NEW: Steam-arms

Gun goes POOF!

— Justification

Steam Arms

These are the weapons from The United Gnomish Ridge of which word has spread in certain circles. These can propel balls of scalding metal at breakneck speeds, bringing a common foot soldier on par with the deadliest archer. However, these weapons are expensive and are a well-kept secret that hasn't spread far beyond the gnomish borders.   These weapons are fed cartridges - heavy metal cylinders, conical on one side, warm to the touch, and inscribed with gnomish runes - older versions of which combined miniaturized portals to both the Elemental planes of fire and water to create an explosion of steam, but newer versions use crystalized elemental essence. The combination of the elemental fire and water heats and propels the integrated projectile to breakneck speeds. Resulting in a sound resembling the popping of a cork, albeit significantly louder.

Starting With Steam Arms

As these weapons are outside the 5e weapons list, a character can't start with these unless explicitly given permission by the GM. As a general rule, a first-level character may switch out two simple weapons or one martial weapon for either a Steam Pistol or Steam Carbine, provided there is ample explanation of how the character gained these weapons. If this exchange left the character with only the steam weapon, they may gain one simple weapon.

Proficiency

Proficiency with steam arms can only be gained via very specific features (ie. Matthew Mercer's Gunslinger class) or the DM's approval and, generally speaking, must be earned on a gun-by-gun basis. The time this will take depends on the other weapon proficiencies, as well as other factors of the character:

• Simple Weapons Proficiency: The Character must spend at least 30 days with a weapon, during which at least 120 cartridges must be fired. And at least 150 GP must be spent on maintenance and repairs. This comes down to 180 GP in total.
• Martial Weapons Proficiency: The Character must spend at least 10 days with a weapon, during which at least 60 cartridges must be fired. And at least 75 GP must be spent on maintenance and repairs. This comes down to 90 GP in total
• Proficiency with other Steam Arms: You divide the required time by four, and therefore only spend a quarter of the gold and time you would normally spend.
• Tinker's Tools: You reduce the time taken by half, but you still spend the same amount on cartridges and repairs.
• Find a Tutor: You reduce the time taken by half, but you must pay the teacher, doubling your expenditure.

Attributes

• Reloading: Because of the time required to load this weapon, you can fire only one piece of Ammunition from it during a turn, unless you spend an attack, action, or bonus action to reload the weapon during your turn.
• Loud: When fired in an echoing or enclosed space (a room less than 20ft. by 20ft.) each creature in the room in line of sight (including the shooter) must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution save or be deafened for 1 minute. Failing this check by 5 or more results in the creature being stunned until the end of its next turn.
• Tricky Reload (X): This weapon can be fired X times before you need to spend one action reloading. And can only do so if you have a free hand.
• Scalding Steam: This weapon deals fire damage as the metal bullet is heated by the steam unless the weapon is loaded with magical ammunition in which case it deals piercing damage.
• Heat build-up: Every time this weapon is used to fire, its internal heat builds up, increasing its damage and critical range by 1, but its misfire increases by 1 as well. (ie. the second shot on a steam pistol has +1 to damage and scores a critical hit on a 19, but misfires on a 2). This increase in the misfire score is taken into account when attempting repairs. In addition, when misfiring, for every stack of heat build-up all creatures within 5ft. (including the shooter) suffer 1 point of fire damage. As part of the attack, you can vent the weapon, reducing its internal heat to 0. This heat build-up also vents if the weapon isn't used for 10 minutes, and can be increased by heating the weapon externally (ie. by putting the weapon in a fire), this increases the heat build-up by 1 every 10 minutes, but overcooking the gun might result in damage to the gun. An easy modification can be made to the weapon over the duration of short rest, this allows the weapon to automatically vent, effectively disabling this trait.
• Misfire(X): When making an attack an unmodified roll on the d20 equal to or less than X will cause a misfire, this attack still has the potential to hit the target if the total of the attack beats the target's AC. In either case, this will still consume the cartridge, and steam will vent from the weapon. You’ll suffer 1d10 points of fire damage. If this happens you can’t use the weapon until you repair it, you can use an action to roll an appropriate tools check (DC 8+misfire score), and you can spend a Steam-arm repair kit to make this roll with advantage. If you fail this check the weapon won’t work until you spend an hour fixing the internal machines, allowing you to reroll this check. If you fail this check by five or more the weapon is broken and requires the expenditure of half the weapon’s cost and extensive repairs which can be done over the duration of a long rest.
• Unstable (X): Checks made to repair the weapon are made at disadvantage, and when determining whether your gun misfires you add X to the misfire score.
• Disposable (X): After X attacks have been made with this weapon it effectively becomes useless as its internal ammo has been expended. In addition, if you fail a repair check by five or more the internal magazine has exploded rendering the weapon useless.
• Scatter: Attacks with this weapon are rolled against all creatures in a 30ft. cone. If one or more creatures are more than 15ft. away roll one additional dice and use the lower of your rolls for those creatures. One creature hit by this attack within 5ft. of the attacker suffers damage from this attack as if it was a critical hit.

Consumables

Every time you fire the gun you'll load the gun with another cartridge, which is done during your turn in case of Reloading or as a separate action for Tricky Reload.

Crafting Consumables

As this technology hasn't spread far beyond the borders of The United Gnomish Ridge it is unlikely for general stores to stock these cartridges. But a skilled artisan can craft these themselves, but it won't necessarily be cheaper than buying. More advanced ammo requires exotic materials as indicated in the table below.

A character this is proficient with Smith's tools, Alchemist's Tools or Tinker's Tools and has the spellcasting feature can attempt to craft this ammo during a long rest. To do so the character must expend materials with the same worth as the ammo he wishes to craft (up to 5 GP). And spend spellslot, they then roll a Intelligence check using Smith's tools, Alchemist's Tools or Tinker's Tools with DC 10. Failing this roll results in no ammo being created, failing the roll by 5 or more also consumes the materials. This process can be modified as follows:
• Craft More than 5 GP: The DC is increased by 5 for every 10 over. (ie. 7 GP would also be DC 15).
• No Tools available: Check is rolled with disadvantage.
• The character spends an additional spellslot of the same level: The check is rolled with advantage.
• The Character spends and higher level spellslot: The DC is reduced by 5 for every level above 1

An artificer proficient with Tinker's tools wishes to craft 15 GP worth of ammo but doesn't have the tools. This would require a DC 15 Intelligence (Tinker's tools) check, rolled at disadvantage. To offset this, the artificer spends two 2nd level spellslots to make it a flat DC 10 Intelligence (Tinker's tools) check.

— Example

Overview of Consumables

Name	Cost	Description	Ingredient
Steam Cartridges (20)	5 GP	Ammo for Steam-arms	-
Compact Shot Cartridge	1 GP	Ammo for Steam-arm, this cartridge effectively counts as two shots. For guns with Reloading, you can fire twice without needing to reload. For guns with Tricky Reload, you can fire an additional time per loaded Compact bullet. This smaller round deals less damage, and reduces the weapon's damage die by one (d12>d10>d8>d6).	Light Weight metal
Jumbo Cartridge	2 GP	Ammo for Steam-arm, this cartridge has increased mass and speed but is also quite temperamental. Double the weapon's damage (ie. 1d8>2d8) and increase the weapon's misfire by 3.	Flammable Oil
Steam-arm repair kit	10 GP	Gain advantage on a repair check	-
Improvised Silencer	10 GP	When attached to a gun, the Loud Property is suppressed for the next two shots, this item can be repaired during a short rest.	-
Silencer	50 GP	When attached to a gun, the Loud Property is suppressed for the next five shots, this item can be repaired during a short rest.	-
Durable Silencer	300 GP	When attached to a gun, the Loud Property is suppressed for the next ten shots, this item can be repaired during a short rest.	-

Steam Weapons

A gnomish invention that hasn’t moved far beyond the borders of their realm. And a well-guarded secret from those with power and loyalty. These are the common types of Steam-arms that are used by these gnomes.

Name	Cost	Damage	Weight	Properties
Steam Pistol	150 GP	1d10 Fire*	3 lbs	Ammunition (range 100/400), Scalding Steam, Heat build-up, Reloading, Misfire (1), Loud
Steam Carbine	250 GP	1d12 Fire*	10 lbs	Ammunition (range 200/800), Two-handed, Scalding Steam, Heat build-up, Reloading, Misfire (1), Loud
Steam six Shooter	250 GP	1d10 Fire*	5 lbs	Ammunition (range 60/240), Scalding Steam, Heat build-up, Tricky Reload (6), Misfire (2), Loud
Steam Thrower	250 GP	1d8 Fire*	10 lbs	Ammunition (range 15/30), Scalding Steam, Heat build-up, Tricky Reload (2), Misfire (3), Scatter, Loud
Steam Rifle	500 GP	2d12 Fire*	25 lbs	Ammunition (range 300/1200), Two-handed, Scalding Steam, Heat build-up, Reloading, Misfire (3), Loud

There are two more types of the rarity of these weapons available, catering to the common folk and the outcasts, and despite offering reduced pricing, these types come with significant drawbacks:

Improvised

These weapons have been cobbled together from pipes, valves, and gun parts, and despite looking mean they often pose just as big a threat to the user as to the target, these weapons have the following changes:
• The Cost of the weapon is divided by two, rounding up.
• The Weight of the weapon is doubled.
• The weapons replace the Ammunition (range X) trait by Ammunition (range Y), Y would be half the normal range (X).
• The weapons gain the Unstable (X) where X is the number from the misfire trait.
• When you fail the check to repair the gun by five or more, and you need to repair the gun, it only takes a quarter of the base price to fix the weapon,
• These weapons are by their nature custom-made and might sport unusual changes.
• Example Weapon:

Name	Cost	Damage	Weight	Properties
Improvised Steam Pistol	75 GP	1d10 Fire*	6 lbs	Ammunition (range 50/200), Scalding Steam, Heat build-up, Reloading, Misfire (2), Unstable, Loud
Improvised Steam Rifle	250 GP	2d12 Fire*	50 lbs	Ammunition (range 150/600), Two-handed, Scalding Steam, Heat build-up, Reloading, Misfire (6), Unstable, Loud

 

Disposable

These weapons are more widely spread and serve as self-defense weapons, created as an initiative by one of the two parties to bring this iconic technology to the masses. These weapons have the following changes.
• The Cost of the weapon is divided by five, rounding up.
• The weight of the weapon is halved, rounding up.
• These weapons replace the Tricky Reload (X) trait with Disposable (X+1), or gain Disposable (2) if it has Reloading.
• These weapons lose the Heat build-up trait.
• These weapons don’t need to be loaded or reloaded as these come preloaded with an internal magazine. Before these weapons can be used, an action must be spent activating the gun, after which the weapon can be used as normal. Because of this internal magazine, these weapons can be reloaded manually.
• Example Weapon:

Name	Cost	Damage	Weight	Properties
Disposable Steam Pistol	30 GP	1d10 Fire*	2 lbs	Ammunition (range 100/400), Scalding Steam, Disposable (2), Misfire (1), Loud
Disposable six Shooter	50 GP	1d10 Fire*	3 lbs	Ammunition (range 60/240), Scalding Steam, Disposable (7), Misfire (2), Loud