Gunsmith's Kit
You are on the cutting edge of technology, a fearsome presence of fire and thunder. The gods had made man, and your weapon has made them equal.
Gunsmith's Kit
Gunsmith's Kit include a variety of small hand tools, a rotary tool, metal files, a vial of oil, and a hammer.
Gunsmith's Kits weigh 10 lbs and cost 50 gp.
Building Firearms
With your kit, you have the ability to craft weapons out of raw materials and to push your creations out into the world. These firearms can take the form of muskets, pistols, revolvers or even grenades.
To create your firearm, you must first decide what firearm you wish to build and gather the required raw materials, this is abstracted out into a gold value. After spending the required gold, you must then begin working on your firearm. To make progress on your firearm, you must spend at least 4 hours working on it. After the required amount of time to produce the firearm is completed, you must then succeed on a Gunsmith's Kit (Intelligence) check against the DC of the firearm you are creating.
On a successful check, the firearm is complete and ready to be used so long as you have ammunition available. On a failed check, you must spend time on repairs, see the Repairs section for more information.
Cleaning and Maintenance
At the end of every day that you fired a firearm, you must spend 30 minutes cleaning and maintaining the weapon and you must have your gunsmith's kit on you. If you are unable to do this, the DM may decide that your gun is jammed if you roll a 1 on the attack roll and you are unable to use that firearm until you are able to spend time to maintain and clean it. You must do this for every firearm that you fired that day. This can be done over the course of a long or short rest, though maintaining and cleaning multiple firearms may take you too long to gain the benefits of a long rest.
Creating Ammunition
In order for your firearm to work properly, you must produce your own ammunition for the weapon. Upon a piece of ammunition being fired, it is destroyed.
Repairs
If your weapon is ever broken, or you are using the variant rules for Misfiring, you must spend time and gold to fix the weapon. You must spend a quarter of the time it takes to build the weapon and spend a quarter of the firearm's cost in repairs.
After you finish this time and spend the required gold, you must then make an Intelligence (Gunsmith's Kit) check against the DC of the firearm. On a successful check, the firearm is fixed and ready to be used. On a failed check, you must repeat this process by spending the required time and gold to make repairs to the firearm.
Smokepowder
Smokepowder, also known as gunpowder, is a volatile substance used in the creation of ammunition and grenades. You must have access to smokepowder or be unable to produce ammunition.
What is Smokepowder?
If you don't want blackpowder or gunpowder in your world and wish to keep firearms magical in nature, you might consider using smokepowder.
This white powder is the remains of slain Fire Elementals. When a Fire Elemental is killed, it leaves behind a goo known as pyrejelly that burns like slow embers, though it is notoriously sticky and can cause problems for any who try to handle it. It burns for days after the elemental is killed until the last of the fuel sputters out and all that remains is a black hunk of rock. Alchemist are then able to that blackened rock and mix it with certain chemicals, removing any impurities, and produce a pure white substance known as Smokepowder.
New Weapon Properties
Firearms have special properties related to their use along with requiring special ammunition.
Ammunition. All firearms require ammunition to make an attack, and due to their rare nature, ammunition may be near impossible to find or purchase. However, if materials are gathered, you can craft ammunition yourself using your Gunsmith's Kit. Each firearm uses its own unique ammunition and is destroyed upon being used.
Reload. A limited number of shots can be made with a weapon that has the reload property. A character must then reload it using an action or a bonus action (the character's choice). You must have one free hand to reload a firearm.
Explosives
Smokepowder Keg / Powder Horn
Setting fire to a container full of smokepowder can cause it to explode, dealing fire damage to creatures within 10 feet of it (3d6 for a powder horn, 7d6 for a keg). A successful DC 12 Dexterity saving throw halves the damage. Setting fire to an ounce of smokepowder causes it to flare for 1 round, shedding bright light in a 30-foot radius and dim light for an additional 30 feet.
Grenades
As an action, a character can throw a grenade at a point up to 60 feet away. With a grenade launcher, the character can propel the grenade up to 120 feet away. Each creature within 20 feet of an exploding fragmentation grenade must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, taking 5d6 piercing damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
One round after a smoke grenade lands, it emits a cloud of smoke that creates a heavily obscured area in a 20-foot radius. A moderate wind (at least 10 miles per hour) disperses the smoke in 4 rounds; a strong wind (20 or more miles per hour) disperses it in 1 round.
Firearms
| Item | Cost | Damage | Weight | DC | Time | Properties |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Early Era Martial Ranged Weapons |
||||||
| Pistol | 250 gp | 1d8 piercing | 3 lb. | 12 | 24 hours | Ammunition (range 30/90), loading |
| Musket | 500 gp | 1d10 piercing | 10 lb. | 15 | 28 hours | Ammunition (range 40/120), loading, two-handed |
| Early Era Ammunition | ||||||
| Bullets (10) | 3 gp | - | 2 lb. | 5 | 1 hour | |
| Developed Era Martial Ranged Weapons |
||||||
| Palm Pistol | 50 gp | 1d4 piercing | 1 lb. | 10 | 20 hours | Ammunition (range 40/160), light, reload 1 |
| Pistol | 150 gp | 1d8 piercing | 3 lb. | 12 | 28 hours | Ammunition (range 60/240), reload 4 |
| Musket | 300 gp | 1d10 piercing | 10 lb. | 15 | 28 hours | Ammunition (range 120/480), reload 1, two-handed |
| Revolver | 250 gp | 1d8 piercing | 5 lb. | 15 | 30 hours | Ammunition (range 80/320), heavy, reload 6 |
| Blunderbuss | 300 gp | 2d6 piercing | 10 lb. | 18 | 36 hours | Ammunition (range 15/60), heavy, reload 1, two-handed |
| Developed Era Ammunition | ||||||
| Palm Pistol Bullets (20) | 2 gp | - | 2 lb. | 5 | 1 hour | |
| Pistol Bullets (20) | 4 gp | - | 2 lb. | 7 | 1 hour | |
| Musket Bullets (20) | 5 gp | - | 2 lb. | 10 | 1 hour | |
| Revolver Bullets (20) | 4 gp | - | 2 lb. | 10 | 1 hour | |
| Blunderbuss Bullets (5) | 5 gp | - | 2 lb. | 13 | 1 hour | |
| Special Ammunition | ||||||
| Hollow Bullets | +20 gp | - | 2 lb. | +3 | +2 hour | |
| Non-lethal Bullets | +5 gp | - | 2 lb. | +1 | +1 hour | |
| Tracer Bullets | +30 gp | - | 5 lb. | +5 | +3 hour | |
| Explosives | ||||||
| Grenade, fragmentation | 30 gp | - | 1 lb. | 15 | 12 hours | |
| Grenade, smoke | 15 gp | - | 2 lb. | 13 | 12 hours | |
| Grenade launcher | 100 gp | - | 7 lb. | 15 | 20 hours | Ammunition (range 120), loading, two-handed |
What Era?
Depending on the development of firearms in your world, you may allow access to Early Era firearms or also allow Developed Era firearms. Prices are created with the idea that guns exist in that era only. If you are in a Developed Era, you may consider reducing the cost of Early Era firearms by half or more.
Special ammunition and explosives are assumed you are in the Developed Era, though characters in the Early Era can craft them but the cost is doubled for them.
Special Ammunition
Regular bullets don't always cut it when it comes to fighting off the hordes threatening the world. To construct these bullets, you create ammunition like normal but the cost, time, and DC is increased based on the special ammunition.
Hollow Bullets
These bullets deal normal damage, and on a hit the target must make a Constitution saving throw DC 12 or begin bleeding at the start of their turn. At the start of every turn, they take 1d4 bleeding damage. This effect lasts until they use an action to staunch the wound or they are healed magically. If you hit a creature with multiple hollow bullets, the damage dealt at the beginning of their turn increases by +1 per bullet.
Non-lethal Bullets
These bullets are designed to deal bludgeoning damage instead of piercing damage. Every time you fire these bullets and knock a creature to 0 hit points, you knock them unconscious instead of killing them.
Tracer Bullets
These bullets can easily be seen as they flash across the battlefield. On a hit, a creature is illuminated by glowing light and they are easier to be seen. The next attack against them gains advantage and if the creature was invisible, they are visible until the next attack against them.
Variant Rules
Alien Firearms
If you wish to include alien weaponry in your campaign, these weapons fire lasers and rely on energy cells for its ammunition. These weapons are typically far to advanced for a character to create them.
| Item | Damage | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Martial Ranged Weapons | ||
| Laser pistol | 3d6 radiant | 2 lb. |
| Antimatter rifle | 6d8 necrotic | 10 lb. |
| Laser rifle | 3d8 radiant | 7 lb. |
| Ammunition | ||
| Energy cell | - | 5 oz. |
Exotic Materials
Firearms could be crafted from obscure and arcane materials to really make them feel special and unique. A few examples are provided below.
Dragon Bone Stock
By combining portions of a mighty dragon to your weapon, you can choose to infuse your bullets with elemental energy based on the type of dragon bone used. Once per day as a bonus action, you can cause the magic of the dragon bone to crackle around your barrel. For the next minute, all ammunition fired from your weapon is considered magical and instead of dealing piercing damage, deals an elemental damage appropriate for the dragon bone used.
Elemental Powder
Every elemental is different and just as a fire elemental produces smokepowder, other elementals produce their own type of powder. Water Elementals produce a volatile substance that can only fire if submersed in water, allowing you to fire your firearm freely underwater with no penalities. The powder from an air elemental ejects bullets as faster speeds and they travel twice as far as normal, while Earth Elementals produce a powder that causes bullets to deal an additional 1d4 thunder damage on a successful hit.
Dead Man's Trigger
You've taken the essence of a powerful undead and transferred its undead cruelty into your trigger. Once per day, if you are knocked to 0 hit points, you can immediately fire your firearm at the creature who attacked you. You then fall prone and drop whatever you were holding.
Misfire
If you would prefer to express the chaotic nature of early firearms by providing a chance for a gun to Misfire regularly, you can assign a Misfire chance to the weapon.
Misfire. Whenever you make an attack roll with a firearm, and the dice roll is equal to or lower than the weapon’s Misfire score, the weapon misfires. The attack misses, and the weapon cannot be used again until you spend an action to try and repair it. To repair your firearm, you must make a successful Dexterity (Gunsmith’s Kit) check, DC equal to 8 + misfire score. If your check fails, the weapon is broken and must be mended out of combat at a quarter of the cost of the firearm. Creatures who use a firearm without being proficient increase the weapon’s misfire score by 1.
Misfire score
| Item | Property |
|---|---|
| Pistols | Misfire 1 |
| Muskets | Misfire 2 |
| Revolvers | Misfire 2 |
| Blunderbuss | Misfire 2 |
| Grenades | Misfire 3 |
| Special Ammunition | +1 Misfire |
Errata
1.1
Adjusted gun damage die and properties