stat Increases
This is perhaps the most unusual of all the house rules, since it deviates from a basic part of the d20 system, but I've run it for over a year now and it makes sense enough. With feats at every 3rd level and limit break techniques at every 4th level, stat increases are no longer a fixed income, so to speak. Instead, characters earn 1 CP (character point) every time they advance, and may purchase graduated stat increases.
Under the standard point-buy, characters cannot have initial numbers lower than 6, so lower scores are ignored in the chart:
Ability score costs after 1st level
Stacking Bonuses
Another nitpicky little house rule I've come to love is my method of straying from the standard multiclassing system for stacking bonuses, and just adding everything up. That creates lower attack bonuses and higher saves than normal. It's much easier if you consider two classes with the same bonus in a category as one class. For example, your base attack will be better if you figure your rogue/cleric's attack as a single-classed cleric. Likewise, your fortitude save will be more balanced if you figure the saving throws of a fighter/barbarian as a single-classed fighter.
Fun With Flintlocks
(Note that I've listed the standard crit multipliers for ease of reading)
Firearms in most campaigns should be exotic weapons, but if the technology level is high enough, they might be martial weapons. Most flintlocks fire a single bullet (commonly known as a ball) propelled by a charge of gunpowder. Blunderbusses fire area effects of shot that are more likely to critical, but do so for less damage. Blunderbuss attacks should be treated as a cone (for pistols) or a line (for shoulder arms), dealing damage to everything they hit out to six range increments. Instead of making an attack vs. a foe's AC, when you fire a blunderbuss all targets in the area of effect make a Reflex save vs. (Your ranged attack roll + the range penalty) for half damage.
Ammunition comes in the form of bags of ten lead bullets, or pouches of small lead pellets. These projectiles are propelled by about an ounce of gunpowder, that infamous combination of saltpeter, carbon, and sulfur. Gunpowder is available in 2-pound horns for 35 sp or 20-pound kegs (carrying 15 pounds of gunpowder) for 250 sp each. A powder horn consequentially has enough powder to charge 30 rounds, while a keg will last for 240 shots.
Flintlocks had a tendency to jam in the worst situations. In the event of a critical fumble (a natural 1 followed by a failed Dexterity check vs. DC 10) the weapon misfires. Roll 1d6:
1-3: Jammed Barrel. The weapon is fouled and cannot be fired again until cleaned.
4-5: Hangfire. Poorly measured charge results in the weapon going off 1d4 rounds later.
6: Explosion. The powder wasn't packed tight enough, and an air pocked blew, dealing 2d6 damage to you (Reflex Half; DC 15). Oh, and the remains of your weapon now resemble something Elmer Fudd tried to shoot Bugs Bunny with after the wascally wabbit stuck his finger in the barrel.
Reloading takes three full round actions, as the character must measure the powder, pour the charge into the barrel, either place a bullet on a greased patch or measure shot and pour that down the barrel, and finally pack the powder tightly with a ram-rod. The Rapid Reload feat reduces this time to two full-round actions, while the Muzzleloader Drill feat (which does not affect crossbows like Rapid Reload) allows you to reload a firearm with one full-round action.
Firearms can be modified to include melee weapons such as axe or sword blades (though bayonets are the most common). Such combined weapons require proficiency in both weapons to use properly, and cost the same as the sum of both weapons. Also, flintlocks other than blunderbusses often come in a double-barreled variety, which can be fired twice before reloading is necessary. Such weapons cost +75 gp and weigh one and a half times as much. Finally, Gnomish clockwork has created some mechanical versions of the powder-and-ball arms with revolving chambers that can be fired six times before reloading. Revolvers cost +500 gp to craft, but they take six times as long to reload (each chamber must be primed and packed) and they are less reliable, so they fumble on a natural 1 or 2.
These rules are designed to incorporate the Star Wars rules for vitality and wounds into a fantasy setting typical to Dungeons & Dragons, while adding a bit of that ol' school anime/video game flavor to the otherwise basic tactical rules of D&D.
Hit Points
Hit points remain largely unchanged, with the exception that characters no longer gain the full amount of their first hit die; this is replaced by at allotment of mp (mortal points). Note that whereas Star Wars grants only wound points to non-elite characters (or in layman's terms those that wouldn't gain the full hit die at level 1), these rules grant only hit points to these characters.
Being reduced to 0 hp requires that you make a Fortitude save vs. DC 10 or be stunned for 2d6 rounds. Characters with no hp are fatigued, but may otherwise continue to fight normally. With these rules, "normally" is a more-or-less thing, because if you have 0 hp, you can also execute Limit Breaks.
Note: Characters gain +3 hp by taking a feat called Quickness.
Mortal Points
Characters have mortal points equal to their Constitution score. While hit points represent your ability to avoid damage (in effect, your level-based defense), mortal points represent your actual capacity to survive wounds. Characters with 0 hp apply all further damage to their mortal points.
Running out of mortal points is very bad, because it means that you are unconscious and in danger of dying. You must make an immediate Fortitude save vs. DC 10, and if you fail, you die. If you save, you remain alive, but you have to make another save every hour at a cumulative +1 DC until you die or stabilize. Stabilization occurs on a natural 20, or by beating the DC by 10 or more.
Note: Characters gain +3 mp by taking the Toughness feat. This feat no longer raises hp.
Healing
Hit point damage is healed by spells and psionics as normal. Polymorphs and other effects restore the same percentage of mp as they do of hp. Psionic powers that restore either hp or ability damage can also be used to heal mp as if it were ability damage. Divine spells heal either hp or mp damage as the caster desires:
Cure Minor Wounds: 1 hp or 0 mp
Cure Light Wounds: 1d8+1/lvl hp or 1d4+1 mp
Cure Moderate Wounds: 2d8+1/lvl hp or 1d6+2 mp
Cure Serious Wounds: 3d8+1/lvl hp or 1d8+4 mp
Cure Critical Wounds: 4d8+1/lvl hp or 2d6+6 mp
Healing Circle: 1d8+1/lvl hp or 2d3+1 mp
Critical Hits
Critical hits are somewhat deadlier under these rules, because critical hits represent actual wounding blows rather than the scrapes, bruises, and near misses represented by normal "hits". Critical damage is applied to mortal points rather than hit points.
Threat ranges do not change, but multipliers are removed. Former x2 weapons now deal one time damage to a character's mp. x3 weapons now increase their die one step on a critical, so a waraxe that normally deals 1d10 damage deals 2d6 when it crits. Former x4 weapons are devastating when they wound, increasing their die type twice on a critical hit (a scythe that normally deals 2d4 damage now crits for 2d8). For every increased multiplier, raise the damage dice another step; a kensei using his Ki Multiplier ability with a scythe would deal 4d6 base damage on a critical hit.
Crit damage from other sources is changed only slightly. Burst weapons are reduced so that they only increase the bonus energy damage by one step; burst weapons deal +1d8, +1d10, and +2d6 damage instead of one, two, or three d10.
Subdual attacks, like unarmed strikes and saps, cannot deal mortal points when they critically hit. Instead, they deal normal damage and force the victim to make a Fortitude save (DC 10 for an unarmed strike, DC 12 for a sap) or be stunned for 2d6 rounds. Monks and other martial artists who deal real damage with unarmed strikes cause mortal damage as normal when they crit, and only stun if they originally declared their unarmed attack to be a subdual attack.
Limit Breaks
Characters with no hp but who still have mp left can execute Limit Breaks, if they have enough levels to access them. Characters earn Limit Breaks in place of stat increases - levels 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20 (a new system for raising statistics is covered at the end). Limit Breaks are quite powerful, but they are dangerous to use: you must sacrifice mortal points in the round you use a Limit Break. A Limit Break is a standard action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity.
The Limit Breaks
Critical Strike [Limit Break]
Prerequisites: Str 13+, Int 13+
Benefit: Your next single attack roll is an automatic natural 20, guaranteeing a hit in most circumstances (percental miss chances still apply) and entitling you to a free threat roll.
MP Cost: 3
Double the Magic, Double the Fun [Limit Break]
Prerequisites: Spellcaster or psionicist
Benefit: You may cast/manifest two spells or powers in the next round, each as a move-equivalent action. The spell slot used or the cost in power points is not increased.
MP Cost: 3
Frenzied Dance of Death [Limit Break]
Prerequisites: Dex 13+, Con 13+
Benefit: You can make one melee attack against up to one opponent per level, provided they are all within the radius of a single move action (for example, 30 feet for an unarmored human, or 15 feet for a Dwarf in plate mail). Use your highest bonus for the first attack and continue to subtract 3 from each subsequent attack.
MP Cost: 4
Gambling with Fate -- and Cheating [Limit Break]
Prerequisites: Cha 13+, Int 13+
Benefit: You may reroll your next single roll of any kind, be it an attack roll, a damage roll, a saving throw, or something else.
MP Cost: 2
Heroic Desperation [Limit Break]
Prerequisites: Character level 8+
Benefit: Choose one of your six ability scores (this limit break may be taken multiple times, and it applies to a different score each time). Your next single skill check, ability check, or saving throw tied to that ability is an automatic natural 20, resulting in a critical success.
MP Cost: 3
Ki to Success [Limit Break]
Prerequisites: Monk, Sohei or ki-using prestige class
Benefit: You direct a fiery missile of your own life energy at a target area. The attack deals 4d6 damage in a ten-foot radius and has a range of sixty feet. Foes are granted a Reflex save vs. DC 15 for half damage.
MP Cost: 2
Last Rites [Limit Break]
Prerequisites: Divine spellcaster
Benefit: For each mortal point you sacrifice (up to a maximum of 5) you heal 1d8 hit points to yourself or an ally within 30 feet. The dice of hit points healed may be divided as you see fit. For example, if you wish to sacrifice 4 MP as your limit break, you may heal 2d8 HP to yourself and 1d8 HP to two nearby allies.
MP Cost: varies
Maximum Strike [Limit Break]
Prerequisites: Str 13+, Cha 13+
Benefit: Any and all physical attacks made in the next round strike for maximum damage if they hit.
MP Cost: 3
Not Going Anywhere [Limit Break]
Prerequisites: Str 13+, Wis 13+
Benefit: For the remainder of the encounter, you gain a luck bonus to AC equal to the number of mortal points you sacrifice (maximum 5).
MP Cost: varies
Resistance is Futile [Limit Break]
Prerequisites: Spellcaster or psionicist
Benefit: Your next spell or psionic power has a save DC of +10.
MP Cost: 5
Run Away!!! [Limit Break]
Prerequisites: Rouge, Bard, or thievery-based prestige class
Benefit: When beaten, battered, and down on luck, a person of the street depends on one strategy, "Getting the Hell out of there." You gain a +10 bonus to speed, Hide checks, and AC against attacks of opportunity drawn from fleeing.
MP Cost: 3
Travolta's Uncontrollable Hideous Disco [Limit Break]
Prerequisites: Bardic music
Benefit: All foes within 60' feet who hear this insult to music are nauseated and must make Will saves vs. DC 15 or begin dancing, disco style, for the next full minute (ten rounds).
MP Cost: 5
Turbo Shot [Limit Break]
Prerequisites: Dex 13+, Int 13+
Benefit: You can make one ranged attack against up to one opponent per level, provided they are all within point-blank range (a 30' radius around your character) provided you have enough ammunition and are not using a weapon that requires reloading. Your first attack is made at the highest bonus, while all subsequent attacks take a cumulative -3 penalty.
MP Cost: 4
Unbelievabullet [Limit Break]
Prerequisites: Proficiency in a crossbow, pistol, or musket
Benefit: Using a weapon that fires a bolt or a bullet, you may attempt to fire a shot that goes through an opponent and into any foes standing behind that opponent, and so on in a straight line out to the weapon's maximum range. Each attack should be made separately, all at the highest bonus, and should one fail that only means that it misses -- the bolt continues to fly onward until a natural 1 is rolled.
MP Cost: 2
Limit Breaks and NPCs
Only characters with mortal points can access Limit Breaks. Remember, any NPC with class levels, or special monsters who would have the full first hit die, have mortal points. NPCs and leveled monsters get Limit Break techniques just like PCs - one per four levels. Monsters without levels get Limit Break techniques like feats, but slower:
- Monsters without access to feats cannot use limit breaks.
- Monsters who earn feats at +1 per four additional hit dice (such as Giants and Humanoids) earn Limit Breaks at +1 per five hit dice.
- Monsters who earn feats at 1 per four total hit dice (specifically, Outsiders) have one limit break per five total hit dice.
Graduated Stat Increases
This is perhaps the most unusual of all the house rules, since it deviates from a basic part of the d20 system, but I've run it for over a year now and it makes sense enough. With feats at every 3rd level and limit break techniques at every 4th level, stat increases are no longer a fixed income, so to speak. Instead, characters earn 1 CP (character point) every time they advance, and may purchase graduated stat increases.
Under the standard point-buy, characters cannot have initial numbers lower than 6, so lower scores are ignored in the chart:
Ability score costs after 1st level
Code:
[color=skyblue]
Score Cost
7-14 1 CP
15-16 2 CP
17-18 3 CP
19+ 4 CP
[/color]Stacking Bonuses
Another nitpicky little house rule I've come to love is my method of straying from the standard multiclassing system for stacking bonuses, and just adding everything up. That creates lower attack bonuses and higher saves than normal. It's much easier if you consider two classes with the same bonus in a category as one class. For example, your base attack will be better if you figure your rogue/cleric's attack as a single-classed cleric. Likewise, your fortitude save will be more balanced if you figure the saving throws of a fighter/barbarian as a single-classed fighter.
Fun With Flintlocks
(Note that I've listed the standard crit multipliers for ease of reading)
Code:
[color=silver]
Weapon | Cost | Damage | Type | Critical | Range | Weight[/color][color=skyblue]
Ammunition (10 rounds) 3 gp -- -- -- -- 2 lb.
[/color][color=silver]
*Tiny Firearms*[/color][color=skyblue]
Pistol, Light 30 gp 2d4 P 20/x3 30 ft. 3 lb.
[/color][color=silver]
*Small Firearms*[/color][color=skyblue]
Pistol, Blunderbuss 20 gp 1d10 P 19-20/x2 5 ft.* 6 lb.
Pistol, Heavy 40 gp 2d6 P 20/x3 50 ft. 4 lb.
[/color][color=silver]
*Medium Firearms*[/color][color=skyblue]
Blunderbuss 35 gp 1d12 P 19-20/x2 15 ft.** 10 lb.
Musket, Carbine 65 gp 2d8 P 20/x3 100 ft. 8 lb.
Musket, Long 90 gp 2d10 P 20/x3 150 ft. 10 lb.
[/color]Firearms in most campaigns should be exotic weapons, but if the technology level is high enough, they might be martial weapons. Most flintlocks fire a single bullet (commonly known as a ball) propelled by a charge of gunpowder. Blunderbusses fire area effects of shot that are more likely to critical, but do so for less damage. Blunderbuss attacks should be treated as a cone (for pistols) or a line (for shoulder arms), dealing damage to everything they hit out to six range increments. Instead of making an attack vs. a foe's AC, when you fire a blunderbuss all targets in the area of effect make a Reflex save vs. (Your ranged attack roll + the range penalty) for half damage.
Ammunition comes in the form of bags of ten lead bullets, or pouches of small lead pellets. These projectiles are propelled by about an ounce of gunpowder, that infamous combination of saltpeter, carbon, and sulfur. Gunpowder is available in 2-pound horns for 35 sp or 20-pound kegs (carrying 15 pounds of gunpowder) for 250 sp each. A powder horn consequentially has enough powder to charge 30 rounds, while a keg will last for 240 shots.
Flintlocks had a tendency to jam in the worst situations. In the event of a critical fumble (a natural 1 followed by a failed Dexterity check vs. DC 10) the weapon misfires. Roll 1d6:
1-3: Jammed Barrel. The weapon is fouled and cannot be fired again until cleaned.
4-5: Hangfire. Poorly measured charge results in the weapon going off 1d4 rounds later.
6: Explosion. The powder wasn't packed tight enough, and an air pocked blew, dealing 2d6 damage to you (Reflex Half; DC 15). Oh, and the remains of your weapon now resemble something Elmer Fudd tried to shoot Bugs Bunny with after the wascally wabbit stuck his finger in the barrel.
Reloading takes three full round actions, as the character must measure the powder, pour the charge into the barrel, either place a bullet on a greased patch or measure shot and pour that down the barrel, and finally pack the powder tightly with a ram-rod. The Rapid Reload feat reduces this time to two full-round actions, while the Muzzleloader Drill feat (which does not affect crossbows like Rapid Reload) allows you to reload a firearm with one full-round action.
Firearms can be modified to include melee weapons such as axe or sword blades (though bayonets are the most common). Such combined weapons require proficiency in both weapons to use properly, and cost the same as the sum of both weapons. Also, flintlocks other than blunderbusses often come in a double-barreled variety, which can be fired twice before reloading is necessary. Such weapons cost +75 gp and weigh one and a half times as much. Finally, Gnomish clockwork has created some mechanical versions of the powder-and-ball arms with revolving chambers that can be fired six times before reloading. Revolvers cost +500 gp to craft, but they take six times as long to reload (each chamber must be primed and packed) and they are less reliable, so they fumble on a natural 1 or 2.
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