Matt Mercer’s Gunslinger – D&D 5e Fighter Subclass Guide

Become a rapid firing gunslinger with this 3rd party subclass from Critical Role’s Matt Mercer.

At a glance

Gunslinger features

Firearm proficiency – Lv3

You have proficiency with firearms.

Gunsmith – Lv3

You gain proficiency with tinker’s tools. You can also craft ammunition at half the cost, repair damaged firearms and create new ones (this is stipulated as being only at your DM’s discretion though).

Adept Marksman – Lv3

How it works

You learn 2 trick shots and learn more as you level up. You can use these by expending grit points (you have a number of these equal to your wisdom modifier).

Tactics

• The awkward part is that grit is tied to your wisdom modifier. Fighters aren’t known for being high in wisdom, and intelligence is usually their forte if they need a mind ability. Fortunately, your fighter should be focusing on dexterity and constitution, which does leave space to invest in wisdom. You’ll want at least a decent wisdom though, otherwise you’ll be limited in what you can do with your main subclass feature.
• If you can get a good wisdom, then you should have a decent number of trick shot uses. They’re recovered on short and long rests and when you kill someone or roll a 20 for an attack, so as a general rule, I’d suggest using them mostly for important attacks, especially ones where you’re more likely to hit. With 2-4 attacks per turn, you can easily use up your trick shots in a single combat (or even a single round).
• I’d also point out that killing enemies is useful for regaining grit points. It’s not a bad idea to take a few shots at weak minions or very bloodied enemies to build your grit back up after expending it.
• Choosing your trick shot is the hardest part here. I’d probably avoid bullying shot. You’ve already invested in wisdom, you probably don’t have space to invest in charisma too so this is less optimal for you. I’d also say that while disarming shot is cool, it’s probably only situationally useful. Dropping something often isn’t that problematic and you still have to get them to fail a saving throw for it to work (and this only works for creatures carrying weapons)
• Other options are generally pretty good. I’d be aware that winging shot will knock an enemy prone which will give you disadvantage on subsequent attacks with your firearm against that enemy until they stand back up. You can knock them prone to help allies out though, or knock prone then run in to deal some melee damage.
• Piercing shot also looks tempting, but could be difficult to manufacture enough enemies in a row. I’d maybe grab this a bit later on when you have quite a few trick shot options already that you can lean on.

Quickdraw – Lv7

How it works

Add your proficiency bonus to your initiative and you can now draw and stow a firearm as an object interaction.

Tactics

• Heightened intiatiative is great for dealing some early damage in combat.
• The use case for stowing and drawing a firearm is for when a firearm needs reloading, but you don’t want to use up the attack reloading it. Instead, you can draw a preloaded firearm and shoot that instead. It’s very reminiscent of classic gunslingers and I’d definitely recommend this approach if you have the gold for it to avoid spending an attack every 1-6 attacks on reloading.

Rapid repair – Lv10

How it works

Use a grit point and a bonus action (instead of an action) to repair a gun.

Tactics

• If you can, a grit point and a bonus action is still a decent cost. I’d almost prefer to have many guns and you can just draw a new one. That won’t always be possible, but ideally, you’ll want grit points saved for trick shots as much as possible and repairs to occur after combat.

Lightning reload – Lv15

How it works

You can now reload a firearm as a bonus action.

Tactics

• This is actually possible using classic 5e rules without this supplement, but is overridden when using the gunslinger. Annoyingly, this means waiting until level 15 to be able to do something as quickly as any other fighter.
• Still, the option is useful. Fighters don’t always use their bonus action. But I still think having a large array of guns hanging off your belt is just a better way to go for the gunslinger.

Vicious intent – Lv18

How it works

Land a critical hit when you roll a 19 or 20 for a firearm attack and regain a grit point on the same rolls.

Tactics

• More criticals is great and this means landing them 10% of the time instead of 5% of the time.
• This means the more attacks you can make, the more criticals you can land and the more grit points you can accrue. Things like action surge will help here. As will sparing yourself from wasting attacks reloading by drawing new guns.

Hemorrhaging critical – Lv18

Criticals also deal half the damage on the next turn as well making them even more damaging.

How good is the gunslinger subclass?

The gunslinger is a very cool class. Lots of trick shots give you more tactics in combat. At high levels you get some really nasty criticals and you’re really fast to react.

There are some issues though. Tying grit to wisdom is a little awkward. Dexterity needs to be your priority, and then you’re going to need to compromise between constitution and wisdom which isn’t great for a fighter.

On top of this, with grit being able to be used so often, I feel its number of uses doesn’t scale well enough with levels and I can easily see mid to high tier level gunslingers still only having 2-3 grit points, which is fine at early levels, but too few at this stage.

Compare this to a battle master who gets 4-6 uses of superiority dice without having to invest in an awkward ability score and it feels like gunslingers are a little underpowered here. This is especially the case because the battle master gets extra damage when using their superiority dice, gunslingers don’t get this with their trick shots. This is somewhat redeemed by having grit points a little easier to regain, but it does feel somewhat weaker.

There’s also a lot to consider in terms of reloading, misfiring etc that can easily eat into your action economy. We obviously don’t want to overpower gunslingers, but it does mean you’ve got to take care when it comes to the weapons you carry and weapon juggling. I also feel like misfires are a bit of a frustrating mechanic when you just want to make attacks.

I’d also argue that the level 10 and 15 features are quite underwhelming, meaning a whole 11 levels between good features at level 7 and 18.

It’s still a decent enough subclass, and pretty good when it comes to flavour, but perhaps removing the misfire aspect would help here. I’d also be tempted to make lightning reload an option as standard and completely replace those level 10 and 15 features altogether if I was reworking this subclass. But if you do want to play some gun-toting hero, then the gunslinger remains a decent option.

3/5

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Optimising a gunslinger

Unlike your average fighter, gunslingers are really a ranged warrior. You’ll want to be aware of this for party dynamics as many parties will expect/need their fighter on the front lines. It also affects your build considerably.

Below I’ve gone into details on the different character options to choose for an optimal gunslinger build.

Ability scores

Recommended options

• Dexterity: Don’t be tempted by a strength build like your average fighter. Gunslingers need dexterity to make their ranged attacks decent. This also doubles up to help their AC too.
• Constitution: You’ll likely still need to be tough too so invest in some constitution.
• Wisdom: You’ll need this to increase your number of trick shots. It may feel frustrating investing in this for a fighter, but it will help with saving throws (wisdom saves are common) and skills like perception.

Options to avoid

• Strength: You don’t need to invest in dexterity and strength, and as you need dexterity for your firearms, that means strength gets dumped.
• Intelligence: You have little need for intelligence.
• Charisma: You might only want anything on this if you want to use bullying shot, but there are too many other ability priorities to try and build into a face too so I don’t think this is worth it.

Ability score	Point Buy	Standard Array
Strength	8	10
Dexterity	15	15
Constitution	15	13
Intelligence	8	8
Wisdom	15	14
Charisma	8	12

Skills

Recommended options

• Acrobatics: You’ll be investing in dexterity so take this over athletics.
• History: Good knowledge skill. Grab it if you don’t have a wizard in the party.
• Intimidation: Take it to go alongside bullying shot if you want to go that route.
• Perception: Good for any character, but especially gunslingers with their decent wisdom.

Options to avoid

• Animal handling: Too rarely used to be of much use.
• Athletics: Take acrobatics as you should be investing in dexterity, not strength.
• Insight: This is more of a face skill and you’ll struggle to invest in charisma enough to make this worthwhile, I wouldn’t bother with this.
• Survival: Not a hugely used skill, even if your wisdom will be decent.

Race

I’d consider the following when picking a race for a gunslinger:

• Toughen up: Despite being a primarily ranged subclass, you’ll probably still find yourself in melee either as a backup melee warrior, to follow up on a winging shot or when your firearms need reloading or mending.
• Damage dealing: But even more than being tanky, you’re there to deal lots of damage. Enhancing this will help a lot.
• Stealthiness: As a dexterity specialist, you can moonlight as a rogue if needed. This might mean grabbing a few more skills or taking a race with some stealthiness.

Recommended options

• Bugbear: This makes the most of your high dexterity with stealth proficiency and bonus damage when you attack before an opponent which fits really nicely with your initiative boost. Long limbs are a little wasted on a ranged build, but you’ll still be doing some melee combat to make this useful.
• Duergar: Some good resilience traits and the invisibility spell is great for a stealth build.
• Hill Dwarf: Wisdom and constitution ability score increases suit a gunslinger well and you get extra HP to aid your durability.
• Human (variant): A skill of your choice can give you some scout or stealth skills and a feat is very useful as your ability score increases will be needed for ability scores.
• Goblin: Extra damage on creatures larger than you is useful for a damage dealer with a lot of attacks. A bonus action to disengage can be good for dodging out of melee to take more shots at range but it’s the bonus action hide that is more useful for you. It’ll allow you to take a shot with advantage. And you can do this with piercing shot to negate the effects of disadvantage on subsequent targets.
• Shifter: Regular temporary hit points and you can take beasthide for even higher AC and even more temporary hit points. Wildhunt also makes you more durable by preventing advantage on attacks rolls.
• Warforged: +2 constitution and another ability score increase are great for a gunslinger. You also get +1 AC, some resistances and a skill and tool proficiency (allowing you to partially fill the role of a rogue).

Backgrounds

You’ll mainly want your background for some extra skills. I’d recommend trying to grab things like stealth, sleight of hand and perception to make you into something of a scout or backup rogue, especially as you should be going for a dexterity and wisdom build.

Below I’ve included the backgrounds that work well for a gunslinger.

Name	Skill proficiencies	Tool proficiency	Languages	Equipment
Imvestigator	2 of insight, investigation or perception	Disguise kit, thieves’ tools	None	Magnifying glass, evidence from a past case, common clothes, 10gp
Sailor	Athletics, perception	Navigator’s tools, vehicles (water)	None	A belaying pin, 50ft of silk rope, lucky charm, common clothes, belt pouch containing 10gp
Urchin	Sleight of hand, stealth	Disguise kit, thieves’ tools	None	Small knife, city map, pet mouse, token to remember your parents by, common clothes, pouch containing 10gp

I’d favour urchin for a gunslinger as it gives you all the proficiencies you want, that you can’t get through your class.

Feats

Instead of taking an ability score improvement, you can opt to take a feat (if your DM allows it). A variant Human can also take a feat at first level and some DMs will grant these to characters at level 1.

I’d suggest the following feats for a gunslinger:

• Alert – This will make you impossible to surprise and hard to go before you in combat.
• Gunner – Weirdly, the load aspect of this doesn’t combine with he gunslinger as reload is a different set of rules so they don’t technically interact. However, a kind DM might adapt this for the gunslinger. But you’re really here so you can shoot firearms in melee combat without penalties.
• Lucky – Turn potential successes or failures in your favour with an extra d20 roll. Great option for any class.
• Mage slayer – Get better at dealing with spellcasters.
• Shadow touched – If you’re going for a stealth build, then this will give you invisibility, and your wisdom should be good enough to cast spells competently too.
• Skilled – Great way to help you fulfill your potential as a backup rogue.
• Tough – More hit points is a great for anyone.

Weapons

Obviously you’re going to want to grab a firearm. In fact, I’d suggest having multiple firearms (maybe 5 or 6 depending on how many shots your weapons have and how many attacks you have).

I have an issue with any firearm that reloads after 1 attack for a fighter as this is basically going to half your attacks or mean far too much weapon swapping. For this reason, I’d go for a pepperbox which has the most shots and a good amount of damage. If you’re struggling to afford that, then a pistol is a good alternative.

As you gain levels and more gold (and attacks) I’d grab multiple pepperboxes to avoid having to reload in combat and just swap to a new gun. A hand mortar is a decent option for little crowds of enemies if you come across any of those.

You’ll also want a melee weapon for when you need to get into close combat. A rapier is your highest damage option for this.

Armor

You’ll probably find that light armor is your best option most of the time as your dexterity gets high enough. Grab studded leather for your highest AC light armor. This will also let you use stealth effectively.

Before this point, medium armor might be your best bet. Just be aware that your highest AC medium armor may cause disadvantage on stealth checks.

If you’re planning on swapping guns rather than reloading in combat, then you can grab a shield as you won’t need a freehand for reloading. At least if you’re using a one-handed firearm.

Other class guides

Not sure a gunslinger is for you. Not to worry. Why not check out one of our other class or subclass guides.