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The goal of my firearms was to make ones that had a historical basis, but presented an interesting option to players as opposed to either an overpowered "must have" item or a slow loading piece of junk outclassed by bows. The martial level of items represent what, stat wise, amounts to a martial level crossbow. The superior level ones are essentially a superior version of the Repeating Crossbow.

Blackpowder is a rare and "exspensive" item from the perspective of a peasent(or lord trying to outfit an entire army), but still trivial to any adventurer past the earliest levels, or very well funded mercenaries, pirates, etc.

My firearms come in two varieties, Martial and Superior. I haven't designed feats yet, but I think in all likelihood they will just share feats with crossbows, since they are used in a similar manner.


Martial Firearms use breech loading mechanisms (they are loaded from the rear- either from the side sort of like a bolt action rifle or from behind like an old style shotgun), and they use paper cartidges with minnie balls. A minnie ball is a special type of bullet that when fired expands slightly to grip the rifling, allowing one to load the weapon at the speed of a musket, but fire with the accuracy of a rifle. (Historically, the difference was that rifles had "rifling", tiny ridges that spin the bullet, inside the barrel, while muskets were smoothbore. However, rifles took a much longer time to load than muskets since the bullet had to be very carefully seated inside the barrel w/ a rifle, while muskets could use paper cartridges and just be quickly jammed in.)

Pistol  +2  d8   5/10   50gp   2lbs Firearm  Load Minor/High Crit

Musket  +2 d10 15/30  75gp 4lbs Firearms Load Minor/High Crit


Superior Firearms are special weapons based on the designs of the famed artificer, erdana, sans-serif;">Vicento Leorezzi. These weapons, while using a smaller bullet, utilize magazines preloaded with primer, cartridge, and shot, allowing the user to reload the weapon from the magazine by way of the weapon's finely tuned internal clockwork mechanism. In addition, the improved barrel design alows for accurate fire at longer ranges than conventional firearms. Each magazine holds ten shots, costs 3gp, and requires a standard action to remove the spent magazine and load the fresh one.

Clockwork Pistol +2 d6 10/20 80gp 2lbs Firearms Load Free*/High Crit


Clockwork Rifle +2 d8 20/40 105gp 4lbs Firearms Load Free*/High Crit

These are some of the best ones I've seen. Nice and simple and not really out of line with other missile weapons. Good, and worth using, but not overpowered.

The other route to take would be making them basically almost impossible to reload in combat but giving them a more or less encounter level power. Probably even more accurate, though maybe less fun. reload minor is fine though. It fits well with the rest of the game.

Yes.  A mace or club is radially symetrical, you just smash the enemy with it.  An axe or hammer requires you to keep the edge/striking surface at the propper angle of attack to be effective, and, I'm sure, there'd be subtler differences, too - getting through armor with one rather than the other, for instance.  

If a weapon is going to be a distinct weapon, at all, it needs to be different enough that being proficient in another weapon wouldn't also make you proficient in it, as well.  Pistol vs stocked is different enough.  Breach vs muzzle loader, maybe not so much - different to load, not so different to fire.

Like I said, though, the 'clockwork' ones fit the superior category just fine...

While an axe or hammer may *look* different, you would wield one in exactly the same way you wield a mace. Both items consist of a stick w/ something heavy on the end with which you strike your opponent. While a mace may lack an edge like an axe would have, many do have striking surfaces. In either case, when striking with a mace (even a hypothetically smooth one), in order to get a solid hit, you must still hit with the correct angle, otherwise you will land a glancing blow that will be considerably less effective. Think of hitting a baseball- there is a "sweet spot" on the bat that you want to strike with. Taken in that light, the *technique* to swing a mace is the same as any other single handed weapon, inflexible weapon that has a weighted bit on the end with which you smack the other man. Axes and hammers are "military" not because of ease of use, but simply becuase they do what a mace does better.

I think in 4e simple better connotates the design of the weapon as opposed to the ease with which it is wielded. Would a caveman use it? Probably a simple weapon. Would a knight use it? Military or Superior.

A little bit off topic, but I think it goes back to explain the reason I made them military/superior as opposed to simple. Is a firearm, in reality, easy to use? Absolutely. And the more modern they became, the deadlier and easier to use they became. The thing is, I believe simple no longer connotates the weapon's complexity of use, but rather its effectiveness stat wise. Its not a perfect system, but then Dnd was never a "simulationist" game. There are other system that do that aspect much better (The Conan d20 was a fine example, with pretty detailed rules for both weapons and armor), however what is nice about 4e is that its fast and loose, and the players can fill in the flavor however they like. Which is what I've done- taken the premise of the crossbow and created a martial version.