Pistols in the forgotten realms?

[SuperFlyTNT]

My player last night was whining about how bad his charecter should have a pistol or whatever. What kind of checks should I have him make to make sure he doesnt blow his hand off/ruin gun/reload properly etc... Anyone know a lot about the smoke powder weapons? Was this a huge mistake to give a 3rd lvl charecter a pistol?

 

[Epametheus]

Mechanically, it's just a crossbow with a better damage die. As long as he paid the EWP feat for firearms, there shouldn't be a problem.

Gond and his faithful are really big on guns. A normal one might blow up on a natural 1, but MW quality or higher should probably be safe to use.

 

[Gundark]

you could just follow the rules for firearms that the DMG has. I have seen some rules (iron kingdoms) that have the player make a craft:small arms check to load the gun as well as having it be a standard action. I also had a player in FR that used a pistol, it wasn't overpowering. Just keep in mind using a pistol around horses that aren't used to hearing firearms might make them bolt (this resulted in several of my players putting ranks in ride )

 

[Wormwood]

As has been noted previously, using the renaissance firearms rules in the DMG is the right idea (and is the recommended method according to the FRCS).

We had a Gondgun (musket) wielding character in our game for some time, and balance was never an issue (essentially he burned a feat and a lot of gold to get a single step increase in XBow damage).

I even allowed him to use Rapid Reload feat with his weapon. I particularly enjoyed him paying for the Flaming property on his Gondgun (very cool) and his rather expensive purchase of Adamantine and Alchemical Silver bullets.

 

[Staffan]

From a "realistic" point of view, I'm not even sure an EWP should be needed for firearms. Yeah, it would take some instruction to learn how to load and use one, but I doubt it would take so long as to be considered a feat. Historically, one of the big advantages of firearms was that it didn't take as long to train someone to use them.

From a game-balance point of view, it might be necessary however.

 

[Calico_Jack73]

I know most of you won't agree with me but I think firearms lack the lethality in D&D that they should have. My house rule on them is that they are ranged touch attacks against any non-magical armor and even then only the magical bonus is counted. Armor can be bought that works against firearms but it weighs and costs twice as much. Also, with a successful hit the target has to make a Stun/Shock Fortitude save or fall unconcious due to shock. The DC is 10 + Damage dealt. If the target fails then it falls to the floor, immediately at -1 HP and begins dying. Creatures that don't suffer critical hits don't have to worry about it. Also, only creatures one size difference higher than the gun or lower have to make a saving throw. A Small pistol is a danger to Medium size creatures and smaller while a Medium pistol is a danger to Large creatures. The bullet is too small to have a chance to seriously injure a Huge creature. A fumble causes the weapon to backfire which damages the user who then has to make his own saves or succumb to shock.

I've playtested the system for the past three games and it works well. In our party we have a Gnomish Druid who has a small pistol and it hasn't unbalanced the game at all. I simply play the monsters as they should. Cover still gives bonus to AC so while they may not get any benefit from their armor they definitely dive for cover when a gun is involved... just the way it should happen. The system is really a take off from Cyberpunk 2020. You could expand it so that every weapon has a chance to cause shock (which is logical) and the DC would increase as you take more damage. The first 25% of you damage would be the DC 10 + damage. After that up to 50% could be DC 12 + damage. 75-50% would be DC 15 + damage. After that would be 20 + damage. Definitely more realistic but also more dice rolling intensive.

 

[Arthur Tealeaf]

Nice: http://www.privateerpress.com/docs/privateer_firearms.pdf