The blue mage uses his magic to imbue his firearms with spells. The practice needed to learn and perfect the art of guns and magic means they have less time to hone their blue magic to perfection, and never learn to mimic the fighting styles of monsters. But combining this emerging technology with their considerable arcane skills, they transform firearms into a powerful focus.
The gun mage is an archetype of the blue mage class.
Archetype Main Ability Scores:
The gun mage mainly focuses on DEX for martial combat and INT for their class features and spellcasting.
Archetype Feature Replacements:
1st – Cantrips, Spell Proficiency, Blue Magery. 2nd – Azure Talent, Favored Enemy, Scan. 4th – Azure Physical Training, Azure Talent. 6th – Azure Talent, Invoke. 8th – Azure Physical Training, Azure Talent. 10th – Azure Talent. 12th – Azure Physical Training, Azure Talent. 14th – Azure Talent, Seen It Before. 16th – Azure Physical Training, Azure Talent. 18th – Azure Talent. 20th – Assimilation, Azure Physical Training, Azure Talent.
Sapphire Gun (Su)
At 1st level, the gun mage gains the feat Exotic Weapon Proficiency (simple firearms). At the start of each day, or by spending 10 minutes, the gun mage can attune one or two of his carried firearms to function as sapphire guns. He may only have up to two attuned at a time, and may remove the attunement as a free action. Sapphire guns have no special function in the hands of anyone but a gun mage.
As a standard action, the gun mage can cast any blue mage spell which uses a ranged touch attack, cone, line or ray for targeting through his sapphire gun, as long as its casting time is a standard action or less. Spells do not use the sapphire gun’s ammo (but regular attacks do). When he casts through the sapphire gun, the gun’s enchantment bonus (If any) is added to the spell’s attack rolls or saving throw DCs. When using this ability, the gun’s misfire chance (if any) still applies for the attack rolls, and also applies for saving throws made against spells cast through the gun (A natural 20 on a saving throw is equivalent to a natural 1 on an attack roll for this purpose; a 19 is equivalent to a 2, and so on). Spells do not use the sapphire gun’s critical multiplier – their multiplier is 2x if the gun mage wields two sapphire guns and 3x if only a single sapphire gun is attuned.
If a spell has both a saving throw and an attack roll, only the attack roll can misfire. If a spell has multiple targets, only one misfire can occur per spell. A sapphire gun gains the broken condition normally if it misfires on a spell. If a broken sapphire gun misfires from a spell cast again, it explodes. The explosion’s damage is non-elemental unless the spell cast had an elemental descriptor – in this case the explosion deals damage of that element (or one of choice, if there were multiple descriptors). This explosion occurs centered on a single intersection within the gun mage’s space (of their choice) and deals damage equal to (1d6 per level of the spell cast). The gun mage (and his firearm) are dealt the full damage, but other creatures in the area can make a Reflex saving throw to halve the damage taken (DC = 10 + spell level + INT mod). The gun mage cannot regain life from this damage, at best fully resisting it. Cast spells are not cancelled if a misfire/explosion occurs. A sapphire gun cannot be used to cast spells after exploding until its broken condition is removed.
This ability replaces cantrips, favored enemy and seen it before.
Precise Shot
The gun mage gains Precise Shot as a bonus feat.
This ability replaces spell proficiency.
Gunsmith
The gun mage gains the Gunsmithing feat and a battered gun that is identical to the gun a gunner gains at first level. If the gun mage chooses the ability to attune two sapphire guns, he still only starts out with one gun. Like a gunner, a gun mage can use the Gunsmithing feat to restore his battered gun.
This ability replaces a blue magery gained at 1st level.
Mage Bullets (Su)
A gun mage is adept at transferring spell energy into his sapphire gun attacks. As a swift action, he can spend MP (up to the highest spell level he can cast) and transform that energy into a weapon bonus equal to the MP spent on a single barrel of his firearm. With that weapon bonus the gun mage can apply any of the following to his weapon: enhancement bonuses (up to +5) and allying, designating (lesser and greater), distance, earthen, earthen burst, flaming, flaming burst, frost, ghost touch, huntsman, icy burst, jetstream, jetstream burst, merciful, roaring, roaring burst, seeking, shock, shocking burst, spell storing, thundering, and wounding. A sapphire gun gains no benefit from having two of the same weapon special abilities on the same barrel. The effect of the mage bullets ability lasts for a number of minutes equal to the MP spent, or until this ability is used again to assign the barrel different enhancements.
This ability replaces cantrips and invoke, but the gun mage gains the detect magic and read magic cantrips. He can cast either of these as 1st-level spells.
Blue Magery (Ex)
At 1st level, the gun mage loses natural prowess blue magery but gains access to the following:
- Magic Shot: While the gun mage’s gun is imbued with power from the mage bullets, he can fire non-elemental bullets instead of regular ammunition. A non-elemental bullet deals 1d4 points of non-elemental damage for every time this blue magery is selected. Non-elemental bullets do not use black powder or ammunition and count as magic for the purpose of bypassing damage reduction.
This ability modifies blue magery.
Gunnery Talents (Ex)
As a gun mage gains experience, he learns a number of talents that aid his marksmanship skills. Starting at 2nd level, a gun mage gains one gunnery talent or azure talent. He gains an additional gunnery talent or azure talent for every two levels of blue mage attained after 2nd level. A gun mage must meet the prerequisite of the talent selected and unless specified otherwise, each talent can only be selected once. If a talent requires grit, the gun mage may use MP instead to pay for the activation.
- A complete list of gunnery talents can be found here: Gunnery Talents
This ability may replace azure talents.
Gun Fix (Ex)
At 2nd level, as a swift action, a gun mage can remove the broken condition from a single firearm he is currently wielding, as long as that condition was gained by a firearm misfire. He can use this ability a number of times per day equal to his Intelligence modifier.
This about replaces scan.
Fiend Hunter (Su)
At 4th level, the gun mage may choose a creature type (and subtype, if he chooses Humanoid or Outsider). He may spend 1 MP as a swift action to grant his sapphire guns the bane ability against that creature type. This benefit lasts until the beginning of his next turn. At 8th level and every four levels thereafter, the gun mage may select an additional creature type, and can choose to grant his sapphire guns the bane ability against that creature type instead. The gun mage may only have one fiend hunter ability active at a time.
Beginning at 12th level, the gun mage may spend an additional 2 MP to gain an additional +2 bonus to Attack rolls and +2d6 damage against the creature type.
This ability replaces azure physical training.
Fiend Slayer (Su)
At 20th level, once per day per creature type, the gun mage can spend an additional 2 MP when using his fiend hunter ability. In addition to taking damage normally, a creature that takes bonus damage from the gun mage’s fiend hunter ability must make a Fortitude Save (DC 10 + half of the blue mage’s level + his Intelligence modifier) or die. A gun mage can choose instead to deal an amount of nonlethal damage equal to the creature’s current hit points. A successful save negates this damage.
This ability replaces assimilation.