Recent content by Laurefindel

As i said I'd have to check in the new DMG, but loads of characters can cast spells without being spellcasters now. I don't know whether using a magic item such as a wand items counts as a somatic and/or material component, or rather, whether it becomes a spell focus that replaces the material...

I don’t have the 2024 DMG, but in 5e2014, a wand doesn’t produce a magical effect on its own, it allows the wielded to cast a spell using a charge instead of a spell slot. Since you’re casting the spell from t he wand, counterspell should work. But as I said, I don’t have the new DMG (or a D&D...

Actually, yes it is! First, firearms using a gunpowder considered a magical alchemical substance is not without precedent, and it provides a countermeasure against a weapon that otherwise deals automatic damage. I can easily imagine magic triggering or jamming the mechanism of a crossbow...

The more I think about it, the more making (these homebrewed) firearms magic items makes the most sense, even if they end up a custom category or casting a custom « spell ». All the infrastructure is already in the game and well-integrated; might as well use it.

Oh right that’s true. 5e25 iron golem is basically a character in nonmagical full plate with a shield now… I dont know, the Terminator shouldn’t be punched to death with bare hands either. That part doesn’t shatter my suspension of disbelieve more than the usual D&D abstraction.

Thanks for your previous analysis. Much appreciated. Agree with the keep it simple approach. Something will somewhat have to give however, because I have little interest in another flavour of crossbows, mechanically speaking. This is a specific house rule for a specific homebrewed setting. It...

While I don’t an issue with fighting in darkness being a straight roll, I like the emphasis idea. I’m just not sure how it plays out. Advantage with emphasis: you roll 2d20 twice, keeping the best result out of each emphasis roll? Or does emphasis only comes up in situations where advantage...

Im fine with Dex saves as a defence vs firearms. Dex saves include dodging (but so does AC in parts), but dodging isn’t all what Dex saves do. One can’t dodge a lightning bolt or a lightning strike, or the sudden explosion of a fireball, but avoiding the full blunt of such attacks still falls...

2024, which I’m still slowly getting used to.

If it makes it easier to understand my intention, see firearms as a single-use wands of bullets, with no spellcasting or class prerequisite.

Oh but there is a proficiency for these firearms. Without the proficiency, you cannot load a firearm, and you don’t add your proficiency bonus to the saving throw. Without the proficiency, characters can fire a loaded firearm, but the target has a higher chance to succeeding on the save.

They’d need an ability to make a weapon attack as a Bonus Action, like bladesinger or valor bard. Looks like I need to clarify a few things in the weapons’ description and feat.

The intention is that someone with the feat can fire every round; load as an Action, fire as a Bonus Action. I need to make this a clause of rapid reload. Good catch. If this variant is introduced in this world, the default PHB options would not exist (which is already the case in the current...

Thanks everyone for all your replies, these are very helpful. Indeed the feel I’m going for is early matchlock technology (technological advancements just graduated from hand-cannons fired with a match). Bullets are inaccurate and the outcome is uncertain, not by fault of the attacker. We’re...

For the reasoning, here's what it is. D&D has two main type of attacks - those that require an attack roll by the attacker, and those that require a saving throw from the defender. Currently, only spellcasters have access to the second. This aims to give this option to martial characters too...