Class: Freeshooter

 

 

Guns are loud, slow, messy, leave smoke everywhere, best used with a bunch of guys in a line or up close so you don't miss. Everyone knows that. Marksmen are freaks, obsessives. The kind of man who can reliably nail a man with a wheellock from an appreciable range has honed his craft for years, decades even. 

You are not one of those masters, but you wish you were. There is a kind of romance to the gun. A raw lethality that bows and crossbows cannot match, combined with an ease of use, in the basics at least, which requires little skill to hone, to say nothing of the fact that it dispenses death from afar, where all those fearsome blades and pikes can't reach you. But oh, if only there was a way to match the true sharpshooters without putting in all that practice. This attracts certain kinds of spirits which are happy to help you enact your murderous desires. After all, guiding a bit of lead is a trivial matter, but can be just so rewarding.

Those who are practitioners of Goetia, the summoning of un-worldly entities, will often enlist such entities to grant them boons to their killing arts. Here, at least, Freeshooters are notorious as being tragic, short-lived guns for hire, the product of the weak and desperate seeking a means to ensure they can survive a world far crueler than they.

Gun Pact: You have a patron, like a warlock. They are not nearly as powerful as a real patron, but they are clever, moreso than you are. If you try to kill them they'll just leave, taunting or cursing you as per their inclination. The important thing is that so long as you have a gun, they can guide the bullets. They can see and hear everything you can, and can move (with flight) about a mile around you. They generally have a good judge of character. They will generally encourage you to use your weapon when the opportunity presents itself.

Free Shooting: When you take a Free Shot, you don't roll to hit, you just do the damage. However, each time you do, roll a 1d6. On a 6, the patron guides the bullet to whatever they want, and it counts as a crit. In addition, free shots have a cost. You must do something for your patron to earn them. You can bank your level's worth of shots. This effect can be thwarted by magic which would block something like magic missile. They won't ever shoot at party members (unless they are absolutely sure they can get away with it).

(and also if your system has armor as damage reduction I think it should also still apply, it is just guaranteed not to miss). 

A. Choose your patron, or roll. +1 MD

B. Spellslinger, +1 MD

C. Pick between Loved by Spirits or Feared by Mortals

D. Perfect Aim

Patron: 

Your (probably) supernatural benefactor. If you lose it, you can gain another, but only of another type. Run out of all of them and you lose all templates. You've also probably made a lot of enemies so good luck with that.

1. A devil: Each time you harm a child, kill an innocent, profane a place of holiness, severe bonds between people, or otherwise make the world a measurably worse way, you get a free shot. On a 6, the devil will aim the bullet at a person who's death will cause the most suffering without bringing the law on your head. It would rather kill a pregnant peasant woman than a local lord. It will be careful to use trajectory and misdirection to keep the blame off of you, unlike other patrons. It wants to keep you around for as long as sit can, so long as you cooperate.

2. A dream: a fairy-thing. If it is Fair, you gain a free shot every time you carouse, so long as it ends positively. On a 6, it guides the bullet at the ugliest person around, or with the worst personality if that isn't immediately obvious. If it is Wrathful, you gain a free shot every time you kill someone, and on a 6 it aims at whoever's death would prolong the conflict the most. If it is Dolorous, then every time you lose morale you gain a free shot, and on a 6 it will target the least depressed person it can find. If it is Mad, gain a free shot every time you fail a check involving a mental stat, and on a 6 it will target the most rational, boring, stick-in-the-mud person. If it is Loathsome, then you gain free shots whenever you torture or degrade another. Unlike a devil, it doesn't need to be an innocent, anyone will do. On a 6, it shoots whoever will suffer the most from being shot, regardless of morality.

3. A specter, a bodiless soul bound to you own. Unlike other patrons, this is not a single spirit, but a collection. When you go to a graveyard or the site of a battle, or another place of mass death, you may spend 1 SP (or reasonably expensive setting-appropriate coinage) to propitiate spirits to guide your shots. Each SP expended is one free shot, and the spirit is expended afterwards. It is said that more powerful spirits might offer more shots, but they generally require more money, or a favor done. You could also run around fulfilling tasks for minor spirits but only a real kind-hearted sap would do that, and they usually don't opt to enter magic murder contracts. On a 6, they'll target randomly (roll for the people present) unless someone present offended it in life, in which case they'll always go for that person, and also will do it on a r.

4. An angel, a spirit born of heavenly revelation. You gain a free shot every time you attend church (once per day), and on a 6 it will target evil beings or spirits, even ones you never saw coming. However, it expects strict adherents to the Gospel it follows. Unlike other patrons, it really does mean well, but it is also the easiest to lose the favor of. If you've already made a pact with a devil you can still take this one but only if you demonstrate genuine contrition for your past misdeeds.

5. A magus, lending you a hint of their power for the low cost of (exorbitant sum plus interest). You have a crystal ball that takes up one inventory slot and knowledge of the rite that lets you contact them. If you lose the ball you will be even more in debt and need to get a new one after a day (assuming you paid your last installment). You gain a free shot once per day, but have to pay 10% of your debt at the end of every month. On a 6, the magus aims the bullet at either someone who seems unimportant (spy, magically talented child that may one day surpass him, guy who insulted him once) or politically significant. However, it won't be traced back to you, probably.

6. An alien from one of Sol's other celestial bodies, communicating through the astral plane. If it is an alien from Raphtel, free shots are obtained by standing in the tallest place during a lightning storm and holding up a strange glass rod they will give you. The first shot refill is free, 1d6 lightning damage for each after. You can do this as much as you want. On a 6, they target someone seemingly unimportant, like a magus would, but the DM rolls a d20. After three 6s, an exiled Raphtel lord (your patron), crashes their ship onto a city and takes it over. If it is an alien priest-king of Dyur, a large, ritually sacrificed mammal grants a free shot. On a 6, they shoot the smartest person they can find. If Immancon, you get a free shot per day for every follower you convert to worship of those false angels (that is still alive). On a 6, they target a believer of a True Faith, prioritizing rank. If Yors, you gain a free shot by ritually sacrificing a thinking being in an alien rite. If a 6, they target the person with the least hit points, and furthermore they have overkill, targeting the next in line until all damage is expended.

Spellslinger: You can learn and cast spells. The gun you use counts as a focus as per these rules. However, the range of the spell is treated as the range of the gun, and you can cast a spell at your guns maximum range for the cost of a free shot.

Loved by Spirits: You have advantage on social rolls with your patron's type of being, representing your patron speaking on your behalf. It's less a love between peers and more you are a prized possession or favored pet. You are also such a freak and detached from normalcy that you have disadvantage on any social roles with normal people.

Feared by Mortals:  Your murderous rampages terrify the locals, who have heard of your coming long before you arrived. Disadvantage on persuasion, advantage on intimidation, unless they are certain they can kill you before you can kill them. You can generally get anything cheap for free; people are too scared to refuse, and if someone gets killed by a 6 they'll pretend they didn't see anything. Does not apply to bothersome lawmen and venturing types.

Perfect Aim: You roll damage with advantage. So does your spirit when it takes control. 

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I don't know how balanced this is but I always liked the freischutz story as one of the few gun-centric supernatural tales rooted in older folklore. Here I have turned it into a kind of freaky witch really good at killing. Honestly the main thing is the whole patron deal. Also, the lack of stat bonuses is intentional. Your class gets guaranteed, free damage, but they don't grow or learn in the traditional sense. Their status comes from their patron using them, so they don't get better marksmanship, and even higher level stuff is thanks to their patron. Most of them are honestly probably kind of wretched or pathetic or some kind of deluded poser. But man do they suck to fight.