A while back, I took an initial stab at some firearm rules for Pathfinder 1e. But over the 15 years of the Reavers campaign I’ve been continuing to use and refine them. So now on the Rules You Can Use page is:
Geek Related Gunpowder Weapons of Golarion (7 page pdf)
Now, since I created mine back in 2009, Paizo came out with official firearm rules and then also cannon rules. But I still use mine. Why?
Early Personal Firearms
Well, the problem is that to make it easy to balance, Paizo made guns a lot like bows, especially damage wise. Bang, 1d8 damage! People want “consistent damage output” so they made them easy to reload quickly and/or have multiple barrels so you can get your multiple shots in a round. The main thing they added to power them up was to make them hit touch AC within the first range increment. But that’s a problem IMO – so magic plate armor, dragons, etc. are trivial to hit. Sure, “eventually firearms made armor obsolete” but an early flintlock bullet will deflect off a breastplate just fine.
I wanted to approach the topic with two equally important goals.
One, historical realism – at least a nod to it. One of the things I have loved about D&D in the 40 years I’ve played it is the exposure to history, technology, real stuff. This means slower reloads, misfires, high crits (the Paizo rules do have misfires and high crits, credit where credit is due), and so on. And related to this, fantasy trope fidelity – firing a pistol while laying about with a sword is a staple of some historical but certainly much fantasy fiction, and if a gun is just a bow then you will only have specialists. And while I do want early firearms in my game, I don’t want someone spewing out 4 shots a round, that’s for a modern game. I don’t really like the feel of a “gunslinger,” maybe a “musketeer” at maximum in a late middle ages/early Renaissance type setting.
Two, make them feel different than other weapon types. If having a gun is just a bow with a special effect, I’ll play Apocalypse World, thanks. If they’re not different texturally, why add them? Just for the fictional impact I guess, but – bah. To me the impact firearms should have is that you can’t fire historical firearms quickly – but if they hit you they will fuck you up. PCs above level 1 treat “a guy with a bow” with impunity unless he is also leveled. “Oh no, I might take about 4.5 points of damage!”
This is easily done – just use a slower reload and put more punch into each hit. Instead of “reload a pistol as a standard action, or move action with a feat, or just all the time if you’re a gunslinger, and then shoot for 1d8 damage” I went with “reloading a pistol takes 2 full rounds, or 1 with a feat, and then shoot for 2d6 damage.”
Suddenly there’s a lot more reason for a melee person to carry a pistol to shoot as they close, or pull and shoot at someone strategic in battle that they can’t get to. And a reason for a gun-wielder to carry a brace of pistols (like, you know, real people did). With these rules combats feel more like fictional early firearm battles (The Patriot… Van Helsing/Solomon Kane era stuff…). It also makes a massed squad of musketeers, for example, something to give PCs pause.
Early Cannon
Same with cannon. Slow but super dangerous – though mostly to ships and buildings and not people, unless loaded with grapeshot.
I get some people “don’t want gunpowder in their D&D.” I don’t get that, I just want “historically appropriate for the late medieval era” in my D&D. And Europe had cannon as early as the 1300s (and earlier, in other places), and by the usual late-1400s kind of representative “hybrid medieval/Renaissance” D&D era that most general published settings, including Golarion, trade in, they were definitely in use on the battlefield and on ships. But they are slow and ridiculously expensive.
The Pathfinder cannon rules are actually reasonably similar to what I had come up with, with slow reload and crewing requirements. But they were both way too inexpensive (especially for a world that tries to say “oh they’re only really available in Alkenstar and you know maybe a little in other places”) and don’t pack enough of a punch. “Oh no, I got shot by a cannon and took 6d6 damage.” That’s 21 points of damage, also known as “a melee attack routine from a low level PC” or “the shitty low level fireballs that are why people say playing an evocation mage is a trap.” And their ranges are crazy short (100 ft. range increment).
What I wanted from cannon was to be long range and devastating, but rare due to expense and slow to fire and mostly for structures but still a threat to individuals. So my basic 12-pounder cannon does 7d10 damage every 4 rounds vs 6d6 every 4 rounds for the Paizo version. (Again, they balance it with the touch attack mechanic). It’s actually less expensive than its Paizo equivalent – my 12-pounder is 4000 gp and 120 gp of black powder to fire vs Paizo’s is 6000 gp and 100 gp of black powder to fire, maybe I should adjust that. (A wand of fireballs is 11,250 gp, for comparison.)
And my range increment is 500 feet. I know, all Pathfinder/D&D weapons have pathetic range compared to real life. But the role of cannon should be a super-ranged threat. Can you even get into fireball range before taking a volley? How many shots can your ship take as you close to board? It provides a different strategic element, not just a new skin on an existing strategic element.
Magic and Alchemical Firearms
Now, the other thing I do is to make enhancements to firearms very rare. They are brand new. You can find ancient enchanted swords from wizards over the last millenia but firearms and cannons are from the now, and tech and magic are somewhat opposed (both because wizards like niche protection but also somewhat fundamentally, in my view, built over decades of D&D lore that support that view). I think the “Paizo answer” to firearms and cannon is that you just boost the otherwise sad damage with magic, or with explosive shot and stuff that are, frankly, later tech level.
Conclusion
Now, the Paizo rules aren’t bad – they do most of what I want out of firearm and cannon rules, actually. I just think that it is way more interesting for the role of early firearms to be a slow loading big punch and the role of cannon to be a slow loading big punch at very long ranges. So, feel free and use these if you agree!
Let me know how you use guns and cannon – and especially what the feel of the rules you use adds to your game.