There has always been D&D campaign settings that featured firearms, even the Forgotten Realms had their share of boomsticks with the gnomish smokepowder weapons. In 4th Edition Wizards has not only made Gnomes monsters (“Yarr! I am a monster now!”) but they have also dropped firearms. Here’s my take on firearms for 4th Edition D&D.
Usually you need firearms for flavor purposes. If you want to have a world that resembles renaissance more than medieval times, you probably want to introduce muskets and pistols. But some DMs make the mistake to make firearms much to powerful. Although it might be realistic, it often breaks the game, if you make firearms too deadly. So let’s create a weapon for D&D that “feels” like a gun but does not break the game.
So let’s check if there’s something similiar to a gun in the game? We need something that’s point-and-shoot and which takes some time to reload. If you check your Player’s Handbook, you’ll see that the crossbow fits that description close enough. Let’s have a look at the available crossbows:
| Weapon | Prof.. | Dam. | Range | Price | Weight | Group | Properties |
| Hand crossbow | +2. | 1d6 | 10/20 | 25gp | 2lb. | Crossbow | Load free |
| Crossbow | +2. | 1d8 | 15/30 | 25gp | 4lb. | Crossbow | Load minor |
Both weapons are from the simple ranged category. And in my opinion everyone who can point and shoot a loaded crossbow can obviously point and shoot a flintlock pistol as well (no, I will not take recoil into consideration, let’s keep things easy). So firearms are simple ranged weapons also. Any character class with the simple ranged weapon proficiency can use them. And since they are pretty close to crossbows, every class with proficiency in hand crossbows is proficient with pistols. The same is true for crossbows and rifles.
Early firearms usually took very long to reload. But long reloading times makes firearms almost unusable in the game. So, let’s make them somewhat slower to reload. I think “Load two minor” sounds good. So you can still take a standard or move action after you have reloaded your weapon.
Because the muzzle velocity of a handgun is higher than the speed of a crossbow bolt, the resulting range is higher. To not overpower firearms, I go with the ranges of short- and longbows for pistols and rifles. Blunderbuss have a shorter range, so I go with 6/12.
Some people recommend making firearms Dex vs. Ref but I think that’s too powerful, so I stick with Dex vs. AC. But they should be a bit more powerful than crossbows, so I settled for 1d8 for pistols, 1d10 for musket rifles. And I think making blunderbuss High Crit weapons sounds ok.
Ok, let’s have a look at those stats:
| Weapon | Prof.. | Dam. | Range | Price | Weight | Group | Properties |
| Dragon pistol | +2. | 1d8 | 15/30 | 50gp | 2lb. | Firearm | Load two minor |
| Musket Rifle | +2. | 1d10 | 20/40 | 75gp | 4lb. | Firearm | Load two minor |
| Blunderbuss | +2. | 1d10 | 6/12 | 60gp | 4lb. | Firearm | Load two minor, High Crit |
I’ve decided to make firearms more expensive than crossbows to reflect that they are a) a bit more powerful and b) perhaps more rare. Ammunition for pistols, rifles and blunderbuss costs 1gp and you get enough powder and balls for 10 shots.
I haven’t playtested those weapons yet, so handle those firearms with care. If you have tried them out in your campaign or if you have some ideas on how to improve them, please let me know!
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Load 2 minor is probably a good choice. One of my friends made them load 2 FULL ROUNDS. While probably historically accurate, it would be a real pain in combat and in game.
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Absolutely love this, and perfect for my upcoming Musketeers one-shot too
I like it. Very sweet and simple. Allows for the romance of the firearm while not unbalancing it. Kudos!
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[...] Stargazer’s World [...]
[...] about fourth-edition stats for early firearms over at Dice Monkey. (Edit: Jonathan pointed out Stargazer’s post on the topic, which I’d read but overlooked when writing this. Mea culpa.) I’ve been thinking it [...]
One thought. Why use a musket over a longbow?
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Those firearms where not created to be better than a longbow or any other weapon. There are obviously still some advantages to use crossbows and longbows instead of firearms. But if you want to play a D&D game in a setting based on the renaissance era, firearms are much more fitting than longbows. It’s a matter of style.
Indeed, but if I was playing a ranger, it would feel kind of foolish to use a musket instead of a bow. If it didn’t matter, stats-wise, I could go for the style, but as written, they cost more, take longer to reload and have no other discernable qualities.
I understand that they are modeled on crossbows, but in 4E, from what I gather, noone uses crossbows, except for rogues, and then only because crossbows are singled out in the rogue powers.
These rules are good, I like the “2 minor to load” thing, but I don’t see any player actually choosing to equip their character with these weapons, as written. In a gamist way, they probably need to be military and on even terms with the bows. I want musketeer rangers
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I don’t have the D&D 4E rules with me, but when I am not mistaken, my firearms make more damage than bows and should have a similar range. As an added bonus everyone proficient with crossbows can use muskets. Making them military weapons would just reduce the number of classes that are proficient with firearms. And by the way, what would you change to make the guns better?
[...] for black powder weapons in D&D, it seems like it’s a common addition to the core rules (Stargazer has a good take on them, as has Dicemonkey). Still, when I tried to find some good rules ahead of [...]
I see them as a bit underpowered compared with the bows, but the bows are military weapons, so as a drop-in replacement for crossbows, they’ll work great. Thanks for the comments on my own write-up (and the inspiration to do it
)
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Here’s the rules I use for firearms. They are more powerful than crossbows, but are much slower (but not so slow as to be unusable). Normally they can be fired only every other round, but can be fired every round at the cost of movement and expending a feat. I was aiming for a reasonable game balance while making them attractive.
BLACKPOWDER FIREARMS
SIMPLE RANGED WEAPONS
One-handed Prof. Damage Range Price Weight Group PropertieS
Pistol +2 1d8 10/20 150 gp 3 lb. Blackpowder Load standard, puncturing
Pocket Pistol +2 1d6 6/12 100 gp 2 lb. Blackpowder Load standard, puncturing
Grenade* +2 2d6 5/10 25 gp 1 lb. Grenade
Two-handed Prof. Damage Range Price Weight Group PropertieS
Blunderbuss** +2 2d6 Close blast 3 200 gp 8 lb. Blackpowder Load standard, puncturing
MILITARY RANGED WEAPONS
One-handed Prof. Damage Range Price Weight Group PropertieS
Horse Pistol +2 1d10 10/20 200 gp 4 lb. Blackpowder Load standard, puncturing
Two-handed Prof. Damage Range Price Weight Group Properties
Musket +2 1d12 20/40 300 gp 10 lb. Blackpowder Load standard, puncturing
Other Prof. Damage Range Price Weight Group Properties
Swivel Gun*** +2 3d6 See below 600 gp 25 lb. Blackpowder Load standard, puncturing
Cannon**** +2 4d8 See below 5000 gp 600 lb. Blackpowder Load full round, puncturing
* Grenades do area damage (Burst 1). Make a ranged attack vs. reflex.
** The Blunderbuss fires a blast of pellets (small bullets).
*** The Swivel Gun can fire either a blast of pellets (small bullets) (Close blast 5), or an enormous bullet (Range 20/40). Swivel
Guns use 4 oz. of gunpowder per shot.
**** The Cannon can fire either grapeshot (a net bag filled with musket bullets) (Close blast 7), or a cannonball (Range 30/60).
Cannons use 2 lb. of gunpowder per shot.
Note: there are many Feats, Powers, and Magical Properties that are usable with crossbows that can also apply to Blackpowder
firearms (as determined on a case-by-case basis).
Puncturing: Weapons with this keyword roll versus Reflex instead of AC.
New Feat: Rapid Reload
The Rapid Reload feat reduces the load time of Blackpowder firearms by 1 step.
Ammunition
Item Price Weight
Pistol/Musket Bullets (10) 1 gp 1 lb.
Blunderbuss Pellets (10 shots) 2 gp 2 lb.
Swivel Gun Bullets/Pellets (10) 6 gp 6 lb.
Cannonball/Grapeshot (10) 60 gp 60 lb.
Gunpowder (32) (1 oz. per shot) 50 gp 2 lb.
I like your rules very much! Great work, LordRhys.
A few thoughts on this, I realize I’m a bit late.
They aren’t distinct enough. As they are now, they are bows that take two actions to load, which means they’re not viable in hectic encounters.
They’re not by nature simple weapons. They’re not really intuitive enough to be. I’d upgrade them to military, and the Blunderbuss to Superior(requiring a feat for proficiency). I’d lower their damage die by 1, but also increase their proficiency bonus by 1, and change their reload to move. That way, you can use a minor action in addition to a standard action or a move action.
Dragon pistol +3. 1d6 10/20 15gp 2lb. Firearm Load Move
Musket Rifle +3. 1d8 20/40 25gp 4lb. Firearm Load Move
Blunderbuss +2. 1d10 6/12 30gp 4lb. Firearm Load Move, High Crit.
Also think about a few feats, like a paragon tier feat to reduce the load time to a minor, or a heroic tier feat that makes pellets damage a secondary target on criticals, if they are standing directly behind the target(either a ranged basic attack or damage equal to the dexterity modifier, or something).
Actually the British military trained there soldiers to load & fire there muskets in 6 seconds, so I think load minor 2 might be a bit excessive. Certainly a heavy crossbow that had to be winched would take longer then a musket.
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IMO the best take on firearms should be making them Encounters powers, especially if you want to grasp a swashbuckling feel over a realistic one.
In this way, you could make them a bit more powerful, as for instance:
Pistol
Dex vs Ref
1d10+Dex (lv11 2d10, lv21 3d10)
daze (save ends)
depending on the setting, you could add this encounter power to a character class, give it for free or costing a feat, as prefered.
What do you think ?
Perfidius,
Frenchman Extraordinaire