Concept Class: Gunslinger

A little overpowered, lol. Say you have 500hp and you are down to 10hp. You have lost 490hp meaning 49 * 2 = 98, in addition to the default damage. Well now that I think about it, the 45 sec reset kind of offsets the dmg.

I could see this being used with a necro and sacrifice skills. Then use Grenth's Balance to regain health.

um.... 19-30 damage, +45 +15% armor penetration....

lets use a bow because thats somewhat kinda similar.

15-28 damage, i beleive the max is +22 damage. that 50 base damage. so thats 10 energy there. use penetrating shot for the +20% penetration for another 10 energy (these both are expertise effected, but thats not really a factor for damage).

either make this skill elite and make it more like

This attack does 1...30 more damage and has 10% armor penetration.

or forget it

Isn't this exactly like the dwarves in WoW?

Would hardly be effective though... I mean if you get yourself down that low and 2 E-surge mesmers hit you, its gonna be half a team dead in seconds...

It would make these new fancy double damage bosses pretty lethal

ROFLMFAOSAUCE!!!
..I'm sorry.
Seriously though; ROFLAO!!1!1
Ok, ok.. I'll be constructive.. HAAAAhahahahahaHAAaaaaHaha!

Sorry, I'm not trying to bump this, it's basically a finished thread, I just couldn't help that...

I haven't read through the three pages... I will though, just wanted to reserve my post.

I really love this idea, but and as someone said, I wouldn't want it implemented till the 5th or 6th chapters of GW. As for gunslingers becoming shooter style? Not really.

Post in a bit^^

I simply hate the idea of guns being introduced into a game like this. This isn't FF where everyone can use powerful magic, slash through walls, and summon Bahamut, in a world with guns, guns own all, even if there is magic, it takes only a fraction of the time to train a bunch of grunts to kill with a gun, and a lifetime to make an effective magician, unless everyone can use a baseline of magic which can overcome the effects of modern weapons in war, it is simply a disfunctional addition.

Final Fantasy VII and VIII are good examples of games where magic, swords and guns work together, GW is not, even in games like WoW, it is fake. A good class can be made with many different kinds of mechanics, but no matter how balanced and even fun the mechanics are, making it a gun slinger class, or anything with guns, is a strong blow to the reality of the game, it is simply fake. Even Crossbows are lame, Guns are simply out of place, they could make a job that uses Whips, Javalins, Please use Chakrums and Slingshots instead of guns, Guns would deface the image and military structure of GuildWars.

The other thing you need in a real world with guns, is friendly fire...... guns make war strategic, not epic, they don't foster Mastery and Heroism, they make war a mush of random deaths. I would rather have a class which Shoots fire balls out of his mouth than a gunslinger, same effect, but less damaging to the games image.

I want to see this implemented. You could have them be cyrstal powered (good use for the rubies and sapphires ) or gunpowder based. Rifles could deal like 150 or so dmg with a normal shot, have a range of say 250ft and have refire rates about 3.5 seconds each, while handguns have 100ft range and deal about 100dmg a shot with a 2.5 second refire. Seems like it could work.

0 recognition of obvious damage balance, this would totaly blow away every kind of spiking, and simply mars the ideas support, proving that it caters to ........ lets just say people like this.

Making guns which revolve around an alternate source doesn't change the fact that it is a lame weapon usable by the masses, robbing GW or realistic combat, and being a weak addition, If I was Balthazar, I would Murder any person who invents a gun to preserve the glory of combat.

The closest thing to a gun type job that I can approve of (and this is just my personal approval) is some kind of alchemist. Someone who uses a required level of magical machinery to create explosive, combustion, and advanced projectile weaponry, in such a way that it would still be an art of talent and mastery to use, and it could be developed within reasonable damage figures.

A gun in it's simplest form is a boom stick, which allows a human to excersise lethal force, no matter how unfocused, without signficant skill, training, even courage.

The key to making a archane type world with humans that have limited capability which can survive firearm combat is..... sheer denial. Unless everyone has the innate ability to dodge bullets, like FF VII characters (expecially in the new movie), a world with guns is totaly unnrealisic. Just because this is a fictional game doesn't mean it should be unnrealistic, and as far as realism goes, this game does better than most RPGs, with limited human power, and very well developed background and combat mechanics. This is a world with limited people, they don't level up to 99 and preform a 26 slash attack when they are getting their ass kicked. Using Melee, Bow, and even many magical attacks are all outmatched by the sheer simplicity and effectiveness of a gun, from a realisitic viewpoint, and even if they did make a realistic gun class type addition, it wouldn't carry broken damage figures which overpower balanced builds.

now itd be nice but its not middle aged..... might be cool as a crossbow? lol

Wow, Bahamut.
1st, do you seriously think that a gun would do more damage than a meteor to the head, fireball to the face, immolation, stabbed by a sword, cleaved with an axe, whacked by a hammer bigger than you are, stuck with a barrage of flaming arrows, or being bitten by a giant stone dragon?

2nd, guns do require skill. Random thugs and murderers running around are able to do what they do because they shoot people from only several feet away; how much skill do you think you need to kill someone with a sword when you sneak up on them from behind? More skill with guns allows people to fire more accurately at greater distances, fire accurately at a target without taking as long to aim, and performing crazy manuevers that make it harder for someone to hit you with one (not actually dodging bullets, but making yourself a more difficult target).

Also, there are tricks you can perform with certain types of guns which requires skill, such as "fanning" a revolver.

Skill will improve your capabilities with any weapon, but like I said, A gun does not require skill, thus it changes the face of combat. Yes, anyone can kill easily if you sneak up on someone with any weapon, that doesn't require a gun, but an amature isn't going to step up to a seasoned warrior with a sword and beat him, but with a gun, realisticly, no matter how good you are, an amature can kill you.

That is why war is different with guns, in reality, use of any melee weapon in a world with firearms is limited to stealth combat and lack of ammo, a century of swordmanship and Warrior training isn't going to save a Warriors life from a litterally newb volley of fire, thus Midevil combat ceases to exsist.

Yes there are plenty of things in Guild Wars that do that much damage, from a balanced stand point, you could make it weak (fake) enough to have people surviving random gun shot wounds, after all we are already healing severed arteries and disease on the battle field, the true disfunction to guns is the robbery of realism from the game.

There are alot of guns even now days that are still very inaccurate, mostly machine guns, yet they are extremely effective, because the simple truth is, a wall of lead is better than aim. I spent alot of time listening to my friend, an ExMarine who was extremely active in Veitnam, reminise about combat, tourchering, and close quarters combat. If there was any way for Swords and shield to compeat with Guns, then they wouldn't have immediately replaced Knights and Swords.

Hercules, Achilies, Alexander, Author, there are no more legends and true Heros in todays wars, and it isn't just because fiction isn't propogated, it is because Guns rob combat of true glory, Modernized weapon wars are all about firepower and strategy, the single man becomes an expendable tool, little thought of. But if you need a real life example of how well even primitive firearms totaly decimate close quarters combatants, then read the history of the spanish conquering the Aztecs, and The American domination over the Native tribes of America.

There is a line between fantasy and fake, in a good fantasy world, the fiction make sense, and works in a realistic manner. In a game like Final Fantasy, where every fighter can dodge a bullet, and magic is a common tool among most, Guns are on realisticly even ground, but in a Game like Guild Wars, where players don't level up into god like status, nor have super human powers, it is realy fake, guns would overcome current combatants, You can block and arrow, even catch it, you can't deflect bullets, no not in reality, and even the simplest farmer can spend a few days learning to aim and stand a fight against a lifetime master of Sword, Bow, or even Magic.

Like I said, there are ways to do guns in a realistic manner, like having an alchemist class, which uses obscure technology and magic to utilize more modern weaponry, but even then, I would perfer something else.

I think you missed the point.
If you're going against someone whos unarmed, like these amatures you're mentioning that easily murder people, there aren't many weapons that they couldn't kill someone with. And it is possible to use skill to avoid bullets, but as I said, you don't "dodge" them, since that would take the reaction time of a god, but you move in ways that make yourself a more difficult target to hit, basically making them miss more rather than you dodging.
A bullet isn't going to hurt some sword-wielding warrior any more than an arrow to the face or an elementalist's fireball.
The legendary fighters you are thinking of were very rare, and often weren't remembered for having survived a direct head-on assault from an opposing army as you use as an example for the gun-fighting wars; they were known for there skills in ordinary fights. Any others, such as you mentioned, are remembered for their leadership skills, and there are those like that in more recent history.
Now, even though you don't seem to agree, in a gun-fight the more skilled person is going to win. Like I said, they make themselves difficult targets and can more accurately and quickly hit the other person.

Now, as to swords not competing with guns: I doubt that in real life a sword would stand up well against fireballs either, but in this game they do.
Also, in the same ways you think that a swordsman can't stand up to gunman, they were never able to stand up to bows like that either, and yet bows exist in this game.

And as for them robbing the realism: first, this is a fantasy game, they can add whatever they hell they feel like to it, people could use spells that spew rabid fire-monkeys from their butts. Second, guns are more reasonable and realistic than magic or monsters.

As for the biggest problem people seem to have with this: adding guns to this won't turn the game into some kinda of crazy technological futuristic game; I'm asking for rifles and revolvers, not lasers. Also, as I've said before, the dwarves already posses technology far beyond these.

Have you seen some of the crap the dwarves build? There exists within Guild Wars already a technological sophistication far in excess of what is required to build primitive guns.

Early firearms were, frankly, pieces of crap. They were ungainly, akward, fired once a minute, and couldn't hit a brick wall at twenty paces. It took centuries, literally centuries, for firearms to outpace bows in terms of effectiveness.

Knights weren't destroyed by firearms. They were destroyed by English longbowmen on the fields of France. Even into the sixteenth century a capable man with a bow was overmatched vis-a-vis a capable man with a gun. Getting him to the point where he was capable, on the other hand... That was the sole advantage firearms held over more traditional weaponry for quite a few years.

A gunshot wound from a primitive matchlook musket is hardly any more deadly than a six-inch gash across your body. Even were the damage greater in gameplay terms the rate of fire would have to be much lower to be anything approaching realistic.

Guns,the fall of great warriors,archers,and empires were caused by a simple projectile fired out of a metallic barrel.

I would rather not see the Gunslinger become a profession in GW. I don't care how much skill it may require it just wouldn't fit into the game to me. Sort of like how when I have to refill my soda it breaks the feel of being in the game world.

It isn't my oppinion that this would ruin the mood of the game, but they have to add something new with the new classes, or it will just get stupid fast (the concept of adding new classes, not the game itself).

Some points regarding "realism"

Guns were not the end of single combat mentality warfare. The longbow was. With it, mounted knights no longer stood a chance as giant citzen armies could mow down champions of melee before they stood a chance. Tactics with guns were simply an expansion upon tactics used with the longbow. Read up on the Hundred Years War and English tactics for more on that.

While we're saying a gunshot would be an insta-kill, let's just remember that we have people being lit on fire, struck by lightning, eviscerated and bashed over the head by all sorts of heavy objects. No one could survive any of those things, not even for a second. Realistically, an elementalist would cast meteor and kill everything, including the dinosaurs.

I don't think anyone is arguing for modern warfare style weapons here, such as machine guns. We'll all go play Battlefield 2 if we want that, those style weapons are not well catered to a role playing game (I'm using machine gun burst! I'm using reload! I'm using machine gun burst.....). I'm getting more of a sense of an old west style gunslinger or perhaps an industrial revolution style inventor gunman, both of which cater well to romantic heroes. Bilyl the Kid, Doc Holliday, Calamity Jane all are romantic heroes on par with classical heroes such as Achilles. For further reinforcement here, watch an old John Wayne movie, then compare it to a tale of a classical hero. There are many striking similarities here.

I, for one, would love to see a style of character like this, as long as it is differentiated well from a ranger, as yours seems to be.

QFT. Thank you!

This is NOTHING like WoW other than the fact it uses guns, I've played WoW.
Guns in WoW have no class or skills related to them, the closest they have a is the Hunter which uses a bunch of BOW skills with the guns. Also, WoW has no pistols, all they have are a bunch of stupid looking (like everything else in that cartoon/game) rifles.
And I liked the arguments of this making the game into a FPS more than the WoW ones, atleast those had a decent level of rationality and real concerns; of course, everyone who's actually read this thread through knows that I don't agree at all with that argument either.

I just realized I never mentioned this before, but I don't think this class should look like a Cowboy. A little Simliar, but definately not a lot like one.
Most of their armor should be trench-coat-like, and the head armor, I think, should look similar to this Mod: Your link doesn't work and goes to near porno anime which isn't appropriate for this forum.
The most important thing to note in that picture is that the hat doesn't have the Cowboy-style indent on the top of the hat.

That's the best style for the theme of the class in my oppinion, and if you don't like the hat, all you have to do is make it invisible

I was on the fence about guns even fitting into the game; then I saw the "keg" comment and thought about it more. They would fit in. The old blunderbuss hand cannons come to mind.

The class itself (and weapon use) could simply be another ranger like character. Since during this proposed era, the rifles were slower than bows (more damaging bot lower rate of fire) till the six shooters and repeating rifles, it may balance itself out if put in that way.

Do we need another ranger like character? Probably not. Would it be fun to play? Probably, and it's all about the fun isn't it?

I like idea, let Anet work out the balancing.

Anyway, interesting read for those interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_powder

I dislike it. Why put guns in a fantasy? Swords and bows are good enough.

Damn.. Black Powder is easy to make.

"Why add guns to a fantasy game"? Well, as some of us have already said, many fantasy games do have guns. Also, guns are cooler than hell in games!

And the rifles should be slower and more damaging than a bow, but the Dual-pistols would be faster and less damaging, not because you're firing either off really fast, but because each are somewhat fast and you fire them one at a time (Right: Fire - Left: Fire - Right: Fire - Left: Fire), they'd end up with a speed roughly equal to daggers. Of course, the skills attack multiple times quickly, probably by using gun tricks as I mentioned earlier.

I just realized something else. It's pretty rediculous to say that guns are "too high-tech" when Luxons have giant crab machines carrying cities of people across the Jade Ocean, and Kurzicks building weapons that launch giant fireballs.

I would have to say the damage spread would be totaly fake, a gun shot kills no matter what, people survive by not getting hit.

Old guns do not have quick reload action, thus even dual pistols of an discovery period would have realy bad reload time, once you start introducing quick reload weapons of any type your already introducing rather modern guns which in reality would totaly wipe out any other combat class in real warfar, even against magic.

In fantasy games where the sword weilder can shoot blade beams out of his sword and the magic wielder can block bullets with magical shields on a constant basis, yes guns are a bit of flavor, but in a game where we do not use super saiyan martial artists and Cloud Strife, it is totaly fake to pretend that combat would retain it's exsisting balance wile certain people are firing at them with guns.

There are explosives and even cannons in GW, just because they could be in the game doesn't mean it would be an improvement. There is no argument about it, Guns rewrite the balance of warfare, and "weaker" guns are simply fake.

Gunblades, dual pistols, hand cannons and mini rifles are all great in FF, this is GW, and they would suck.

Something else to add, though it's just my opinion: As I stated above, I was at first against adding guns to GW, but the more I think about it, the better it sounds.
Lots of technical issues can be argued against adding them, rate of fire would be not right; damage would not be realistic, ect ect.

Look at what we have in GW now. A warrior slamming a sword or axe into someone should drop them like a rock. An arrow on fire nails someone dead on and they keep on moving. Then we can add in the magic spells... The best fantasy pulls from a real life source and makes it fantasy, that way we can relate to it. Putting in guns and making fit into the GW would be possible in the same manner - at least in my opinion... for what that's worth. lol

First of all, it doesn't. A shot to the extremities, and even most shots to the torso, are not fatal. Second of all, even if it were, it is no more or less so than any of the myriad ways to die already existing within Guild Wars. The vast majority of death from injuries, in ancient and medieval times, came from infection of the wound. As long as it's not a bad head wound, a severed major artery, or serious internal damage, your body will heal if it gets the chance.

Our characters are routinely stabbed hundreds of times an hour. A gunshot to the head will kill you, true. But so will an arrow, so will an axe, so will a sword, so will a hammer, so will daggers, so will meteors, fireballs, lightning, boulders, etc... Any of the physical means of damage in the game are fatal. The non-physical means (many Necromancer, Ritualist, and Mesmer skills, as well as a Monk's smiting) are harder to gauge, but probably would be fatal as well.

A full suit of armour (that is, most warrior armours) would stop most bullets from 15th/16th-century guns (which is around the level I assumed would be implemented in the game, if any). Depending on what Ranger and Assassin armours are made of, even they'd have a slight chance. Casters would be slaughtered, of course, but they realistically would be by most stuff in-game anyways. Since they don't, in fact, keel over after two sword swings, we can assume the occasional gunshot wouldn't kill them either.

I'm glad there's still discussion going on in this thread, but you're just bringing up an argument that has, atleast in my oppinion, already been proved wrong, Bahamut. Either way it's been pretty thoroughly discussed.

So to keep this thread from going back to an argument on that and just repeating itself, I'll change the subject:

....Damn, has any aspect of this class not been discussed? I'll keep trying to think of something...

Looks like somebody read too much Dark Tower.

Haha, actually I've never read them, I want to though.

No, I don't think guns would fir into GW. The first guns were just bamboo tubes, but those were more fore fireworks/special effects than combat. True weaponized firearms didn't come about until the end of the renaisance/early industrial revolution. The tech curve in GW is FAR from that point in history, and I don't see it changing.

Besides, it tends to spoil the feeling of "high fantasy," that GW has going.

/signet of unsigning.

Yeah, I remember that time in history class when we were covering the 1500's and we learned about the invention of the giant Dragon Cannon, the Walking Fortress, and the Mechanized Ore Mines. /end sarcasm

To all ye saying guns wouldnt work "because of the style of the game" when Japan invented guns people were still fighting with swords and horses~ so it could actually work

The Japanese did not invent firearms. The Chinese did. And it was Europeans who developed them to a useful (ie, better than longbows) level. But that took hundreds of years. For a long time, guns were just another weapon.

And another thing I thought of... Should this class have some sort of way to switch to a bayonet mode? I don't know how they'd implement two attack modes on a single weapon, so maybe it would just be for certain skills. Something that required a gun equipped, and melee range. Seems cool to me.

The BIG problem I see is that guns are too effective. Even the earliest, crappiest gun had enough advantages over other ranged weapons to make it worthwhile. Even the flintlocks that the French and British used in the new world was enough to fight off the native tribes.

So what's the big deal? Simply put, if the next expansion chapter takes us to a place with guns, within a short period of time, everywhere we've been would have guns as well. Why would the Kurzicks and Luxons still shoot arrows? Why would Stone Summit rangers use bows when they can just use rifles that double as a melee weapon if needed? Quite simply, guns SHOULD imbalance the game world.

Now ANET can just close their eyes, cover their ears and go LALALALALA real loud and ignore this truth, but that's dumb.

EDIT: On the other hand, it's a great way to make people buy new chapters. Joe the Warrior decided Factions and the other chapters weren't worth his time, so one day he's out farming Ettins... and they pull out MAC 10's and bust some caps in his ass...

Joe just might buy the chapter with guns.

They don't have to be in all of the older chapters, I don't even understand that logic. There arent enemies in Tyria using assassin or ritualist skills. I might've missed what you mean.

And I really don't know how it could be explained any better, and it's been said plenty of times; guns wouldn't hurt people anymore than magic or a sword. The reason guns beat out things like swords is that they could kill someone from a distance, but a sword wound would kill someone EVEN MORE EASILY THAN A GUNSHOT would if somoeone were actually hit by it, and people are hit by swords and stuff like that all the time in this game.

If you people still don't believe this, why don't you get a few manikans, shoot one with a pistol, slash another one with a real sword, and light the other one on fire, then try telling me guns wouldn't make sense in this game because their too powerful.

No actually gun shot wounds to nealy any part of the body is fatal, you might survive the wound, but you don't survive it without medical attention and you don't continue fighting.

Yes, there are a mirade of attacks which should do even more damage in a real combat situation, but whether or not someone can survive those attacks isn't the real point, the real point is that it doesn't take a fraction of the skill to use a gun, a line of farmers armed with guns is lethal.

Sure the very first rifles were very slow loading, and inaccurate, but since natural miss rate isn't a reasonable part of the damage for a weapon, that isn't a good addition, and suggesting revolver action quick pace dual pistols automaticly throws the whole slow loading original flintlocks out of the picture, if you have a quick action pistol you have a quick action rifle, that's simply how it works.

The reality of guns in warfar is that it doesn't allow other kind of combat to exsist, swords, bows, even magic would get outclassed by severly less talented fighters equipted with modern weaponry. They can inflict most lethal wounds without serious training and skill, 3 months of boot camp vs 3 yrs of martial arts, and guess who is more lethal? Guns rewrite battle, and anything other then that is fake.

And if you think you can continue fighting after being shot, you watch to many movies, you get shot, you go down, knocked down like a hammer blow, bleeding like a sword slash, deep wound like an Axe, Damage like a spell, and that is without use of a handy dandy skill, an ordinary shot kills.

With all those other sword slashes and hammer blows, even fireballs, your armor and ability to fight can overcome much of the damage, when you get shot, it is all about whether it hit you or not.

Yeah, sword beat a pistol my ass, you get a sword and I'll get a revolver, and at point blank, I guarrentee I will kill your ass. Good chance I kill you from a distance, I guarrentee you will die point blank. And guess what, it takes less skills and strength to hold a pistol and pull a trigger then it does to simply swing a sword, yet the sword does less damage.

There is only one allowance for guns in GW, and that is totally fake mechanics.

The bows already have slow fire rate so they can do significant damage per hit, for a realistic flintlock your talking about much slower, much strong damage, that could be considered, but pretending to send bullets a flying with dual rapid fire pistols is a joke, your already throwing out the oldschool rifle period, and they are more likely to have gatlin guns then flintlocks. And with that kind of warfar ends the age of swords and bows.

Of all the better options that could be excersised, people struggle to push the broken idea just because they like it. They can have slower attack rate ranged weapons with more damage without having guns, all you need is a javalin throwing job. I would even perfer a mini cannon or mortar class that a gun class, at least it is alot less reliable and easy to overcome.

I might even understand if there was a pirate or seafairing type class that had skills which drew a gun and did some hefty damage, but with the realistic fire rate of an acceptable flintlock type gun, you wouldn't be firing it on a continuous basis of any sort, it would be skill activated only, like a spell, or better yet, a signet.

You keep telling me that guns could be worked into the game then ride this totaly broken suggestion, it realy is rediculously broken, people just throwing down and shooting volleys on a continous basis with rifles, or better yet, "weak" pistol attacks at rapid fire rates, it realy is fake.

You need a rapid attack medium ranged weapon which doesn't kill in one shot, use a whip, there are so many better weapon options which don't seeth with fakeness that it just staggers me.

But let me give yal some insight on what a gun can really do. In the military, you never strap your helmet to your head, because even if the rifle round doesn't pierce through the helmet, if you have your helment straped, it will break your neck, it is better for it to fly off you head and deflect a bullet than strap it on and break your neck. Yes, all those war movies with the GIJoes with strapped on helmets, fake.

If you get hit in an extremity and it hits a bone, it will kill you, it will break the bone, causing sever internal bleeding, and without serious medical attention you will die.

In the marines, the first thing you do when you ground on enemy territory is drop your plate armor, it woln't block shit and you will get hit easier moving slowly with that heavy plated armor on. Even with the most advanced state of the art body armor, you only have a chance of surviving a shot, and it depends on what gun you get shot with, there is always something strong enough to pierce whatever armor you may obtain.

And lastly, suitable armor to defend against firearm damage always lags behind weapon power, everything from armor of earth to Knights Armor would be pierced by a rifle round, and if you can wear thicker armor, the gunman can bring stronger calibur weapons.

I find it stiffling that people can accept gunslingers as a class for GW, yet say that being able to play a dragon is overpowered. People just decide what they wan't and don't care if it is reasonalbe or not.

A line a farmers swinging swords would be more dangerous than with guns when they got up to the other people.

And if you think that a single gunshot wound would always take someone out of battle and a sword/axe wound wouldn't, or that being set on fire/struck by a fireball wouldn't then I think the problem is that you play too many RPG's, not that we watch too many movies.

If we were right in front of eachother and you had a gun and I had a sword, then it would be possible for me to dodge the gun, since it's as obvious as a freaking neon sign where your aiming, and I'd just cut your ass in half

Also, if someone had a strong enouph sword and enouph skill, it isn't at all unreasonable for them to block a bullet with the sword. You keap imagining that you would have to react after the person pulls the trigger to dodge/block a bullet, but what you should really be doing is reacting to where they're aiming, just before they fire. someone can't fire a gun the instant they raise it and be very accurate unless they have insane skill (and even then someone with an equal level of skill with a sword could react to where they're moving before they stop), then you would just place the sword in front of the area you know they're firing at and stand in a position that won't knock you down or break your wrist when the bullet hits the weapon. Of course that is all assuming that it's a 1 on 1 fight, but all you would need is more skill if it were multi on 1, and you couldn't possibly say it's unreasonable for a fantasy character to be more skilled than a real person has ever been known to be.

For the love of god, quit pushing the "fake" thing, when was the last time you saw a guy wave his hands and send a meteor at a guy he didn't like?

The pistols aren't medium range, they're around the range of a spell (within aggro bubble) which is shorter still than a bow.

You also keap giving examples of how modern guns can pierce anything. While I hate the idea of using flintlocks, I still don't expect this to be using "hand-cannons" and 6-inch bullet assault rifles.

The point of point blank is you can't miss....if the barrel is touching you it's hard to move before the bullet goes through your skull. Realism is not needed here (rez, no blood, don't get tired, fireballs)

If you're going to say the guy with the gun would have it right on the guy with the sword, then for that comment to work the other guy would have to have his sword right on the other guy, and they'd just end up killing eachother. The same thing would happen if both people had swords or if one had a bow.

And unless you don't see it coming/expect it, which in the middle of a gun fight you would, it is possible to dodge a point blank shot from a gun if you actually know how to dodge well (which the average person has no idea of). 1st, you see it coming so you start moving just as they get the gun on you, 2nd, you don't just try moving out of the way, you move in a way that would get you out from in front of it while actually making as small a motion as possible, like turning to the side as you move, and you move the hand closest to the gun towards it at the same time, knocking it away as you dodge, causing it to move in one direction while you move in the other.
You'd likely still end up with a graze if you succeed, but that's the best you could hope for if your in the same situation with a sword, in which case they had it against your neck.

I just finished a LOT of rebalancing of the skills, and improved some of the names and armor stats.