One of the chief weapons engineers of a prestigious adventurers guild, Malkos has always been viewed as an unstable genius, a loose cannon. He is keen on mechanical and alchemical innovations and very eager to test out all of his projects out in the field himself.
When he discovered the functions and applications of black powder along with his developed exploits he became obsessed in the pursuit of a new age in warfare. However soon after, Malkos became paranoid, crazy and selfish with his new invention. Believing that no one else in this lifetime would understand and respect this new concept. The new age he envisioned ruined by ignorance and reckless abandon.
“You don’t give a child a knife, expecting them to sharpen and oil the blade. You can’t train a dog to use a bow and fletch arrows. I alone am capable, everyone will want it… but they’ll have to pry it from my cold dead fingers.” Malkos became known as the One-Man Siege Engine.
Meet Malkos, The Juggernaut
Level 5 Gun Tank Gunslinger
Level 10 Gun Chemist Alchemist
The idea for this build is to dish out damage from afar while providing yourself with an impenetrable defense. A way to become the equivalent of a Juggernaut from the Call of Duty series, just a bit more fantastical.
Beginning with race we’re going with a standard Human, couldn’t find any alternate racial traits that stuck out for me. Honestly this build is surprisingly malleable. Any race that buffs Dexterity or Intelligence would help, maybe there’s a neat race/racial trait combo that can excel with this build that I didn’t see.
A human however having a free bonus feat, and the favored class bonus for a gunslinger granting a quarter of grit per level is nice and valuable.
Ability scores are kinda straight forward and fitting for Malkos. As always listed in order of priority.
Dexterity is the primary stat for most gunslinger’s as they will be able to add their Dex modifier to their firearms damage at a certain point.
Intelligence is the primary stat for alchemists, improving your alchemical ordnances.
Wisdom for Grit, some skills, like perception, keen eyes of a hunter. Also increases will save to help keep you well rounded.
Constitution for health of course, but it shouldn’t be as much of an issue with how high your AC should be.
Strength I’d imagine you’d have to be fairly strong for this build but mechanically isn’t all too important.
Charisma well, nobody found Malkos charming.
Ok now on to the biscuits and gravy, keep in mind I make these builds in 5 level increments and like to give level 5 as much of the features as possible so if you’re starting a new game the build concept is easier to start rolling.
Level 5 – Take 3 levels in Gun Tank Gunslinger and 2 levels in Gun Chemist Alchemist
WEAPON AND ARMOR PROFICIENCIES
This build is proficient with all simple and martial weapons, all armors and shields, including tower shields, and of course all firearms.
GUNSMITH
Starting off with a battered musket that only you are proficient with. As a standard action, you can expend one use of alchemical ordnance to remove the broken condition from your firearm as long as that condition was gained from a misfire. Also gain Gunsmithing as a bonus feat, allowing you to restore your battered starter gun, repair broken guns and craft new guns and ammo very easily.
GRIT
At the start of each day, you gain a number of grit points equal to your Wisdom modifier. You spend grit points to accomplish Deeds and can regain grit in three ways;
Critical Hit with a Firearm
Killing Blow with a Firearm
Daring Acts and Dares: These are risky maneuvers that you can attempt to pull off to gain grit points. Daring Acts simply have a general guideline while Dares take up a Gunslingers bonus feats, which have already been replaced by the Gun Tank archetype. Daring Act is a great feature, sometimes you don’t land crits, or achieve a killing blow especially if you have a modest sized party. Be creative and I would even discuss with your GM that the more danger you put yourself into, the more grit you should get. This feature is very GM heavy as it’s ultimately their call.
DEEDS
These amazing actions either require you to spend a grit point or to have at least 1 grit point remaining in your pool. Details of these deeds can be extensive so to mitigate word inflation I’m just gonna provide the list you have access to for the build.
Deadeye
Quick Clear
Gun Tanks Resolve
Gunslinger Initiative
Pistol-Whip
Utility Shot: Each utility shot can be applied to any single attack with your gun, you must have at least 1 grit point to do any of the following;
• Blast Lock
• Scoot Unattended Object
• Stop Bleeding
BULLET DEFLECTION
While wearing heavy armor you gain half of your armor’s bonus plus the armor’s enhancement bonus as a deflection bonus against attacks from regular firearms and bombs.
ALCHEMY
Probably the most complicated type of caster. Your alchemy is your way to cast spells via drinking extracts, make your alchemical ordnances for your gun and make mutagens that enhcance your physical abilities.
MUTAGEN
Imbibing mutagens grants a +2 natural armor bonus and a +4 alchemical bonus to a physical ability score with a corresponding mental ability score taking a -2 penalty.
Strength – Intelligence
Dexterity – Wisdom
Constitution – Charisma
ALCHEMICAL ORDNANCE
Each day, you can infuse an amount of ammo equal to your alchemist level + Intelligence modifier. You can only fire one alchemical ordnance per round. Alchemical ordnance deals damage as normal, plus fire damage equal to 1d6 + Intelligence modifier. The damage also increases by 1d6 points at every other class level. Alchemical ordnance is treated like an alchemist’s Bomb feature for the purposes of discoveries and progression.
CARTRIDGE SAVANT
Alchemical cartridges will be your best friend anyways. When firing these cartridges and if a saving throw applys to negate or reduce the cartridge’s effect, the saving throw’s DC increases by 1. When firing an alchemical cartridge that deals a different type of damage like a dragon’s breath cartridge, you add your Intelligence modifier to the shots damage.
DISCOVERY 1 – Vestigial Arm – Don’t let the name fool you, through this discovery you gain a new arm that functions just like your original arms. Your new appendage can participate in your attack routines, but doesn’t add any new actions or attacks. The arm even has it’s own hand and ring magic item slots, again doesn’t add to your limit of slots. This arm will exclusively be used for a tower shield and whatever aid you may need. Now that’s handy!
FEATS
Point Blank Shot – Gain a +1 to attack and damage rolls against targets within 30 feet.
Precise Shot – No penalty from shooting at an opponent engaged in melee.
Deadly Aim – Essentially the power attack version for ranged weapons.
Rapid Reload – Reduces your relaod speed to a quicker action, other variables apply.
Level 10 – This time take 2 levels in Gun Tank Gunslinger and 3 levels in Gun Chemist Alchemist
ARMOR TRAINING
Whenever you’re wearing armor, the armor check penalty is reduced by 1 and the max Dex bonus allowed by the armor is increased by 1.
GUN TRAINING
You select a type of firearm and gain a bonus equal to your Dexterity modifier on damage with that type. Also when you misfire with that type of firearm, the misfire value increases by 2 instead of 4. Per the rules, and for the build we start with a musket, doesn’t mean you’re stuck with it. Later when we discuss equipment so keep this part in mind.
SWIFT ALCHEMY
It now takes you half the normal amount of time to create alchemical items, and applying poison to a weapon is now a move action.
DISCOVERY 2 – Chemical Stability – When firing an alchemical ordnance, you reduce the misfire value of the firearm by 1 and ignore the misfire value from using an alchemical cartridge to begin with.
ALCHEMICAL ORDNANCE – Upgraded fire damage to 3d6 + Intelligence modifier.
FEATS
Rapid Shot – Take an extra shot at your highest BAB after making your full attack at the expense of a -2 penalty on all attacks.
Far Shot – Decrease your range increment penalties by -1.
Level 15 – Rest of the way go Gun Chemist Alchemist
DISCOVERY 3 – Exploding Bullet – Your alchemical ordnance splashes adjacent targets, like the traditional bombs do. Dealing the alchemical ordnance’s minimum additional damage to other creatures caught in the splash, Reflex save for half damage.
REPEAT FIRE
Here you would’ve gotten Rapid Reload for free. It does state however if you already have this feat, you can instead gain one combat feat for which you qualify. So we will pick up Clustered Shots instead.
DISCOVERY 4 – Fast Ordnance – You can fire more than one piece of alchemical ordnance as part of a full attack.
ALCHEMICAL ORDNANCE – Upgraded fire damage to 5d6 + Intelligence modifier
DISCOVERY 5 – Explosive Bomb – Your alchemical ordnance now have a splash radius of 10 feet. Creatures that take a direct hit from an explosive bomb catch fire, taking 1d6 points of fire damage each round until the fire is extinguished.
FEATS
Clustered Shots – Total the damage from a full attack action before applying Damage Reduction.
Weapon Focus – Preferably the firearm that has Gun Training.
Armor Focus – Full Plate
Shield Focus – Tower Shield
SPELL EXTRACTS
I would focus on getting bomb admixtures and buff spells. The bomb admixtures aren’t the greatest, but works woth alchemical ordnance. I will list 3 of the admixtures that work best.
Targeted Bomb Admixture – Trade the splash effect for double your Intelligence modifier added to damage.
Lightning Lash Bomb Admixture – The target and 3 others caught in the splash who fail a Reflex save take 1d6 shock damage each time they take a move action or move more than 5 feet for the effects duration.
Viper Bomb Admixture – Vipers spawn from the admixture and make melee touch attacks (your BAB + your Intelligence modifier) against your target and 3 others who took damage from the initial splash. Dealing damage equal to 1d4 + your Intelligence modifier and poisoning their targets.
WEAPONS
Started off this build with a big heavy firearm in mind. Ultimately this build can excel with any early or advanced firearm. Whether you’re using a revolver or a blunderbuss you just need to make sure you deal damage and shrug off attacks. I will however state my top 3 choices.
Culverin – The first weapon I thought for a juggernaut gunner. It’s big, hits hard and works very well with the tower shield. With that 3rd arm, you can plant the shield to not only provide you total cover but also give you a means to fire the culverin without penalty or knocking you prone. It’s downfall is ammo and action economy, you need alchemical cartridges to excel with this build.
Pepperbox Rifle – Great option for an advanced firearm. With the high range it makes this rifle very valuable. Using metal cartridges for ammo only hinders your coin purse, which might be a hard sell depending on your game.
Double Barreled Musket – In my opinion the best option for this build. Strong, cheap, and versatile in terms of ammunition. You could stick with your starter battered rifle, but having two barrels with with reload routines gives your more versatility.
ARMOR
For this build there’s truly no wiggle room for armor. Go with Full Plate Armor, use a Buckler in your off-hand and use a Tower Shield in your 3rd hand. Max out your full plate first because when you plant your tower shield, you gain total cover instead of a shield bonus. The shield bonus from a buckler is only in effect while you don’t have your tower shield wielded as shield bonuses don’t stack.
WONDEROUS ITEMS
You don’t need all of them, just prioritize the items that excel your playstyle with this build.
Far Reaching Sight 4,000 gp – Regardless of your range increment you can spend a full round action to make a single shot at a target resolving against touch AC still. Good for a sniper playstyle.
Hoods Flair: Teal Bead 2,500 gp – There’s 4 options to choose from, they are all situational at best, costing you a grit point and a swift action. The Teal Bead however is activated in conjunction with your ranged attack, as it negates you from triggering attacks of opportunity while making the ranged attack.
Cyclops Helm 5,600 gp – A helm that grants you Flash of Insight? Does the helm come in black? Definitely worth the coin to immediately decide the result of a die roll. Checks, saves, attacks, make them nat 20’s! Just once a day though so be smart.
Greater Sniper Goggles 50,000 gp – A +2 bonus on each sneak attack at any range is a steep price. I added this here for your benefit if you wanted to play a sniper and not a frontline gunner.
Deadshot Vest 6,000 gp – This vest reduces the grit cost for using the Deadeye Deed by 1 to a minimum of 1, use it to bypass the initial cost for the first range increment you exceed. Once a day, if you bring an enemies HP down to zero or fewer, you can use Death Knell (Will DC13 negates) as a swift action. Range increment penalties also reduce the DC. Stay down kid!
Endless Bandolier 1,500 gp – Carry more ammo and firearms than you ever truly need.
Beneficial Bandolier 1,000 gp – Carries even more ammo, with the added benefit of spending a swift action to teleport a round of ammunition straight into your gun, further stretching out the reload routine.
Engineers Workgloves 3,000 gp – These gloves grant you a +5 competence bonus to craft and knowledge checks made to repair and understand mechanical devices. Like firearms, traps etc.
Figurine of Wonderous Power: Slate Spider 10,000 gp – This little guy will be your best friend for life! This little construct when activated will constantly groom you. As free action you command it to perch on your barrel, after every shot it will dive into your barrel, cleaning it out, granting you zero chance to misfire your next shot. Bye bye misfires, we didn’t care about you anyways.
Oil of Silence 250 gp – Marvelous cheap alternative to wasting spell slots. 1 hour silencer is great in covert ops, now need for ear plugs now.
See Invisibility Sight 12,000 gp – Sure you have to spend a full round action, but you can either locate an invisible creature you make a single shot against one whose location you already know ignoring its invisible quality entirely isn’t bad. For the price you would have to decide if it’s better than a spell slot or an allies spell slot.
That just about does it. Malkos is a very intriguing build and alot came out of this multiclass combo. Hope you’ve enjoyed it. As always if I missed something or if you have any tips or questions, let me know. Until the next, peace.
