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 adds the Blast property to the weapon's attack.

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

New Properties: The following are new Properties for firearms:

• Ballistic: The weapon uses ammunition to fire, and must be loaded with ammunition to fire with that barrel; reloading a barrel of a gun takes an action or a bonus action. The first number in parentheses lists the maximum normal range for firing the firearm; the second is the maximum long range distance. Attacks made within long range suffer disadvantage on the attack.
• Blast: When making an attack with this weapon, you may make the attack at advantage if it is within normal range. If it is within long range, you may instead designate a secondary target within 5 feet of the primary target, and apply your attack and damage roll to both. You must choose both targets before rolling to hit. Attacks with this property do not apply your ability modifier to damage unless the modifier is negative, and they are not subtle or precise enough to qualify Sneak Attack or similar effects.
• Handgun: A small gun easily wielded in close combat; a firearm with this property does not suffer disadvantage for its use when a hostile creature is within 5 feet.
• Misfire (x): If your attack roll before modifiers results in the number listed in the parentheses of this Property, the barrel of the weapon becomes fouled, rendering it inoperable until it is cleaned and recharged, taking fifteen minutes and the use of tinker's tools. Weapons with the Misfire property also become fouled if the weapon is submerged while loaded. If a weapon misfires while you have disadvantage, and both dice are within the misfire range, the weapon explodes, inflicting its damage on all creatures within 5 feet of the weapon, and destroying it.

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

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.

• Aiming Lenses: A set of ground glass lenses enclosed in a tube and affixed to the top of a firearm with the Two-Handed property. By spending a bonus action to sight through them, it negates the disadvantage for firing into the long range of the weapon, as long as you perform no movement or other actions between aiming and firing. Lenses can be added to a weapon using tinker's tools, requiring one one hour of work (which may be performed during a short rest). To properly calibrate the lenses and the weapon's shot, ten shots must be fired from the weapon, reduced by the firer's Wisdom bonus + Proficiency bonus.
• Bomb, Petard: A steel plate with a flat bomb on one side, and a pair of folding legs on the other. By spending an action to set up, you can set the fuse to burn for any period of up to 10 rounds. The DM rolls initiative for it, igniting it on that initiative count on the round the fuse determines. Upon detonation, the petard inflicts 7d6 force damage on a creature or object in contact with it, ignoring the damage threshold for a normal wall or door.
• Modification, open bore barrel: The gun's barrel is widened and smoothed. Reduce the Misfire rating of the weapon by 1. Incompatible with rifled bore barrels.
• Modification, rifled bore barrel: The gun's barrel is grooved in a spiral to create spin on weapons fired from it. When firing ball ammunition, both range increments are increased by a distance equal to half its normal range increment. Incompatible with open bore barrels.
• Modification, second barrel: The firearm was crafted with a second barrel, which can be fired separately from the main barrel. Cannot be used for firearms with multiple barrels as part of their base construction.

Acknowledgements

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