Forgotten Realms Firearms

Handgonneur (New Feat)

You have practiced extensively with firearms of various sorts, gaining the following benefits:

• You are proficient with all firearms, and with tinker's tools.
• Being within 5 feet of a hostile creature doesn't impose disadvantage on your ranged attack rolls with any firearm.
• Reduce the misfire rating of the firearm you are using by 1.
• You may reload one firearm as a free action.

In the Realms, true gunpowder has no explosive capacity due to the influence of Kossuth, the Lord of Flames. Firearms are rare and use smokepowder, an alchemical explosive substance. It is different from, but on par with, gunpowder. Firearms are most common among the Lantanese, who originally learned this secret alchemy and engineering of firearms from Gond, the god of crafts and invention. They are still quite rare, however.

Smokepowder

Rare Alchemy Recipe • 25gp per packet
A black, grainy powder whose creation was a gift from Gond, smokepowder burns brightly when set alight. It is not inherently explosive unless the smokepowder is contained within a tight space. As such, it can be used to create explosives and to act as the firing powder for smokepowder weapons. In and of itself, a pile of smokepowder, when lit, burns bright enough to illuminate a 30 foot radius, and to provide dim light to another 30 foot radius out from that. A pile of smokepowder burns for one round per ounce of smokepowder used. If smokepowder is allowed to get wet, it will never again ignite.

A packet of smokepowder can be used to make 5 paper cartridge shots, with the use of a tinker's kit and fifteen minutes of work. These allotments of smokepowder are usually sold in packets of waxed parchment. Such a packet can explode if thrown into an open flame or lit on fire, exploding for 1d6 fire damage, inflicted on every creature within 20 feet, with a DC 12 Dexterity save for half damage.

Smokepowder is also sold in small powder horns, containing enough to make 50 shots (250 gp). If such a keg is hurled into a fire or set on fire, it will explode in 1d3 rounds, inflicting 4d6 fire damage to every creature within 20 feet, with a DC 12 Dexterity save for half damage. Finally, some alchemists also sell iron-banded powder kegs, containing enough to make 500 shots (2500 gp). These kegs are usually treated to be fire resistant, but if they burn long enough (2d4 x 10 minutes) or are cracked by impact, they will explode for 9d6 fire damage, inflicted in a 30 foot radius, with a DC 14 Dexterity save for half damage.

Firearms

Tinkering and alchemy has combined to produce these impressive weapons, which use flint sparkers or spark rings to ignite the gunpowder in the weapon, launching balls of lead as a projectile. Though it is possible to load both ammunition and powder into the end of the barrel, most use paper cartridges, combining both the bullet (or pellets) and the right weight of smokepower, pre-prepared and easy to load into a firearm (though the use of an action or a bonus action).

Ammunition: Two kinds of ammunition may be used with firearms: ball and shot. Ball ammunition is a single lead slug which inflicts the listed damage against a single target. Shot ammunition is a weight of lead pellets, which can be used to attack up to two targets who are no more than five feet apart with a single attack roll, which is then compared to both of their Armor Class. This attack inflicts one die-type less damage.

Critical Hits: Criticals with firearms are incredibly devastating, inflicting triple rather than double the dice in damage.

Weapon	Cost	Damage	Weight	Properties
Asp	125 gp	1d8 piercing	2 lb.	Ballistic (20/60), handgun, light, misfire (1)
Blunderbuss	250 gp	1d12 piercing	7 lb.	Ballistic (15/45), light, special
Combination gun	+300 gp	1d10 piercing	+2 lb.	Ballistic (25/75), handgun, misfire (2), special
Dragon	750 gp	1d10 piercing	3 lb.	Ballistic (10/30), handgun, special
Long gun	750 gp	1d12 piercing	12 lb.	Ballistic (50/150), heavy, misfire (1), two-handed
Musket	500 gp	1d12 piercing	10 lb.	Ballistic (40/120), heavy, misfire (1), two-handed
Musketoon	375 gp	1d10 piercing	7 lb.	Ballistic (40/120), misfire (1), two-handed
Serpent	250 gp	1d10 piercing	3 lb.	Ballistic (30/90), handgun, light, misfire (1)
Thunderbox	750 gp	3d8 piercing	5 lb.	Ballistic (30/90), handgun, misfire (5), special
Trinity gun	750 gp	2d10 piercing	11 lb.	Ballistic (20/60), heavy, misfire (3), two-handed
Volley gun	1500 gp	3d10 piercing	15 lb.	Ballistic (40/120), heavy, misfire (5), two-handed

• Asp: Ball • Shot. A small easily concealable pistol. Apply disadvantage to Wisdom (Perception) checks to notice this weapon if it is carried in a hidden fashion.
• Blunderbuss: Shot. A short, wide-mouthed musket a favorite of hunters. Though it lacks the Misfire property, it will become fouled if submerged while loaded.
• Combination Gun: Ball • Shot. A combination gun is the addition of a firing mechanism and chamber to a melee weapon of some sort, most often axes and blades. Add the costs of this weapon to the base weapon, and it uses the above traits when fired as a firearm. Othewise it uses its normal melee weapon traits. A melee weapon with the Thrown property loses it when combined with a gun, and a weapon with the Versatile or Two-Handed properites cause the combination gun to lose its Handgun property.
• Dragon: Shot. A wide-mouthed handgun used for peppering close enemies. Though it lacks the Misfire property, it will become fouled if submerged while loaded.
• Long Gun: Ball • Shot. A long-barrel version of the musket, suitable for hunting as well as warfare.
• Musket: Ball • Shot. A smoothbore long arm.
• Musketoon: Ball • Shot. A shorter version of the musket, used for hunting or household defense.
• Serpent: Ball • Shot. A handgun-sized firearm.
• Thunderbox: Ball • Shot. A heavy handgun with five barrels arranged in a cluster, all of which fire simultaneously. Expensive and time-consuming to load and use at full effect. Reduce damage to 2d8 piercing if fired with only three or four barrels loaded, and 1d8 piercing if fired with only one or two barrels loaded; reduce the Misfire rating to the number of barrels loaded when using. On a Misfire, the unmodified number rolled on the d20 indicates the number of barrels that are fouled; others remain usable.
• Trinity Gun: Ball • Shot. A smoothbore weapon with three barrels that fire simultaneously. Reduce damage to 1d10 piercing if fired with only one or two barrels loaded, and reduce Misfire rating to the number of barrels loaded when using. On a Misfire, the unmodified number rolled on the d20 indicates the number of barrels that are fouled; others remain usable.
• Volley Gun: Ball • Shot. A long arm with five barrels arranged in a cluster, all of which fire simultaneously. Expensive and time-consuming to load and use at full effect. Reduce damage to 2d10 piercing if fired with only three or four barrels loaded, and 1d10 piercing if fired with only one or two barrels loaded; reduce the Misfire rating to the number of barrels loaded when using. On a Misfire, the unmodified number rolled on the d20 indicates the number of barrels that are fouled; others remain usable.

Other Equipment

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Item	Cost	Weight
Aiming lenses	500 gp	1 lb.
Bomb, petard	250 gp	4 lb.
Loads, ball paper cartridge (10)	15 gp	2 lb.
Loads, shot paper cartridge (10)	15 gp	2 lb.
Modification, open bore	0 gp	+0 lb.
Modification, rifled bore	250 gp	+0 lb.
Modification, second barrel	250 gp	+1 or +2 lb.

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Acknowledgements

This page adapts a great deal of material from the Comprehensive Equipment Manual, Revised 3.0, from the DM's Guild.