Introduction
Published in Complete Gunslinger from Mage Hand Press, the Gunslinger is a martial class built around using firearms. With an expanded menu of weapon options, the Gunslinger is a versatile Striker capable of dealing out a lot of damage at range. The large list of subclasses offers a lot of diversity within builds, allowing you to explore many firearm-based character fantasies.
In a party, the Gunslinger fills a role closest to the Rogue, and has similar Dexterity-based skills. However, without Expertise, you won’t match the Ranger or Rogue’s actual skill capabilities. Adding feats like Skilled or Skill Expert can close that gap if you feel the need.
Because the class is built around the selection of new weapons included in Complete Gunslinger, your choice of weapon will have a huge impact on your experience with the class. See the weapons section, below.
This article is written for the 2024 DnD version of the Gunslinger, which has been significantly updated compared to the original print version in Valda’s Spire of Secrets. The full class and 3 of the 14 available subclasses are available for free from its creators at Mage Hand Press, with the other 11 available in Complete Gunslinger. The Gunslinger is also available for purchase on DnDBeyond.
The team at Mage Hand Press provided review materials for this article.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Disclaimer
- New Firearms
- Mage Hand Press Gunslinger Class Features
- Mage Hand Press Gunslinger Backgrounds
- Mage Hand Press Gunslinger Species
- Mage Hand Press Gunslinger Ability Scores
- Mage Hand Press Gunslinger Skills
- Mage Hand Press Gunslinger Feats
- Mage Hand Press Gunslinger Weapons
- Mage Hand Press Gunslinger Armor
- Mage Hand Press Gunslinger Multiclassing
- Example Build – Yosemite Samwise, Pistolero Gunslinger
Disclaimer
RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks, which is simple to understand and easy to read at a glance.
- : Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
- : OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances. Useful sometimes.
- : Good options. Useful often.
- : Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character. Useful very frequently.
We will not include 3rd-party content, including content from DMs Guild, in handbooks for official content because we can’t assume that your game will allow 3rd-party content or homebrew. We also won’t cover Unearthed Arcana content because it’s not finalized, and we can’t guarantee that it will be available to you in your games.
The advice offered below is based on the current State of the 2014 DnD 5e Character Optimization Meta as of when the article was last updated. Keep in mind that the state of the meta periodically changes as new source materials are released, and the article will be updated accordingly as time allows.
New Firearms
Page 295 of Valdar’s Spire of Secrets introduces Mage Hand Press’s rules for firearms in DnD 5e. They’re considerably more involved than the firearms in the official rulebooks. I have very briefly summarised some key points below.
- Firearms don’t add your ability modifier to damage, but generally do more damage than other weapons
- Two-weapon fighting imposes a -2 damage penalty on the off-hand attack
- Firearm proficiencies are separate from conventional Simple/Martial weapon proficiencies
- Firearms are divined by era: Rennaissance (black powder muskets), industrial age (shotguns, rifles, revolvers), and modern (automatic weapons). More advanced weapons will have better range and properties, but the damage scale is the same across eras
- Some weapons use the “Reload” property, which requires them to be loaded as a Bonus Action, and Action, or potentially multiple Actions for some weapons
Page 295 of Valda’s Spire of Secrets introduces Mage Hand Press’s rules for firearms in DnD 5e. They’re considerably more involved than the firearms in the official rulebooks. I have very briefly summarised some key points below.
Mage Hand Press Gunslinger Class Features
: d8 hit points is standard for Strikers like the Ranger and the Rogue. The Gun Tank subclass gets bonus hit points to bring them in line with d10 classes like the Fighter.
: Dexterity and Charisma.
: 2 skills from decent list, simple weapons, ranged martial weapons (bows, firearms, etc.), and light armor. Many subclasses add additional skill, armor, and weapon proficiencies, such as the Gun Tank adding proficiency in medium and heavy armor.
Beyond just their proficiencies, Gunslingers can use their Risk Dice to boost failed mental saves and they gain Evasion at level 7, so their saves are unusually good.
1. : Always excellent. The Fighting Style options aren’t included in Complete Gunslinger, so check DnDBeyond.
The Gunslinger gets one interesting variation on Fighting Style compared to other classes which get Fighting Style feats: “If you choose a feat, such as Great Weapon Fighting, that requires you to hold a Melee weapon in one or two hands, you can use that feat with Ranged weapons.”
- : +2 to hit is literally always great.
- : Blindsight is really good, but the short range isn’t enough to support using firearms at range. The Gunslinger’s Risk feature also provides a maneuver called Blindfire that gives you temporary Blindsight.
- : +1 AC is always good.
- : The Gunslinger’s special version of Fighting Style makes this work with ranged weapons, allowing you to use it with pistols and other one-handed firearms.
- : The math on the rerolls isn’t great. Archery will have a much more consistent impact.
- : Gunslingers are not built to defend allies this way.
- : Gunslingers are not proficient in shields.
- : Please do not throw the firearms.
- : The Firearm
property on the Firearms presented in Complete Gunslinger states “You don’t
add your ability modifier to the weapon’s damage, unless otherwise stated.”
Well, here’s Two-Weapon Fighting stating otherwise.
Unfortunately, none of the firearms have the Nick property, so you’re committing your Bonus Action to two-weapon fighting if you go this route.
- : Absolutely not.
1. : Advantage on initiative rolls is consistently useful. The second portion of the feature allows you to draw or stow twice as many weapons as normal. The 2024 DnD rules let you equip or unequip one weapon before or after each attack made as part of the Attack action. Combined with Quick Draw, you can quickly cycle through pistols, allowing you to easily ignore the Loading property because the Loading property doesn’t actually force you to reload for some reason (not Mage Hand Press’s fault; that’s been in the core 5e rules since 2014).
1. : Always fantastic, but you only get two and they can only be with ranged weapons. But you’re playing a Gunslinger, so I don’t think you’re here for knives or swords or whatever.
2. : Many of the Gunslinger’s features trigger on a crit, so a larger crit range is a massive buff. On a normal attack roll, you crit 10% of the time. If you have Advantage, it’s 19% (just under 1 in 5). And then it continues to get better, improving your crit range further at levels 9 and 17.
| Crit Range | Crit Chance | w/ Advantage | w/ Disadvantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | 5% | 9.75% | 0.25% |
| 19+ | 10% | 19% | 1% |
| 18+ | 15% | 27.75% | 2.25% |
| 17+ | 20% | 36% | 4% |
2. : Risk is basically the Battle Master Fighter’s Maneuvers. You get a pool of dice which grows in number and size as you level, allowing you to spend those dice for various effects. Unlike the Battle Master, you don’t need to pick options to learn; you just get all of them.
- : Simple, reliable, good scaling.
- : Only situationally useful, but a great counter to invisible enemies, magical darkness, or anything else that blocks vision.
- : Great for getting out of melee. If you’re using anything except Renaissance Era firearms, you’re going to run into the Reload property and you’ll typically use a Bonus Action to reload. Dodge Roll lets you reload at the same time, so you’re not giving up the opportunity to reload in order to get out of melee.
- : Unless you absolutely and desperately need to do just a little bit of damage, this isn’t worth the die.
- : An absolutely fantastic defense. Not that it works once per turn, not once per round.
- : Fantastic, but definitely risky. The narrower the miss, the more likely this is to work. Be careful not to burn through all of your dice in a hurry.
Subclass: 3 of the Gunslinger’s subclasses are available for free; the remaining 11 are available in Complete Gunner. They are summarize very briefly below.
- Big Game Hunter: Get a unique Elephant Gun with scaling damage dice and make single, big attacks each turn. Be sure to grab Blaster Master; even with the large die size, the odds of rolling doubles grows significantly as you add dice. Once you’re rolling 6d10, you have a roughly 85% chance of rolling doubles. Also grab Savage Attacker, Piercer, and Marksman’s Luck to give you ways to reroll dice and maximize both your damage rolls and your odds of rolling doubles.
- Deadeye: Accurate and deadly, the Deadeye fares best when attacking while hidden and at long range.
- Grenadier: Give every weapon the Explosive Weapon Mastery and make your explosions bigger, better, and different damage types.
- Gun Tank: Wear heavy armor, use Strength to attack with firearms, and use any weapon as though it had the Mounted Weapon Mastery to increase the size of the damage dice. You’ll move slowly, but you’ll be very durable and deal more damage than most Gunslingers.
- Gun-Ko Master: A bit of the Monk’s flavor, allowing you to fight safely in melee and run on walls.
- High Roller: Lean into Risk mechanics with the ability to easily regenerate Risk Dice, plus you get to lie to your DM about your damage dice with a fun bluff mechanic.
- Laserist: Do cool stuff with futuristic weapons like fusing two weapons together, overcharging your shots for extra damage, and firing lasers as a line AOE instead of an attack.
- Musketeer: Affix bayonets and support your allies. You get a combination of features to use firearms in melee using a bayonet and some features to buff your allies.
- Pistolero: Shoot fast, shoot first. The Pistolero is simple and reliable. The function best with a pistol, but they’re not locked into using one-handed firearms exclusively despite their name.
- Secret Agent: Focused primarily on skills and getting themselves out of danger, the Secret Agent makes it easy to fill skill-based rolls like Scout or Face.
- Space Cowboy: Despite the name, the Space Cowboy doesn’t care about space or cowboys. Instead, you name your gun and make it super amazing.
- Spellslinger: Intermingle Wizard spellcasting with firearms. Don’t worry, you get Finger Guns for free! Also, really good at fighting enemies with magic buffs.
- Trick Shot: Do tricky stuff like ignoring partial cover, rerolling missed attacks, and bouncing shots between multiple enemies.
- White Hat: Protect your allies and incapacitate your enemies by demanding surrender when you crit them.
5. : Excellent. The Loading property will be a problem with Renaissance Era firearms, but you can get around that by changing weapons mid-Action.
5. : A massive and crippling debuff for most enemies.
7. : A fantastic defensive option.
11. : By now your ability modifier is likely +4 or +5, so this is a huge damage boost with firearms that have the Firearm property (Renaissance Era weapons do not). If you’re already applying your ability modifier, such as from Fighting Style (Two-Weapon Fighting) or with a Renaissance Era firearm, you’ll get an extra 1d8 damage, which is nice.
13. :
15. : 19% of your attacks will crit, so you’ll regenerate Risk Dice decently often. Not constantly, but enough that it will feel good.
18. : This lets you take an additional Bonus Action, but you can only use it for maneuvers. You could use your regular Bonus Action for things like two-weapon fighting, then use this for maneuvers, or you could use two maneuvers in the same turn.
19. : Always amazing.
20. : Either one-shot an enemy or drop a big pile of extra damage.
Mage Hand Press Gunslinger Backgrounds
For information and advice regarding Origin Feats, including those granted by your Background, see the Gunslinger Feats section below.
- (PHB): Bad ability scores, bad skills, and Magic Initiate (Cleric) offers nothing that we want.
- (PHB): The ability scores can work for a Spellslinger, but the Crafter feat is terrible.
- (PHB): If you want to play a Face, the Charlatan is perfect. You can put +1 into Dex/Con/Cha and use Skilled to pick up additional skills, allowing you to cover both Face and Scout skills.
- (PHB): Great ability scores, Alert is great, and great proficiencies if you’re serving as your party’s Scout.
- (PHB): Awful skills, but the ability scores work and the Musician feat is great.
- (PHB): The skills are bad, but otherwise this is perfect for the Gun Tank.
- (PHB): Criminal provides better benefits.
- (PHB): The ability scores are good and the skills are okay, but Magic Initiate (Druid) offers very little that the Gunslinger wants.
- (PHB): No increases to Strength, Dexterity, or Intelligence, and the Healer feat doesn’t do anything for us.
- (PHB): You could make this work for a Spellslinger, but Sage is much easier.
- (PHB): If you want Skilled, Charlatan and scribe fit much better.
- (PHB): Perfect for the Spellslinger. Magic Initiate (Wizard) at level 1 means that you don’t need to limp along using regular firearms until you reach level 3.
- (PHB): You are not going to use Tavern Brawler.
- (PHB): Two good skills, the Skilled feat, and you can take increases in Dexterity and Wisdom. The go-to choice if you’re filling in for a Rogue in the party.
- (PHB): Dexterity and Constitution increases, plus Savage Attacker, but the skills are poor for the Gunslinger.
- (PHB): Good skills and Thieves’ Tools proficiency, plus Lucky is always a good feat.
Mage Hand Press Gunslinger Species
- (PHB): A solid choice, but no specific exciting combos here.
- (PHB): Draconic Flight is great for a class built to fight at range, and the breath weapon gives you a passable option if enemies get too close.
- (PHB): Nice and durable. A great choice for the Gun Tank, but still a good choice for any Gunslinger.
- (PHB): High Elf is a natural choice for the Spellslinger. You can get Finger Guns at level 1, then replace the High Elf Cantrip when you hit level 3 and get it for free.
- (PHB): With Gnomish Cunning and Maverick Spirit your mental saves are excellent, but that’s the only value here.
- (PHB): Giant Ancestry is fantastic and the attack options work with ranged attacks.
- (PHB): Lucky is fantastic for weapons with the Automatic Weapon Mastery and for the Pistolero’s Fan the Hammer, but unremarkable if you’re not using either of those options.
- (PHB): Several Origin Feats work really well for the Gunslinger. Savage Attacker is the obvious go-to choice. If you already get that, Alert is a great choice.
- (PHB): Not bad, but Adrenaline Rush is redundant with Bite the Bullet and Dodge Roll.
- (PHB): A Spellslinger can make the Tiefling’s spellcasting worthwhile, but the High Elf is an easier choice if you’re starting below level 3.
Mage Hand Press Gunslinger Ability Scores
Typical Gunslinger
The Gunslinger’s ability scores most closely resemble the Rogue.
: Dump.
: Attacks, damage, AC, saves, skills.
: Always essential.
: Dump.
: Important skills and saves.
: Safe to dump, but the Gunslinger can get all of the skills you want to be a Face, so you might take some Charisma to support that.
| Point Buy | Standard Array | |
|---|---|---|
| Str | 8 | 8 |
| Dex | 15 | 15 |
| Con | 15 | 14 |
| Int | 8 | 10 |
| Wis | 14 | 13 |
| Cha | 10 | 12 |
Gun Tank
Proficiency in heavy armor and the ability to make attacks using Strength offer some opportunities not available to other Gunslingers.
: Attacks, damage, grapple, shove, and remove the speed penalty from your heavy armor.
: You need 13 to avoid Disadvantage on attack rolls with ranged weapons with the Heavy property.
: Always essential.
: Dump.
: Important skills and saves.
: Dump. Since you need more ability scores than a typical Gunslinger, you can’t make space for Charisma.
| Point Buy | Standard Array | |
|---|---|---|
| Str | 15 | 15 |
| Dex | 13 | 13 |
| Con | 14 | 14 |
| Int | 8 | 8 |
| Wis | 13 | 12 |
| Cha | 9 | 10 |
Spellslinger
Finger Guns is the Spellslinger’s primary weapon, and it allows you to attack with your Spellcasting Ability, so you can go all-in on Intelligence.
: Dump.
: Still essential for AC, saves, and skills.
: Always essential.
: Use Finger Guns and True Strike.
: You likely can’t afford much, but don’t dump it because Wisdom saves are still important.
: Dump. Since you need more ability scores than a typical Gunslinger, you can’t make space for Charisma.
| Point Buy | Standard Array | |
|---|---|---|
| Str | 8 | 8 |
| Dex | 15 | 14 |
| Con | 14 | 13 |
| Int | 15 | 15 |
| Wis | 10 | 12 |
| Cha | 8 | 10 |
Mage Hand Press Gunslinger Skills
- (Dex): Potentially useful for escaping grapples since most Gunslingers don’t have any other option.
- (Wis): Nearly useless.
- (Int): Viable for the Spellslinger.
- (Str): Potentially useful for the Gun Tank, but useless for other Gunslingers.
- (Cha): Helpful if you’re playing your party’s Face, but you may not have enough skills to pck it up.
- (Int): Viable for the Spellslinger.
- (Wis): Useful for a Face.
- (Cha): Helpful if you’re playing your party’s Face, but you may not have enough skills to pck it up.
- (Int): Viable for the Spellslinger.
- (Wis): This skill is useless. Medicine is best done magically.
- (Int): Viable for the Spellslinger.
- (Wis): The best skill in the game.
- (Cha): Borderline useless.
- (Cha): Essential if you have the skills to be your party’s Face.
- (Int): Viable for the Spellslinger.
- (Dex): Traps, locks, pockets.
- (Dex): An easy choice for the majority of Gunslingers.
- (Wis): Too situational.
Mage Hand Press Gunslinger Feats
This section does not address every published feat, as doing so would result in an ever-growing list of options which don’t cater to the class. Instead, this section will cover feats which we think work especially well for the class or which might be tempting but poor choices. For more specific advice on individual feats, see our 2024 DnD Feat Guides.
- : This feat is at its best
with Futuristic firearms which usually have the Cooldown property. For those
weapons, this is the equivalent of the Gunner feat. For other firearms,
you’re only here for Blaster Roulette. It’s an exciting feature, but doubles
are rare and unpredictable, so this won’t be consistently impactful. Your
best bet is weapons like the parlor gun and the antimatter pistol which
deald 2d4 damage, maximizing your odds of rolling doubles to 1 in 4. Run and
Gun is also neat, but only situationally useful.
According to Michael Holik, one of the designers on Complete Gunslinger, Blaster Master’s Blaster Roulette is intended to only work with the weapon’s damage dice. Additional dice from sources like Hunter’s Mark aren’t intended to work for Blaster Roulette. Additional weapon damage dice rolled when you score a critical hit still count, though!
Note that Renaissance Era firearms only roll one damage die, so this feat is nearly non-functional with those weapons.
- : Not especially useful for the Gunslinger, Gune-Mage Adept gives other classes just a little taste of being a Gunslinger.
-
(TCoE): Essential
if you plan to use rennaissance era firearms and if magic items are an
option, but the ability to juggle weapons means that circumventing the
Loading property is less of a challenge in the 2024 DnD rules.
I spoke to Michael Holik, one of the designers on Complete Gunslinger, about the interaction with the Gunner feat. Gunner wasn’t considered while designing the Gunslinger, which is understandable since 3rd-party creators can’t include anything not published in the SRD. Michael and I both agree that Gunner doesn’t introduce any problems.
In my opinion, it brings Renaissance firearms more in line with Industrial Era firearms, which are the baseline for the Gunslinger anyway. There are a handful of more advanced weapons with the Loading property which will interact with Gunner, but negating the Loading property can also be handled by juggling weapons, so Gunner still isn’t suddenly making those weapons too powerful.
- (PHB): The damage bonus from Heavy Weapon Master isn’t limited to Strength-based or melee weapons. You can use it with any two-handed weapon, so it works with muskets, rifles, cannons, etc.
- : Only situationally useful, but excellent in boss fights, which is where you need to be at your best.
- (VSoS): This is a mathematically clever feat which takes advantage of how most dice are designed: the lower your roll, the higher the number on the opposite face. Markman’s Luck lets you flip the die over to the higher value once per turn, which is considerably more reliably than most damage die rerolls.
- (PHB): Most firearms (exclusive Futuristic firearms) deal Piercing damage, plus Gunslingers get a huge crit range, making Piercer a simple and reliable damage boost.
- (PHB): If you’re not using Renaissance weapons, you’re not adding your ability modifier to damage. That makes you entirely dependent on dice rolls, which means that Savage Attacker is dramatically more impactful.
- (PHB): Sharpshooter doesn’t come with the damage damage bonus that it did in the
Mage Hand Press Gunslinger Weapons
The Gunslinger is proficient in simple weapons and ranged martial weapons.
What Firearms are Available to Me?
Much of your experience playing a gunslinger will be defined by what weapons are available to your character. DnD typically assumes a level of technology which had plate armor, but may or may not have firearms depending on how technology advanced in your setting alongside magic. For example: Eberron canonically has no firearms because magic provides a suitable replacement; wands of cantrips fill the same niche that would otherwise be filled by such weapons.
Before playing a Gunslinger, discuss with your DM and your table what era of weapons are available to your character. The 2024 DnD Player’s Handbook includes black powder pistols and muskets, which matches the Renaissance Era firearms included in Complete Gunslinger. Historically, these firearms existed in europe alongside plate armor. But we’re playing a game with wizards and dragons, so there is absolutely no reason to adhere to the real-world timeline of technological advancement. You do not need real-world history as an excuse to include or exclude firearms from your game.
What firearms are available should come down to some combination of internal consistency with your setting and balance concerns. Having ray runs and disintegrators available in ye olde blacksmith shop alongside spears and longswords says things about your setting which might not fit, but maybe your setting had aliens land in the Barrier Peaks and now there are a few high-tech gadgets available and your character happens to have one.
To briefly summarize: You can come up with a passable excuse to include firearms in your setting, and official DnD settings have been doing that since the 1970’s. Pick an era that your table is comfortable with, and read the sections below for discussion of balance concerns.
The Firearm Property
Complete Gunslinger introduces a new Firearm weapon property. Weapons with this property do not add their ability modifier to damage unless otherwise specified. This means that you’re heavily dependent on your damage dice rolls for most firearms, so rerolls from things like Savage Attack and Piercer are unusually useful.
Renaissance Firearms
The 2024 Player’s Handbook includes pistols and muskets. Complete Gunslinger presents a different version of those firearms and adds the blunderbuss to the roster. The pistol and musket presented here are identical to those in the Player’s Handbook.
Weapons in this tier all have the Loading property, which means that you’ll need to juggle multiple weapons or take the Gunner feat from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. The Musketeer subclass also allows you to ignore the Loading property.
From a balance perspective, Renaissance firearms are largely fine. The 2024 Player’s Handbook seems to ignore that the Gunner feat exists within the 2024 rules’ promise of backwards compatibility, but that’s the fault of the official rules, not Complete Gunslinger.
Martial Weapons
- : The Scatter Weapon Mastery allows the you to use the Blunderbuss safely in melee, but otherwise he stats match the musket. Take the Gunner feat or the Musketeer subclass and use literally anything else.
- : The marginally better damage and better range don’t do much to distinguish this from the pistol, but using the Slow mastery and extreme range to keep enemies at a safe distance can be tactically advantageous in open spaces.
- : 1d10 damage is really good for a one-handed weapon and the Vex mastery provides an easy, reliable source of Advantage.
Industrial Firearms
The suggested starting equipment for the Gunslinger includes a revolver, which suggests that industrial firearms are the assumption.
With the exception of the cannon, every weapon in this era has the Reload property. Weapons with this property need to be reloaded as either an Action or a Bonus Action. Check the exact rules text in Complete Gunslinger.
Simple Weapons
- : Built to be used in melee, the double-barrel shotgun is basically a greatsword that you need to reload, but you give up the advantage of a better Weapon Mastery to use it safely in melee. The Revolver has remarkable similarly stats, but slightly better range and a better Weapon Mastery.
- : The selling point here is the Sighted Weapon Mastery, which provides some insurance against low damage rolls. This is great since the Firearm property makes you almost entirely dependent on those dice rolls. However, you’ll struggle to attack at long range in most encounters, so you might rarely benefit from Sighted.
- : The best comparison for the parlor gun is actually the pistol. The parlor gun’s damage is worse and it doesn’t apply your damage modifier, then you swap Loading for Reload (2), which is arguably worse because you’ll need to spend a Bonus Action to reload so frequently. But the parlor gun isn’t without merit: it has the Light property, so you can use it for two-weapon fighting. It’s the only Light firearm in either Renaissance or Industrial, and that alone is worthwhile.
- : The Recoil property is annoying, but most fights take place within or close to 30 feet, so you can make it work, especially if you run in and out of range.
Martial Weapons
- : Incredible range and high damage, but the only weapon in this era with the Loading property, so you’ll need to juggle weapons or take the Gunner feat. The Explosion Weapon Mastery allows you to make an area attack instead of a regular attack, which is fantastic if you catch two enemies adjacent to each other or if you’re facing an enemy with a ton of armor.
- : The Automatic Weapon Master is the key selling point of the gatling gun, but it’s a hard choice for the Gunslinger. Because so many of your class features depend on critical hits, rolling with guaranteed Disadvantage is a huge problem. You might occasionally find this useful against enemies with poor AC and a ton of hit points (beasts typically have AC no higher than 14), but that becomes less useful as you gain levels.
- : A revolver with slightly better damage. At 2d8 it’s the highest damage in this era of technology.
Modern Firearms
A few of the Modern firearms are direct upgrades to Industrial Era firearms, but the damage isn’t any better. The biggest improvement is that Modern weapons have larger Reload values, allowing you to go longer periods without reloading.
Simple Weapons
- : The sole appeal here is that the flare gun does fire damage instead of normal weapon damage types. Fire resistance and immunity are common, and resistance/immunity to magic weapon damage is functionally nonexistent, so this becomes utterly useless if you can get magic weapons.
- : A direct upgrade from the parlor gun, the hangun has the same damage, the same Light property, the same Vex Weapon Mastery, but upgrades from Reload (2) to Reload (10), allowing you to comfortably navigate most combat encounters before needing to reload.
Martial Weapons
- : Good damage and range, but the Automatic Weapon Mastery is still a problem for the Gunslinger. Because so many of your class features depend on critical hits, rolling with guaranteed Disadvantage is a huge problem. You might occasionally find this useful against enemies with poor AC and a ton of hit points (beasts typically have AC no higher than 14), but that becomes less useful as you gain levels.
- : Worse range than the canon in exchange for losing the Heavy property. Heavy absolutely will not matter unless you’re a Gun Tank and you dumped Dexterity, which you shouldn’t do because the Gun Tank’s other weapons of choice are all Heavy.
- : Matches the best damage available, but only useful because of the Scatter Weapon Mastery. Scatter allows you to use the firearm safely in melee, which is only useful if you intend to fight in melee. Don’t.
- : Great range, but the Loading property will be an issue unless you take the Gunner feat. The Sighted Weapon Mastery is only useful at long range, and with 100 ft. range it’s very hard to have an extended fight at that distance, so you’ll rarely benefit from the sniper rifle’s biggest selling point.
- : The submachine gun starts from the handgun, gets a slightly bigger Reload value, then drops Vex in favor of Automatic. The fantasy here is using two-weapon fighting to spray and pray with a submachine gun in each hand. Once you have Extra Attacks, you can make an impressive 6 attacks per turn this way, though every one of them will be made with Disadvantage.
Futuristic Firearms
Futuristic weapons mostly deal Necrotic or Radiant damage and lose the Reload property of previous eras, but don’t do any more damage than their lower-tech counterparts.
Simple Weapons
- : The direct analog to the handgun and the parlor pistol, the antimatter pistol is identical to the pistol except that it deals necrotic damage.
- : Why would you use this to attack in melee when you could instead use an ion cannon or a blitz cannon to safely make a ranged attack while in melee?
- : Force damage and the only weapon in Complete Gunslinger with the Push Weapon Mastery. It has Cooldown, so you may need to juggle these once you get Extra Attack, but this is no worse than martial weapons available in Complete Gunslinger.
- : Use a blitz cannon instead. It’s identical, but deals better damage.
- : Lightning damage, which is unusual. It also has the Light property, making it fill a similar niche to the antimatter pistol, but the antimatter pistol’s Vex mastery is more consistently impactful than Jolt.
- : Simple and effective. I would rather have this on a Gunslinger than the antimatter carbine.
Martial Weapons
- : Assault rifle, but necrotic damage and no Reload property. The standard caribe is comparable and has a better Weapon Mastery for the Gunslinger.
- : Pump shotgun, but Force damage and no Reload property.
- : Sniper rifle, but force damage.
- : Slightly better damage than antimatter pistol, but a worse Weapon Mastery for the Gunslinger.
- : The best damage available and the Overheat property lets you add your Proficiency Bonus to the damage in exchange for putting the weapon on cooldown until the end of your next turn. Buy 2 (4 once you get Extra Attack) and that’s no longer a problem. You’ll need to juggle them by rapidly equipping and unequipping them when you attack, but in the 2024 DnD rules that’s really not a problem. Act like a space pirate and a get a brace of pistols.
- : Grenade launcher, but it replaces Loading with Cooldown. Like the grenade launcher, the canon is still better.
- : The sole appeal of the REC gun is to use the Mounted Weapon Mastery to use it as a stationary weapon and deal 2d8 damage instead of 2d6. If you want 2d8 damage, there are three other weapons that do that without limiting yourself to a mounted weapon.
- : Typical damage and the Vex mastery. With the Gunslinger’s emphasis on critical hits, this is a go-to choice if you don’t have an easy source of Advantage.
- : Submachine gun, but radiant damage and no Reload property.
Finger Guns
- : Among the best firearms available, especially if you’re at a technology level beyond Futuristic. 2d6 damage matches many firearms, the Slow Weapon Mastery is good, and the range on Finger Guns is good and improves over time. At level 17 it’s the longer-range weapon available, and you never need to reload, which is a luxury only enjoyed by Futuristic firearms. You do still need to cast this as a Bonus Action, and Finger Guns doesn’t have the Light, Heavy, or Two-Handed properties, which all offer useful mechanical interactions. If you don’t need those things, Finger Guns is amazing.
Firearms in the Dungeon Master’s Guide
The 2024 Dungeons Master’s Guide includes a table of additional weapons, including modern and futuristic firearms. These weapons are wildly more powerful than other weapons available in DnD, so I don’t recommend including them in your game.
Mage Hand Press Gunslinger Armor
- : You’ll live in this for your whole career unless you’re a Gun Tank.
Mage Hand Press Gunslinger Multiclassing
This section briefly details some obvious and enticing multiclass options, but doesn’t fully explore the broad range of multiclassing combinations. For more on multiclassing, see our Practical Guide to Multiclassing.
- : Two levels for Infuse Items lets you infuse a gun that reloads itself, plus proficiency in medium armor and shields. Shield, half plate, self-loading pistol.
- : Too focused on melee.
- : Bards get low-level firearm spells like Finger Guns and their skills and Expertise are good choices if you want to play a Face. The Warlock has better options to support you in combat, but the Bard may be more impactful outside of combat.
- : No low-level spells relevant to firearms.
- : Druids get Concealed Shot and Conjure Cover, but none of the other new spells in Complete Gunslinger. Those are both good, but enough to justify the level when you can get that and more from other classes.
- : One level for Fighting Style, two levels for Action Surge, potentially 3 for a subclass like Battle Master.
- : Monks offer very little for ranged combat.
- : Complete Gunslinger introduces the spell Ballistic Smite, but you won’t have enough spell slots to make it worhtwhile.
- : Hunter’s Mark could be a great damage boost, but needing your Bonus Action to load weapons with the Reload property may become an issue if you’re using Industrial Age firearms. Two levels for another Fighting Style is also nice.
- : Two levels for Cunning Action can do a lot for a character build to fight at range. Three levels for Arcane Trickster can get you great spells like Concealed Shot, Conjure Cover, and Finger Guns.
- : No clear synergy here. Warlock and Wizard offer more useful options with comparable spellcasting.
- : Combining the Gunslinger with Pact of the Blade will let you build a Charisma-based Gunslinger. Throw in Darkness and Devil’s Sight and you have free perpetual Advantage on attacks and you can attack at a range long enough that you’re not annoying your allies.
- : The Spellslinger might find value in additional Wizard spellcasting, but they don’t really need it.
Example Build – Yosemite Samwise, Pistolero Gunslinger
What in tarnation?
The Gunslinger evokes the fantasy of bringing your favorite gunslinging characters to the tabletop, and no pistol-wielding character is so iconic as Yosemite Sam, the bearded, revolver-slinging cowboy. Truly a cultural icon that definitely still matters, everyone reading this article surely has fond memories of watching Yosemite Sam on cable and I’m not just old.
“But Tyler,” you might say, “Sam uses two revolvers! And revolvers don’t have Light, so they don’t qualify for two-weapon fighting!” You’re absolutely correct. But having two revolvers means that Sam gets to make a total of 12 shots before he needs to reload, and that he can alternate pistols to get around the Recoil property. Yosemite Sam is optimizing. Be like Yosemite Sam. But also upgrade to magnums for the larger damage dice.
Because Sam uses revolvers, we’re assuming at least industrial era firearms. We’re going to use magnums exclusively (they’re just a higher-caliber revolver), but the pistolero’s features don’t actually care about pistols, with the exception of Fan the Hammer.
This build includes several ways to reroll damage dice, which is fantastic since we’re totally dependent on damage dice until we hit level 11. I’ve included DPR calculations below, but since they don’t account for damage rerolls they’re a pessimistic look at our actual damage output.
Ability Scores
Like any good gunslinger, we’re building around Dexterity and Constitution. We won’t totally dump Charisma because we are proficient in Intimidation and sometimes we need to have disagreements with Bugs Bunny.
| Base | Increased | |
|---|---|---|
| Str | 8 | 8 |
| Dex | 15 | 17 |
| Con | 15 | 16 |
| Int | 8 | 8 |
| Wis | 14 | 14 |
| Cha | 10 | 10 |
Species
Halfling. Yosemite Sam screams dwarf to me, but I think we can get away with halfling. Sam is of small stature, and the Lucky trait is going to be useful for us, especially once we get Fan the Hammer.
Background
Soldier. Sam has been many things in his illustrious and historically impactful career, and at least one of them has been as a soldier. Good enough for me. We’re here for Savage Attacker. We’ll also get ability score increases that we like and a couple of skills.
Skills and Tools
From our class, we’ll select Perception and Stealth. We’ll also get Athletics and Intimidation from our Background, plus proficiency in playing cards as our gaming set of choice, so that we can play poker like a real Wild West desperado.
Feats
At level 1 we take Savage Attacker.
At level 4 we take Piercer and increase Dexterity to 18.
At level 8 we take Marksman’s Luck and increase Dexterity to 19.
At level 12 we take Sharpshooter and increase Dexterity to 20.
At level 16 we take .
At level 19 we take .
Levels
| Level | Feat(s) and Features | Notes and Tactics |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fighting Style: Archery Quick Draw Weapon Mastery – Revolver – Any | Archery applies to firearms, and that +2 to hit is massive. We could go for Fighting Style (Dueling) to get a damage bonus when using a pistol in one hand, but we want the attack bonus so that we’re more likely to hit with Fan the Hammer. Remember to use Savage Attacker. 2d8 with no damage modifier leaves a lot of room to roll low damage, and rolling low on damage when we’re making one attack per turn is almost as bad as missing. DPR: 7.2 (2d8, ignoring rerolls from Savage Attacker) We start just barely into the Target DPR range and fall out at level 2, but Fan the Hammer gets us into a good place and keeps us there. And remember that we’re ignoring Savage Attacker for the purposes of calculating DPR. |
| 2 | Critical Shot (19-20) Risk | Risk lets us use Maneuvers. The dice replenish on a Short Rest, so we’ll get to use quite a few each day. DPR: 7.65 (2d8, crit on 19-20, ignoring rerolls from Savage Attacker) |
| 3 | Pistolero Close-Quarters Shooting Fan the Hammer (maneuver) | Close-Quarters Shooting allows us to fight safely in melee. Well, as safely as we can in light armor with no shield. It’s not a great idea, but at least we don’t have Disadvantage.Fan the Hammer is not a go-to choice. Two more attacks is amazing, but guaranteed Disadvantage means that they’re likely to miss. But against enemies with poor AC and a lot of hit points it’s an easy way to put out damage in a hurry. You won’t crit with these attacks, but Fighting Style (Archery) helps a lot with accuracy. DPR: 17.79 (2d8, Fan the Hammer, crit on 19-20, ignoring rerolls from Savage Attacker)We’re back into Target DPR, but not quite at High DPR. |
| 4 | Feat: Piercer (Dex 17 -> 18) | Massively useful. Rerolling a damage die once per turn isn’t huge, but since we’re relying solely on damage dice, it’s much more useful than it is for other characters. The bonus damage die when we crit it also great since our crit range is unusually large and gets better over time. DPR: 26.23 (2d8, Fan the Hammer, crit on 19-20, Piercer bonus damage, ignoring rerolls from Savage Attacker and Piercer)Piercer is a surprisingly big damage boost, bringing us into High DPR finally. |
| 5 | Extra Attack Gut Shot | Extra Attack significantly increases our damage output. Always nice. Magnums have the Recoil prevents us from making further attacks beyond our short range of 30 feet, but we can live with that. Gut Shot is an amazing debuff. If your target trades an attack to remove the debuff, you’ve negated a bunch of potential damage to you and your allies. If they live with the debuff, half speed and Disadvantage on attacks is massive. Imagine hitting an enemy with this and the Slow Weapon Mastery. If their speed is 30 feet, it’s now 5 feet. DPR: 37.26 (2d8, Extra Attack, Fan the Hammer, crit on 19-20, Piercer bonus damage, ignoring rerolls from Savage Attacker and Piercer) |
| 6 | Disarm | Most enemies in DnD don’t use weapons, but the ones that do tend to be much less threatening once you disarm them. DPR: 37.26 (2d8, Extra Attack, Fan the Hammer, crit on 19-20, Piercer bonus damage, ignoring rerolls from Savage Attacker and Piercer) |
| 7 | Evasion | As with any cool gunslinger, Yosemite Sam is often exposed to explosions at close range. The ability to conveniently avoid harm is essential. If we do fail a save, it could singe our mustache. DPR: 37.26 (2d8, Extra Attack, Fan the Hammer, crit on 19-20, Piercer bonus damage, ignoring rerolls from Savage Attacker and Piercer) |
| 8 | Marksman’s Luck (Dex 18 -> 19) | Marksman’s Luck lets us reverse the value of a low damage die, giving us yet another way to rescue poor damage die rolls. It also lets us drop a target’s speed to 0 on crit, which is always fantastic. Remember that most flying enemies fall when their speed is reduced to 0, so you can crit enemies right out of the sky. DPR: 33.95 (2d8, Extra Attack, Fan the Hammer, crit on 19-20, Piercer bonus damage, ignoring rerolls from Savage Attacker, Piercer, and Marksman’s Luck) Our DPR actually drops a bit at this level because we’re falling behind the Fundamental Math, but remember that we now have a whole bunch of rerolls to recover poor damage rolls, so our damage output is much more complex than the DPR Calculator can account for. |
| 9 | Critical Shot (18-20) | We now crit 27.75% of the time when attacking with advantage, making crits decently frequent. DPR: 35.23 (2d8, Extra Attack, Fan the Hammer, crit on 18-20, Piercer bonus damage, ignoring rerolls from Savage Attacker, Piercer, and Marksman’s Luck) |
| 10 | Showdown (maneuver) | Showdown lets you make an attack before anyone else can. If you hit, the Slow Weapon Mastery will make it hard for your target to get around, and Showdown imposes Disadvantage on their attacks against anyone but you, which can make it hard for enemies to attack effectively. DPR: 35.23 (2d8, Extra Attack, Fan the Hammer, crit on 18-20, Piercer bonus damage, ignoring rerolls from Savage Attacker, Piercer, and Marksman’s Luck) We very briefly fall out of High DPR. |
| 11 | Overkill | We finally add our Ability Modifier to damage! That’s a pretty significant boost to our damage output. DPR: 44.75 (2d8+4, Extra Attack, Fan the Hammer, crit on 18-20, Piercer bonus damage, ignoring rerolls from Savage Attacker, Piercer, and Marksman’s Luck)Back into High DPR! |
| 12 | Feat: Sharpshooter (Dex 19 -> 20) | Sharpshooter lets us ignore partial cover and extends our effective range dramatically. Revolvers are great, but the 30-foot range is definitely limiting. We’re also back on the Fundamental Math! DPR: 51.67 (2d8+5, Extra Attack, Fan the Hammer, crit on 18-20, Piercer bonus damage, ignoring rerolls from Savage Attacker, Piercer, and Marksman’s Luck) |
| 13 | Cheat Death | Cheat Death is perfect for when Bugs Bunny drops an anvil on us. Also for when we’re in a fight and things aren’t going our way. |
| 14 | Bullet Time | I wish this worked with our Fan the Hammer attacks, but free advantage is still nice. DPR: 56.28 (2d8+5, Extra Attack, Advantage on one attack from Bullet Time, Fan the Hammer, crit on 18-20, Piercer bonus damage, ignoring rerolls from Savage Attacker, Piercer, and Marksman’s Luck) |
| 15 | Dire Gambit | Dire Gambit makes our Risk Dice much more abundant. With Advantage, we’re critting on just slightly more than 1 in 4 attacks. With Extra Attack, that’s once every two rounds. We also get a die when we roll initiative, so you could decide that every fight starts with Showdown. DPR: 56.28 (2d8+5, Extra Attack, Advantage on one attack from Bullet Time, Fan the Hammer, crit on 18-20, Piercer bonus damage, ignoring rerolls from Savage Attacker, Piercer, and Marksman’s Luck) |
| 16 | Ability Score Increase: Constitution 16 -> 18 | Not super exciting, but +2 Con is always great. You could also look at feats like Blast Master, Bountiful Luck, or Dual Wielder. DPR: 56.28 (2d8+5, Extra Attack, Advantage on one attack from Bullet Time, Fan the Hammer, crit on 18-20, Piercer bonus damage, ignoring rerolls from Savage Attacker, Piercer, and Marksman’s Luck) |
| 17 | Critical Shot (17-20) | You’re going to crit a lot. DPR: 57.79 (2d8+5, Extra Attack, Advantage on one attack from Bullet Time, Fan the Hammer, crit on 17-20, Piercer bonus damage, ignoring rerolls from Savage Attacker, Piercer, and Marksman’s Luck) |
| 18 | Deft Maneuver | Deft Maneuver gives us an extra Bonus Action every turn which we can only use for Risk Maneuvers, which means that we can use Fan the Hammer twice in one turn! That will complete empty a single magnum, but that’s why we’re wielding two of them. DPR: 79.32 (2d8+5, Extra Attack, Advantage on one attack from Bullet Time, Fan the Hammer twice, crit on 17-20, Piercer bonus damage, ignoring rerolls from Savage Attacker, Piercer, and Marksman’s Luck) |
| 19 | Feat: Boon of Combat Prowess (Dex 20 -> 21) | We’re accustomed to missing a lot of attacks with Fan the Hammer. Boon of Combat Prowess lets us turn one of those missed attacks into a hit. Boon of Irresistible Offense is tempting, but it only applies the damage bonus when you roll a natural 20, not when we crit. DPR: 79.32 (2d8+5, Extra Attack, Advantage on one attack from Bullet Time, Fan the Hammer twice, crit on 17-20, Piercer bonus damage, ignoring rerolls from Savage Attacker, Piercer, and Marksman’s Luck and ignoring the guaranteed hit from Boon of Combat Prowess) |
| 20 | Headshot | Once per short rest, decide that a fight is over 100 hp early. |
