- D&D is a fantasy setting
but Steampunk, Dieselpunk and a whole range of other
punks have a tendency of creeping into the game. There's a ton of homebrew
content providing for firearms. But Matt Mercer of Critical Role Fame has cemented his gunslinger archetype as the go-to gunfighter of choice. What is it exactly? Well, we're gonna go
over everything you need to know about it in today's episode. (blades clanging) Just because the archetype
exists doesn't mean that you get guns, especially right away. Many, if not most fantasy
settings don't have their explosives figured out. And your pleas for gun powder at the local shop will go upon deaf ears. Don't try to force guns into a campaign where the DM doesn't want them. Even if Matt Mercer wrote it, gunslingers are still homebrew content and not officially allowed. They're not right for all settings, and you should double check with your DM before
rolling a gunslinger up. Dexterity is your absolute
most important score. It dictates how well you
shoot and how well you dodge. Normally as a fighter, your next important ability
score would be constitution, but gunslingers need a high wisdom score for their grit abilities. This means you should prioritize dexterity as your highest score. Make wisdom your next best put whatever you have left
in the constitution, and the rest can really
just be dumped stats. Try and get your dexterity to a plus four as fast as possible, and try to get your wisdom
to at least a plus three. You can honestly use any
race for your new gunslinger. 5e is a pretty forgiving system and there aren't any wrong answers. However, you're going to get
the most benefit out of races that provide a bonus to your
dexterity wisdom or both. The Aarakocra gain bonuses
to both dexterity and wisdom, which is pretty good on its own. But the kicker is the flight. Combining flight with range attack options can legitimately win fights on their own if the DM is unprepared. You can play keep-away with
even your short range firearms while gliding overhead. It's simple, it's easy and it's
also more than likely banned because a lot of DMs will
ban the race entirely. Make sure your DM is cool with the bird folk before
you decide to roll it up. What else gain a bonus to
both dexterity and wisdom and alongside all the
other little elf perks such as transferee perception, proficiency and all that other stuff. You also get a little boost
to your movement speed, having a 35 foot movement
speed can let you out pace and keep some enemies
out of striking distance while you unload with your guns. It also lets you play the
sniper with their mask of the wild ability
that lets them hide even when only lightly obscured by foliage. Halflings have a bonus to their dexterity and picking the ghostwise sub race gets us the needed wisdom boost. None of the firearms are labeled as heavy, so your little halfling doesn't need to worry about any restrictions. The main reason halflings
are great gunslingers though, is their lucky ability. Fumbling an attack with
a gun becomes a misfire and misfires are terrible. Without a backup, a broken
gun can leave you useless for the rest of the fight. Lucky halflings are practically
immune to this though and can reroll their
way out of a tight spot. Take the human variant and
pick plus one the wisdom and plus one the dexterity, if going a human is the
route you'd like to take. This also lets you grab the sharpshooter feet right off the bat. More on that in a second. Variant humans are always good, just be aware that
they're also often banned. Fighters are only as complicated
as you want them to be and you won't have to do
anything terribly complicated with your gunslinger build
if you don't want to. We should go through a
few important bits though and explain your really
relevant class features one at a time. Starting with your fighting style. For most fighters, this
is an important decision that shapes how you'll
customize your character. For you, there is no choice. Gunslinger should always pick archery as their fighting style. I realize you aren't an archer. It's all worded to work in
the pre-gun world after all, but plus two to all shots with range weapons is far
better than any other option. Plus two is a huge advantage in 5e and you can't pass that up. Next up is extra attack, which
is pretty self explanatory. Many classes get these, but
only fighters get so many. You'll end up with four
attacks by level 20. As a gunslinger, keep in mind that you can reload your
gun using an attack. So once you gain an extra
attack at level five, you'll be able to fire and
reload in the same turn. Ability score increases or ASI's arrive for most classes every four
levels for the most part, at levels four, eight, 12, 16, and 19. Fighters, however, get
to go nuts with them and get ASI's at level four,
six, eight, 12, 14, 16, and 19. What this really means is that you can easily max
out your relevant stats. So for a gunslinger, dexterity and wisdom, and you can get away with more feats than other characters could. Consider taking the sharpshooter
feet at level four or six, but more on that later. With firearm proficiency, basically, you get
proficiency in firearms. However, this ability is pretty unique. Firearms are their own
weird category from simple or martial weapons and other characters would
have to take a feat just to gain proficiency in a
single type of firearm. Here you get proficiency
in all of them for free. Unless your campaign is
already set up for guns, this ability is going to
be your primary source of ammo, repairs and even entire guns. You gain proficiency in tinkers tools and you can use them to do all those things at half the normal cost, which is still pretty high. By the way crafting new
guns isn't left entirely up to the DM's discretion and your most powerful firearm
options are crafted only. You're going to need to work
out with your DM exactly how to handle this since
hand mortar and bad news, were specific items Matt Mercer
allowed his players to make and are sort of up in the air. So, definitely clear this with your DM and have a meaningful discussion about it. Okay, now we finally get to the real meat with this archetype. Gunslinger works like a
weird range battle master. You gain a number of grit points equal to your wisdom modifier and you gain these points on short rests and also regain them when
you make a critical hit or finish off an enemy. So what does grit do? It's the resource you
spend to make trick shots. When you first become a
gunslinger at third level, you get to choose two trick shots and you could learn an
additional trick shot at seventh, 10th, 15th, and 18th level. You get eight to choose
from some of which are great and most of which are pretty
meh if we're being honest. As for bullying shot,
it's not bad exactly, but in order to get it to
work, you need a high charisma and the gunslinger should
really have charisma as a dump stat if anything. When it comes to dazing shot, I kind of wanna put a
big old label on this that says, "Take this one." Imposing disadvantage like this for essentially free can make
or break a combat situation, and situations where
there's one major target, you can potentially keep them
dazed for the entire fight. I would apply that same
label to dead eye shot. Guaranteeing advantage when you need it is absolutely amazing and it can help sneak in
that sharpshooter damage. Again, more on that in a second. Disarming shot can be
good in some situations, but most monsters won't
have weapons to disarm with. So maybe consider taking this one, depending on the campaign. Forceful shot is cooler than it is good. Push effects have some great
situational applications, but without some form of stage hazard, they don't really do
much of really anything. Piercing shot is one that should probably
be your fourth pickup. It's technically situational, but it's not that hard to line up a shot to hit multiple targets. This trick basically turns your bullets into many lightning bolts
and who wouldn't want that. With violence shot, basically, you get to roll another damaged
dye on the hit in exchange for having a higher misfire chance. This is a good one and
should honestly be either one of your first trick shots or the first extra one that you learn. Winging shot allows you
to shoot a guy's leg out and knock them prone. This one is good, kind of. You actually have disadvantage on attacks against prone targets with ranged attacks. So think of it more as a
go get them for your allies as opposed to a direct
attack for yourself. Not bad, but not as good
as other picks though. To sum all that up, your first two trick shots
should be your choice of dazing shot, dead eye
shot or violent shot. At seventh level, grab whichever of those
three you missed earlier. Those three are usually the good ones. Then at 10th grab piercing shot and pass that fill up on your choice of winging shot or disarming shot. These are all my suggestions, mind you. Build whatever character you
want at the end of the day. So what type of gun should I use? Well pistol or pepper box. It's sad to say but statistically all the
other firearms are just bad. All firearms have the reload quality followed by a number which dictates how many shots they can fire before needing an attack to reload. That means a reload one weapon can only
fire once before needing to reload again. Losing every other attack is pretty awful. Now I know a lot of you are thinking, "But what about bad news?" "Isn't that the best weapon?" Well sort of, it's also completely
up to the DMs discretion if you can even make the damn thing. It packs a punch though, so give it a whirl if your DM allows it. Just be aware that the weapon
entry has a typo on D&D beyond and actually has a reload
one weapon quality. In terms of the best gunslinger feats, it's pretty obvious which
ones you should go with, but we'll point out a few anyway. A feat you'll definitely
want a sharpshooter. Sharpshooter has some bonus
benefits to ignore cover and long range penalties, but we want it for that damage increase. By using your dead eye
shot to gain advantage, you can offset the negative
five penalty to hit and just lay on that lovely plus 10 damaged
bonus shot after shot. I'd almost claim this as an obligatory feat for gunslingers. Lucky is good, it's never not good. And it's so good that it's usually banned. But especially for a gunslinger where fumbles hurt due to misfires, re-rolling away those ones can make or break a combat experience. With crossbow expert, it's a bit iffy, but can also be super helpful. You're wasting about
two thirds of the feat because you're not
actually using crossbows, but the bit we want doesn't
care what range weapons you use. This feat lets you ignore the disadvantage from firing range weapons in melee. For a gunslinger who
may not always be able to escape their targets at close range, this can be especially useful. I know that a lot of people
would prefer that firearms, no matter how primitive they may be, never make an appearance
in their D&D campaign. But for those who are very
interested in this type of thing, I'm glad that there's at least an option that's both balanced
and really fun to play. But what do you guys think? Do you think that a gunslinger
even belongs in D&D? Are you thinking of building one yourself? If so, let me know in the comments because I'm really curious
what you guys think of this. Thank you so much for watching. I really appreciate it. Be sure to like and subscribe because we put out new
content like this every week. My name is Patrick Ferguson
with SkullSplitter Dice. And until next time, Farewell. - [Woman] Thanks for joining us. Don't forget to like
comment and subscribe. So you never miss out.
