D&D 5E How have you added firearms into your games?

[cbwjm]

Just a quick question for those of you who have integrated firearms into your games. I'm thinking of including the basic pistols and muskets and adding in additional alchemical ammunition that is less common more expensive but adds an additional +1d6 acid, cold, fire, or lightning damage.

Adding to this will be magical firearms from the standard +1 to +3 weapons to seeker weapons which allow the user to ignore partial cover. Magical ammunition might also be included such as a web bullet which wraps the target in webbing if hit or a burning shot which unleashes a burning hands spell. Some of these ideas would also be good for archers as well.

Something else I'm interested in , if you have added in firearms have you also included unique gunslinging subclasses (I'm not really interested in a full gunslinger class). I'm thinking of coming up with at least the following: Fighter (rifleman), Rogue (gunslinger), Wizard (arcane gunner) - names are placeholders only.

So if you have added in anything for firearms, I would appreciate if you could let me know of any interesting additions to equipment or subclasses or even just how you've used firearms in general (squads of riflemen perhaps?).

 

[TallIan]

I generally don't add firearms to D&D because I like it remain medieval and I find even basic firearms bring it closer to reneisance.

That being said, as cool as your idea sounds, I would be wary of having special power ammunition (other than perhaps +1,2,3), since this becomes a gold for spells type thing. Consider that +d6 damage for a ranger costs a spell slot and only lasts for 10mins. You could have magical ammunition bags, with limited capacity and a slow recharge time so that standard ammunition placed in the bad during a long rest comes out with the magical abilities. This could be either a class feature or a findable magical item.

One final point of pedantry - your fighter should be a musketeer since you aren't introducing rifles.

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[Zardnaar]

I generally don't add firearms to D&D because I like it remain medieval and I find even basic firearms bring it closer to reneisance.

That being said, as cool as your idea sounds, I would be wary of having special power ammunition (other than perhaps +1,2,3), since this becomes a gold for spells type thing. Consider that +d6 damage for a ranger costs a spell slot and only lasts for 10mins. You could have magical ammunition bags, with limited capacity and a slow recharge time so that standard ammunition placed in the bad during a long rest comes out with the magical abilities. This could be either a class feature or a findable magical item.

One final point of pedantry - your fighter should be a musketeer since you aren't introducing rifles.

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D&D is already in the renaseiance.

I did but the were very rare. I added the cartridge rifles. A mysterious group called The Guardians supplied them and they were not for sale.

If the guardians supported your nation or whatever you might be able to get some rifles and a handful of cannons.

Of course you only have one place to get ammo from.

 

[cbwjm]

I generally don't add firearms to D&D because I like it remain medieval and I find even basic firearms bring it closer to reneisance.

That being said, as cool as your idea sounds, I would be wary of having special power ammunition (other than perhaps +1,2,3), since this becomes a gold for spells type thing. Consider that +d6 damage for a ranger costs a spell slot and only lasts for 10mins. You could have magical ammunition bags, with limited capacity and a slow recharge time so that standard ammunition placed in the bad during a long rest comes out with the magical abilities. This could be either a class feature or a findable magical item.

One final point of pedantry - your fighter should be a musketeer since you aren't introducing rifles.

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I can't believe I didn't think of musketeer...

For magical ammunition, I'm treating it as similar to scrolls, a one shot magical item where the spell is used up once fired, same with the alchemical ammo, you might be able to get some acid ammo in a town but it will at most be a handful and once used you are back to normal ammo. Don't think I will add +1/2/3 ammo, I tend to just used enchanted weapons for a bonus.

I do like the idea of the magical ammo bags and have added that to my list of ideas for firearms. It could even make a good magical quiver.

D&D is already in the renaseiance.

I did but the were very rare. I added the cartridge rifles. A mysterious group called The Guardians supplied them and they were not for sale.

If the guardians supported your nation or whatever you might be able to get some rifles and a handful of cannons.

Of course you only have one place to get ammo from.

While I wasn't considering limiting firearms and ammo, this idea is a great one. Not only is it a great group to have in the setting, but I could also see the PCs getting hired to find out the secrets of crafting firearms and ammunition.

 

[Zardnaar]

I can't believe I didn't think of musketeer...

For magical ammunition, I'm treating it as similar to scrolls, a one shot magical item where the spell is used up once fired, same with the alchemical ammo, you might be able to get some acid ammo in a town but it will at most be a handful and once used you are back to normal ammo. Don't think I will add +1/2/3 ammo, I tend to just used enchanted weapons for a bonus.

I do like the idea of the magical ammo bags and have added that to my list of ideas for firearms. It could even make a good magical quiver.



While I wasn't considering limiting firearms and ammo, this idea is a great one. Not only is it a great group to have in the setting, but I could also see the PCs getting hired to find out the secrets of crafting firearms and ammunition.

I was working on that part. Basically it was a hidden city starport where they could spelljam to the moon. City was where gearforged came from, moonbase had the factories.

The guardians were Gnomes and had downloaded themselves into gearforged bodies. They had tech, spelljamming, war/gear forged, dinobots etc.

 

[Yunru]

Firearms are slow, clunky things, only used because of their high damage and ease of use.

Thus low-level characters like guards and bandits might have them, or characters like Rogues that don't care about only being able to fire 1/action. For the majority of other characters swords and bows are still the go-to weapon, and even crossbows have their niche with crossbow mastery.

I might as drop in a six-shooter pistol as a non-magical artifact at some point, but it will be balanced appropriately (six shots means you might have to reload it once during combat for your average character, so I'd drop the damage a die size).

Edit: On reflection, I might make the base Musket and Pistol have Reload [1] as apposed to Loading, which'd allow for a higher damage.

Edit 2: Here we go:

Pistol:
One-Handed Martial Ranged Weapon
1d8 Piercing damage
Ammunition (30/90), Reload [1]

Six-Shot:
One-Handed Martial Ranged Weapon
1d6 Piercing damage
Ammunition  (20/60), Reload [6]

Musket:
Two-Handed Martial Ranged Weapon
1d10 Piercing damage
Ammunition  (40/120), Reload [1]

 

[S'mon]

My Golarion game has mostly 16th century technology but guns remain rare. There is a Warlock PC with an Alkenstar pistol as his pact weapon.

 

[iserith]

I've used firearms (pistols, muskets) as written in the DMG in a D&D-Spaghetti Western mashup of Lost Mines of Phandelver. I also did a run through the first chapter of Hoard of the Dragon Queen with guns. It all worked just fine. I did not include any "gunslinging" classes or subclasses.

 

[robus]

Firearms are slow, clunky things, only used because of their high damage and ease of use.

Thus low-level characters like guards and bandits might have them, or characters like Rogues that don't care about only being able to fire 1/action. For the majority of other characters swords and bows are still the go-to weapon, and even crossbows have their niche with crossbow mastery.

I might as drop in a six-shooter pistol as a non-magical artifact at some point, but it will be balanced appropriately (six shots means you might have to reload it once during combat for your average character, so I'd drop the damage a die size).

Edit: On reflection, I might make the base Musket and Pistol have Reload [1] as apposed to Loading, which'd allow for a higher damage.

Edit 2: Here we go:

Pistol:
One-Handed Martial Ranged Weapon
1d8 Piercing damage
Ammunition (30/90), Reload [1]

Six-Shot:
One-Handed Martial Ranged Weapon
1d6 Piercing damage
Ammunition  (20/60), Reload [6]

Musket:
Two-Handed Martial Ranged Weapon
1d10 Piercing damage
Ammunition  (40/120), Reload [1]

I agree that guns need to be hard hitting and hard to reload. Your guns seem a bit under-powered IMHO. (not much more than an arrow.) i'm away from my guns spec at the mo, but I definitely upped the damage dealing. I also had attackers have advantage if reloading was occurring (basically to discourage continuous use of firearms during combat)

 

[UselessTriviaMan]

In Monte Cook's Ptolus campaign setting, firearms and other technologies exist. Guns aren't quite common yet, but they're not particularly rare either. I've got two PCs in my 5E campaign who use dragon pistols, and it's going great.