Not about liking the equipment. I love kitting out mooks in unique and underutilized equipment. Believe it or not, there is already more armor in 3.5 than your house rules give. I love "brute squads" and garbage militiamen joining the fights and it's even better when they start pulling out silly weapons and wear armor no PC would want to use.
Avoiding damage is not something casters have a hard time doing. Something as simple as Fog Cloud lets a caster follow up with AoE debuffs that don't need sight or attack rolls, or just plain damage if you want to go that route. There are many, many ways for a caster to overcome Energy Resistance, as well. Or just use spells that don't allow for it.
The guns help in a straight damage fight or a fight where they already have the advantage but don't anything to prevent something like Stinking Cloud. It's already not difficult to dish over 100 damage per round.
That's not the solution to casters. Armor as ER and the
shield buff is.
Most NPCs, notably those in 99% of Modules and Monster Listings, use the Elite Array. 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8
A combat-focused 5th level NPC would likely have a strength of 14-16.
Besides, there are dozens of ways to get something other than Strength to damage.
Yes.
Functionally, yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes. Or they just not use ammunition.
Not dozens of times per round, but yes.
I'll say it again:
Your guns are big 'ol blocks of numbers that can throw dice at things. That is not unique. The guaranteed hit musket ball is the most unique item, but that can still be potentially defeated by things like Wind Wall and is not a common solution due to price.
Well, now that's just shootin' yourself in the foot.
Your houserules definitely end up making humanoids the top dogs, defeating many unmodified and unintelligent Monster Manual threats as well as low-op, under-equipped NPCs with relative ease. But it becomes very questionable once the players get involved.
I showed you what an Iconic character does with your numbers, and Iconic character builds are pretty laughable. I feel like you did test them in private on your own, but that, and I hate when I say things like this, that "your own" is a very small section of the system as a whole.
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But at the same time, the weapon improvements help martials kill casters faster. Especially the presence of long-ranged firearms with fast attack rates, once those get brought out they can shoot casters out of the sky really quickly. It's not hard to dish out ~100 damage per round. |
The guns help in a straight damage fight or a fight where they already have the advantage but don't anything to prevent something like Stinking Cloud. It's already not difficult to dish over 100 damage per round.
That's not the solution to casters. Armor as ER and the
I'll also use this moment to bug you about the Buckler nerf. There are some historical bucklers that used the D&D style "free hand" shield. They were mostly used by archers on their bow-holding arm, but not seen in footsoldiers. Might I suggest doing two things? Making bucklers able to bash, as that was half their intended purpose and to add a Archer's/Gunner's shield similar to D&D's original buckler. |
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I meant the strength bonus is a thing they wouldn't get, so I picked 14 as an average. Also, most NPCs don't have PC strength scores, 14 is actually pretty standard for a 5th level NPC. |
A combat-focused 5th level NPC would likely have a strength of 14-16.
Besides, there are dozens of ways to get something other than Strength to damage.
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And can your bow get a 300ft range increment? Because a rifle can. |
Functionally, yes.
Yes.
Yes.
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is reusable? Because there are musket balls with that ability. |
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Or maybe you have a crossbow that can hit literally dozens of times per round and almost immediately destroy any target without serious DR? A repeating shotgun can do that. |
I'll say it again:
Your guns are big 'ol blocks of numbers that can throw dice at things. That is not unique. The guaranteed hit musket ball is the most unique item, but that can still be potentially defeated by things like Wind Wall and is not a common solution due to price.
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I have zero interest in ever doing anything on those forums with that community again as long as I live. I have one ongoing game there, and beyond that I am done with the lot of them. |
Your houserules definitely end up making humanoids the top dogs, defeating many unmodified and unintelligent Monster Manual threats as well as low-op, under-equipped NPCs with relative ease. But it becomes very questionable once the players get involved.
I showed you what an Iconic character does with your numbers, and Iconic character builds are pretty laughable. I feel like you did test them in private on your own, but that, and I hate when I say things like this, that "your own" is a very small section of the system as a whole.