72
votes
Accepted
Player character wants a gun in a prehistoric campaign. What to do?
You are the DM, you can say No, although "No, but ..." also works
You are not required to change your world to accommodate a single player. What are the other players creating, as ...
- 143k
38
votes
Player character wants a gun in a prehistoric campaign. What to do?
There's nothing inherently "bad" or "unreasonable" about limiting your players' character creation.
You as the DM have the responsibility to create and populate your world. It's ...
- 8,100
31
votes
Can characters have firearms such as flintlock pistols and rifles?
The DMG has optional rules for Firearms and Alien technology.
Firearms and Alien Technology are covered in DMG Chapter 9: Dungeon Master's Workshop (p. 267-268). All of the rules in that chapter are ...
- 19.6k
28
votes
What ability modifier, if any, would apply to a firearm attack roll?
Dexterity
Every Firearm in the DMG (p. 268) is a Ranged weapon. And the rules state (PHB, p. 194)
the ability modifier used for a ranged weapon attack is Dexterity.
If the creature using the ...
- 38.2k
25
votes
Does Crossbow Expert apply to firearms?
No.
A firearm isn't a crossbow. Feats, like all character features, only do what they say they do. So as written, Crossbow Expert only allows you to ignore the loading feature of crossbows, not any ...
- 27.3k
24
votes
Can the monk's Deflect Missiles feature deflect bullets?
Yes, it is possible.
Here is a direct tweet by Jeremy Crawford:
In my home campaign, we have a monk, and there are firearms.
Deflecting/catching bullets is high up there when it comes to badass....
- 5,654
23
votes
How is firearm damage calculated?
Yes, you add your Dex mod to the damage die
Dungeon Master's Guide presents stat blocks and rules for firearms on pages 267 and 268. They are listed as Martial Ranged Weapons, and no special rules ...
- 54k
21
votes
Accepted
Can a fighter learn to use firearms despite them only recently being invented by another member of the party
This is entirely up to your DM.
You answered your question when you wrote:
Understandably, however my DM has ruled them to be "Too New" and that I will have to train with our fighter for ...
- 149k
19
votes
Accepted
What's the expected benefit of the second pistol?
Keep in mind the basics of how load works, from p.57:
For each operation, decide what your character's load will be. During the operation, you may say that your character has an item on hand by ...
- 40.5k
19
votes
Accepted
Can characters have firearms such as flintlock pistols and rifles?
Possibly, it's up to the DM!
It is the DM, generally, who chooses the campaign setting, i.e. what "world" the players' adventures are going to take place in.
There are various published settings or ...
- 28.3k
18
votes
Player character wants a gun in a prehistoric campaign. What to do?
Don't let him play that character in this game
Your player has made a character they want to play and is used to being the only DM so they haven't got a chance to play it. That's pretty usual, but ...
- 67.5k
17
votes
Accepted
Do Gunslinger firearms count as ranged weapons?
Firearms are ranged weapons
From the gunslinger on DnD Beyond, under firearm properties, the last sentence reads:
Firearms are ranged weapons.
This means that they work with anything that ...
- 36.4k
15
votes
Accepted
Can a Gunsmith artificer put more barrels on his Thunder Cannon and use them in the same turn?
No, this would not work.
Assuming that this is referencing the Artificer UA
Additional barrels will not affect the game mechanics of the thunder cannon.
No where in the description of the thunder ...
- 34.3k
15
votes
Accepted
Do you need both Firearm Proficiency and Martial Weapon Proficiency to use a gun proficiently?
Firearms are Martial Ranged Weapons
The table on DMG, Page 267, shows that the firearms are Martial Ranged Weapons. See also the Hand Crossbow and the Long Bow: Martial Ranged Weapons. (PHB, p. 149)....
- 143k
13
votes
What's the expected benefit of the second pistol?
Blades in the Dark is set in a world that still uses single shot firearms for the most part, as described at the book page 88:
A Pistol: A heavy, single-shot, breechloading firearm.
If you shoot ...
- 784
12
votes
Accepted
How does the UA 2019 artificer's Reloading Weapon infusion affect Matt Mercer's Gunslinger firearms?
It's unclear if there’s any official answer, but likely works based on DM discretion.
UA generally isn't balanced for multiclassing, and Matt Mercer's stuff isn't canonical, so WotC wouldn't consider ...
- 13.9k
12
votes
How loud are firearms, and can Artificers modify or build a firearm that reduces the noise it makes?
There are no rules for firearm noise levels.
There are simply no rules for this. Firearms are an afterthought in the Dungeon Master’s Guide, as there is a general expectation that most campaigns won’t ...
- 149k
12
votes
What options do non-Gunslingers have to mitigate the Reload property?
Equipment
First as you've mentioned, repeating weapons are definitely a way to mitigate the reload factor of firearms. But that only applies to specific weapons, and only for a specific number of ...
- 14.7k
11
votes
Can I use the Mending cantrip to repair a Broken Firearm?
I understand the broken condition removal of Mending as
If the target has at least half of its original HP at the end of Mending, then Broken is removed.
If you use Mending or Make Whole on a full ...
- 2,324
11
votes
Accepted
Do X-lasers fail to hit touch AC?
No
While the wording is perhaps unfortunate, the weapon manages to achieve what is effectively touch AC targeting by virtue of touch AC not really being a thing.
Touch Attacks
Some attacks ...
- 67.5k
11
votes
Accepted
Am I correctly understanding how the modern firearms from the DMG work?
The description of the Reload weapon property says (DMG, p. 267):
Reload. A limited number of shots can be made with a weapon that has the reload property. A character must then reload it using an ...
- 9,968
11
votes
Precedence of Firearm Rarity compared to Magic Items
There isn't because firearms are a setting-specific option and have no rarity
There are no rarities assigned at all to firearms (DMG p. 286 has a list of examples), nor are there crafting rules that ...
- 113k
10
votes
Accepted
What skills & qualities are used to acquire better guns?
Other systems may favor building characters that work great after a few more adventures, but Shadowrun is a system where you build your character to work right now. You will never again have as much ...
- 23k
10
votes
Accepted
In terms of damage, how do guns and gunslingers compare to other ranged classes?
To answer about damage
TL;DR: Apparently I'm writing my dissertation on this, so I get not wanting to go through it all. Takeaways:
Individual Strike Gunslinger (Fatal) average damage is slightly ...
- 43.2k
9
votes
How do the official firearms affect balance?
Running games with Renaissance firearms taught me that they are incredibly setting dependent.
You have no access to the Crossbow Expert feat (Sharpshooter is an option), and the pistol notably doesn't ...
- 19.6k
8
votes
Player character wants a gun in a prehistoric campaign. What to do?
This is a social problem between you and this player.
Any new GM who is world building with the intent of then running a campaign in that world will be presenting the available options to the ...
- 4,143
8
votes
Does Crossbow Expert apply to firearms?
The feat is explicit about when it refers to only crossbows and when not. Take the second benefit:
Being within 5 feet of a hostile creature doesn't impose disadvantage
on your ranged attack ...
- 61.6k
8
votes
How does the UA 2019 artificer's Reloading Weapon infusion affect Matt Mercer's Gunslinger firearms?
Reading over the infusion and the description of firearms and that they have their own proficiency, it looks like the Repeating Shot is not able to be put on the firearm. The infusion has listed for ...
- 5,597
8
votes
What options do non-Gunslingers have to mitigate the Reload property?
Archetypes
Gunslinger Archetype grants you several possible reload feats via Basic Shooting or Advanced Shooting. The cheapest investment here is Risky Reload via Basic Shooting.
If you don't want to ...
- 14.1k
8
votes
Do you have to shoot every shot in a Reload firearm before reloading?
The rule is not preventing earlier reloads
Just because the user must reload the weapon when it runs out of ammo does not mean they cannot do so earlier. If someone tells you 'you must check in to ...
- 113k
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