Pathfinder Gunslinger v.2

Paizo has released a revised playtest of the Gunslinger class for the upcoming Ultimate Combat release. Most of the changes seem fairly cosmetic. Notably, the class is now a base class rather than an alternate fighter class, but given how different the two classes were to begin with, it didn't seem as though the ability to alternate fighter and gunslinger levels freely was going to be very attractive anyway. The biggest change, as far I can see, is how they dealt with problem of really expensive guns in the hands of really low level characters. A 1st-level gunslinger with a 1,500 gp musket is asking for trouble. The solution the designers decided upon was to give a starting gunslinger a broken gun that only the character himself is able to use properly. To others (except those with the Gunsmithing feat who could fix the gun), the broken gun is just scrap metal. Not the most elegant solution, but probably the only way to keep guns expensive, while still allowing a low level character to own one.

Not surprisingly, the firearm rules themselves are largely unchanged. The design team made it clear with the original playtest that the firearm rules were not subject to playtest. So, the rule about guns being used against touch AC remains as do all the potential pitfalls associated with it. They have added an expanded list of guns to choose from, including advanced guns such as revolvers and rifles. While I have no problem with 15th-century matchlocks showing up in my fantasy rpgs, I'm less enamoured with the idea of 19th-century sixguns. Like everything, it's up to the DM, but I would certainly keep guns fairly low-tech in any game I was running.

-Rognar-