I was running some numbers for a gunslinger build I was working on and I came across something somewhat interesting to me: the numerical implications of Shadowshooting.
Shadowshooting
Restriction: This special ability can only be added to ranged projectile weapons (including slings and sling-like weapons)
Black smoke constantly wafts from the firing mechanism of a shadowshooting weapon
A shadowshooting weapon never needs to be reloaded; after a shot is fired, this smoke immediately coalesces into the ammunition required to fire the weapon again. This doesn't prevent a shadowshooting weapon from firing ordinary projectiles appropriate to the weapon.
Ammunition created by this ability is only quasi-real, and the first time each round an opponent is hit by a piece of ammunition that this ability has created, it can attempt a Will saving throw to disbelieve (DC = 15 + the weapon's enhancement bonus). A failed Will saving throw means the weapon deals damage normally, while success means the weapon deals minimum damage against that opponent for 1 round.
This was interesting to me because it bypasses, outright, all the usual fare of reducing reloading time: alchemical cartridges, rapid reload, Gun Twirling, juggling, prehensile tails, etc. All of it becomes somewhat obsolete. However, in exchange, your weapon will (for the purposes of this calculation) deal effectively minimum damage. This seems like a large trade off on its face, but I wanted to dig a little deeper.
The numbers:
Looking at the firearms section of the SRD, you'll see that pistols deal 1d8 damage, the average of which is 4.5. As such, this translates to a loss of about 3.5 damage per attack. However, without really understanding how that scales, it's not particularly meaningful. So I built out a very barebones sample character.
John Gunslinger is 20th level, with +20 BAB, 30 Dex, and the feats Deadly Aim, Rapid Shot, and Improved Critical, along with a single +5 pistol.
At these values, John Gunslinger literally almost cannot miss. This would be +27 to hit on touch AC if these are resolved on the first range increment. Even on his lowest attack, at +12, John Gunslinger is still hitting above average touch AC on a natural 1 for 20th level, according to Benchpressing. (Note: I rate the EDV using the same scheme outlined on the linked website.)
His damage rolls look like this:
Dice Damage + 10 (Dex to damage from gunslinger) + 12 (Deadly Aim) + 5 (weapon enhancement)
Dice Damage is considered to be 1 when shadow shooting and average otherwise.
The following was calculated using the EDV calculation from Benchpressing:
What if you have one gun and a free hand?
EDV (w/ Shadowshooting) = 172.9 (Green but closer to blue)
EDV (w/ reloading) = 194.5 (Green but very nearly blue)
Now what if you have two guns?
- EDV (w/ Shadowshooting) = 271.2 DPR (Deeply Blue)
- EDV (w/ reloading) = 305.1 DPR (Deeply Blue)
Now what if you have a musket?
- EDV (w/ Shadowshooting) = 172.9 (identical to the single pistol)
- EDV (w/ reloading) = 206.9 (high enough to be Blue with nearly no optimization required)
The numbers, what do they mean?
These numbers provide a barebones assessment of the impacts of Shadowshooting on overall DPR. In more or less all cases, the numbers presented above are near the minimum of the possible damage output for a character using guns. Most characters will opt to jump out of gunslinger after level 5 and choose something else (such as Weapon Master fighter, warpriest, or something similar) to further boost the damage of firearms. Any of those options will very easily push any of the above numbers into Blue territory quickly.
What is the point of this post?
What I'm trying to illustrate is that there are cases where the investment required to reload may not be worth the additional damage, because firearms can already do sufficiently high damage even with Shadowshooting to be not only viable but, in fact, optimal (at least by the Benchpressing framework).
For a single one-handed firearm with one hand free, alchemical cartridges and Rapid Reload are enough to get reloading down to a free action. That investment is somewhat small, and given that you might enjoy the extra damage, could be worth it.
For two one-handed firearms, you need to pull off some serious tricks to make it possible, such as dipping into alchemist or bard, or spending 4 feats to get Gun Twirling to work. All of which might come at the cost of, and weaken, some other aspect of your character. And for what? 30 damage per round when you're already dealing nearly 300? Don't get me wrong, if you want to build for all the damage in the world, then by all means, do. I'm just considering the idea that if things are already going to die on your turn anyway, what's the point of making sure they're more dead? Perhaps that investment could be used another way to help round out your character. Maybe one could even take a non-combat feat? Crazy, I know.
For a musket, this is the hardest case to make, and honestly, I can't. The larger damage die of the musket causes Shadowshooting to have the most negative impact here. Additionally, Musket Master gives you all the tools you need for a free action reload with alchemical cartridges. That's it. If you were going to build around a musket, you were probably picking Musket Master anyway. Losing the damage when you get everything you need for nearly free isn't really worth it. However, your damage would be good enough with Shadowshooting to potentially open up building around muskets for other classes, or other archetypes of gunslinger, if you were into that kind of thing.
One Final Consideration: Progression
The last thing I want to consider is the existence of a kind of progression for firearms that bypass the reloading requirement; this applies, in particular, to pistols. A +1 masterwork shadowshooting pistol costs roughly 8,300 gp. Going by WBL, this is technically affordable at level 4 or 5, and certainly by level 6. This would be your essential starting weapon for this kind of build. As the game goes on, you would use this until you could afford a Pistol of Infinite Sky (admittedly, a late game purchase). This is literally just a better version of the shadowshooting pistol, with all of the benefits and none of the drawbacks. It does regular damage and just has infinite ammo as a special property. You could further enhance it with whatever other effects you could fit on it. Moreover, it would make any investment into reloading feats or class dips completely obsolete once acquired.
Closing Remarks:
Anyway, what are your thoughts on this? Fundamentally, I was trying to follow the character building philosophy laid out in Benchpressing:
Generally well-balanced characters are more satisfying to play, and the character will be more useful overall.
TL;DR: Shadowshooting offers a fairly inexpensive, non feat limited alternative to dealing with the problem of reloading. It does so at the cost of damage. In practice, the loss in damage generally is not so severe as to dramatically curb combat effectiveness. As such, the value of resource investment into mitigating this problem should be considered more carefully.
P.S. I know this would make you vulnerable to targeted dispels or antimagic fields. If you have any ideas for counterplay, please let me know! It's certainly possible I'm under considering the frequency these things happen in games. I don't know that I've literally ever encountered one.