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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RangerWickett" data-source="post: 5391719" data-attributes="member: 63">A product I'm working on will eventually include the following rules for free (or variants of these rules, once we see how players respond). FirearmsFirearms use explosive alchemicals to fire metal ammunition. These weapons take two standard actions to load. Normally powers that let you make multiple ranged attacks allow you to reload freely between these attacks, but you cannot freely reload firearms in this way. For that reason, a typical character characters might carry a loaded firearm to use as a once-per-encounter damage boost. A character who wants to use a firearm as a primary weapon should take the Firearm Expertise feat.We understand that many gaming groups use Wizard of the Coast’s Character Builder, and that – barring revisions to the software – adding new items is impossible. For that reason, we have based each firearm on an existing crossbow. The firearms trade a slower reload time (two standard actions) for the brutal 2 and high crit properties. To give your character a firearm, just equip the analogous weapon. When you print out your character sheet, you just need to remember or mark the different traits. To give your character Firearm Expertise, instead take the feat Crossbow Expertise. You gain the same attack bonus benefit, but use the firearm feat’s faster reloading in place of the secondary benefit of the crossbow feat. Feats, abilities, and powers that apply to crossbows also apply to firearms, and any character proficient in a crossbow is proficient in the equivalent firearm.We admit this is a bit of a kludge, but it should let you take advantage of the Character Builder’s automatic calculations of attacks and damage, while giving firearms their own unique identity.Pistol. This weapon is analogous to a hand crossbow. Carbine. This weapon is analogous to a crossbow.Rifle. This weapon is analogous to a superior crossbow, from the Adventurer’s Vault.Combination Weapons and BayonetsSome firearms integrate a bladed weapon into their designs, such as a dagger with a pistol that fires along the crosspiece, or a carbine that fires down the length of a longsword. Such weapons are almost always custom-built. Other firearms have attachments that let the wielder affix an existing weapon to the gun’s barrel. Typically this is to attach a dagger to a pistol, or a shortsword to a carbine or rifle.Mechanically, these hybrid weapons function as two distinct weapons, and each would need to be enchanted separately. Their main benefit is to allow a wielder to switch between ranged and melee attacks without having to draw a new weapon.The DM should use common sense to determine whether a combination is feasible, and if it should reduce the efficacy of a given power. You might be fine with a rogue using a shortsword-equipped rifle for his powers, but most would balk if he threw a pistol with an enchanted dagger bayonet, and expected it to return to his hand. Likewise, a carbine axe could theoretically work, but a pistol spear or spiked chain rifle is ridiculous. (Some groups might like ridiculous, though.)[[Sidebar]]Optional Firearm RulesThe firearm rules are designed to be easy to use while providing enough flavor to differentiate guns from crossbows. The default assumption for the campaign is that firearms have advanced so that they no longer release gouts of smoke or have significant risk of mishap, but you can retain these traits if you like the aesthetics of more primitive firearms.Gunsmoke. Whenever you shoot a firearm, you creates smoke in close burst 1, including your own square. This smoke provides concealment, and lasts until the end of your next turn. Strong winds may disperse such smoke immediately, whereas very enclosed spaces might cause the smoke to linger additional rounds. Mishaps. Whenever you roll a natural 1 on an attack roll with a firearm, you can choose to reroll the attack. If you do, the gun is damaged after the attack, and must be repaired during a short rest before it can be used again. Additionally, if the second roll is a 1, the weapon deals 1[w] damage to you. If the gun is magical, it is only damaged if the second roll is a 1 to 5. Magical guns still damage you if the second roll is a natural 1. As a heroic adventure game, weapons of all varieties are less lethal in D&D than in reality. However, if you feel guns should be more dangerous than archaic melee weapons, the following options achieve that, albeit by wildly altering the balance of combat and the world’s aesthetic. If you use these rules, everyone will want guns, and fights will end much more quickly.Killing Tool. Firearms lose the brutal property. Instead, pistols deal an extra two dice of damage. A 1[w] attack with a pistol does 3d6, 3d8 with a carbine, or 3d10 with a rifle. A 3[w] attack with a rifle does 5d10. On a critical hit, that attack would do 50 damage, plus 1d10 from high crit. Threat of Force. The real danger of a firearm is that it can easily strike before an attacker can close the distance. A character wielding a firearm can make a ranged basic attack as an immediate interrupt whenever a creature within 6 squares moves or takes an action he is aware of. If he does so, on his next turn he acts as if he has already spent his standard action.[[End Sidebar]]Firearm ExpertiseYou gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls with firearm weapons. This increases to +2 at 11th level, and to +3 at 21st level. You can load firearms as a minor action instead of by spending two standard actions. When you use a power that lets you make multiple ranged attacks, reloading between the attacks takes no action.</blockquote>

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