Developer's Guide to the Gunsmith

September 6, 2026

The Development Process

The gunsmith started as an interpretation of the 5e artillerist into 2D so I could convert my 15th-level artificer in a campaign that started in 5e at 1st level. Throughout those 15 levels of play, the subclass felt spread too thinly across the niches of "wielding guns" (or wands) and "constructing turrets" (and walls). You can see the dichotomy in its features, summarized below.

5e Artillerist in a Nutshell

(3rd level) Tool Proficiency: gain proficiency with woodcarver's tools.

(3rd level) Artillerist Spells: shield, thunderwave

(3rd level) Eldritch Cannon: 1/long rest (or with a spell slot), use an action to make a flamethrower (15-foot cone, Dex save vs. 2d8 fire damage), force ballista (range 120 feet, 2d8 force damage and push 5 feet), or protector (burst 10, allies gain 1d8+Int temp hp) cannon that lasts for 1 hour. It can be handheld or mobile (walk or climb up to 15 feet), and is activated with a bonus action.

(5th level) Artillerist Spells: scorching ray, shatter

(5th level) Arcane Firearm: carve sigils into a wooden implement. Artificer spells cast through that implement deal +1d8 damage.

(9th level) Artillerist Spells: fireball, wind wall

(9th level) Explosive Cannon: cannons do +1d8 damage, and you can use an action to make one within 60 feet self-destruct (burst 20, Dex save vs. 3d8 force damage).

(13th level) Artillerist Spells: ice storm, wall of fire

(15h level) Fortified Position: you can have 2 cannons at the same time, activating them both with the same bonus action. Each cannon also grants half cover to allies within 10 feet.

(17th level) Artillerist Spells: cone of cold, wall of force

To be a gunslinging artificer in 5e, you'd play an Artillerist, wield an Eldritch Cannon on one hand, and cast scorching ray, shatter, and fireball through your Arcane Firearm in the other hand. The problem is you're a half-caster, and you only get one free Eldritch Cannon per day, so it never feels like you "have" a gun. To be fair, Arcane Firearm applies to cantrips as well, e.g. fire bolt (although I preferred acid splash for the spread damage and bypassing fiendish fire resistance—guess the campaign module!), and base artificer's 11th-level Spell-storing Item gives 10 free uses of a 1st- or 2nd-level artificer spell per long rest (I liked shatter). It doesn't feel bad to play, but a lot of the gun-related fluff is on you to imagine. When you cast all your spells through an Arcane Firearm that's explicitly carved of wood, it's hard for it to feel like anything but a wand. And wands are for wizards.

Unfortunately, many of the remaining artillerist features work against the gun-wielding playstyle. Turret-centric features start at 3rd level with the protector Eldritch Cannon option. It's usually best to have the cannon walk itself over to where it's needed. It gets really bad for gunslingers at 9th level with Explosive Cannon, unless you like your guns exploding in your face. I have never used it, although that's mostly because using your action to destroy your most valuable combat tool to deal the same damage as it normally does, but also to half your party, is a bad idea. At 15th level, Fortified Position all but requires a walking Eldritch Cannon, since you can't wield two cannons along with your Arcane Firearm. The three wall spells are also construction-themed, of course.

Both niches—gun-wielder and turret-builder—are great, and deserve representation in 2D. The 5e artillerist proves to me that they should be put in separate subclasses, though. Possibly influenced by Brandon Sanderson's Wax and Wayne western fantasy novels, I decided to convert my character to a gunsmith. Here's a summary.

2D Gunsmith in a Nutshell

(3rd level) Well-armed: learn hand cannon infusion (a gun with stats of a hand crossbow + loud); +2 gun infusions active at a time; can have 2 of the same gun infusion active at a time.

(3rd level) Gun Modifications: when you make a gun, you can permanently modify it in one of four ways. Other creatures can attune for full benefits.

Silenced: remove loud property; don't reveal position when hidden.

Bladed: free action to toggle melee weapon (choose damage type when gun is created). Weapon is finesse and light/heavy/two-handed depending on the gun, and does a d6/d8/d10 depending on its properties. Using the blade gives advantage on your next ranged attack with a gun against the same target before the end of your next turn.

Aimed: double range; +1 AP to add Int to attack roll.

Loaded: loading=12; separate loading 1 chamber that can shoot 1 Slug or Arcing bullet per hour for free

(3rd level) Bullet Charges: Int/rest, shoot a special bullet. Minor action to expend a spell slot to gain that many charges.

Slug: +Int damage, push up to 10 ft.

Arcing: changes direction once mid-flight, ignores partial cover, advantage.

(7th level) Advanced Munitions: learn new bullet options that cost 2 charges each.

Explosive: on hit, 10-foot-radius sphere, Dex save vs. 3d6 elemental damage.

Tunneling: go through 2 intermediate targets.

(7th level) Propulsive Recoil: get pushed back up to 5 ft. by your own recoil, or 15 ft. if Slug or in Explosive.

(11th level) Masterful Modifications: +2 gun infusions active at a time; can modify each gun twice.

(11th level) Spell Shooter: shoot spell objects to activate them.

(15th level) Hybrid Munitions: combine two bullet options in one bullet.

This was the first subclass for which I consulted a subject-matter expert. He had dozens of feature ideas and gave numerous insights into gun technology and methodology. The hardest part was narrowing down a core set of features into a cohesive subclass. At some point, I realized that the gunsmith should emphasize technological skills, not martial skills. For example, a gunsmith's accuracy comes from rifled barrels, scopes, and homing bullets more than shooting practice and smart tactics. All of that martial stuff deserves its own subclass. A gunslinger fighter, perhaps.

Anyways, there were still a lot of tech-related ideas to pare down. Many gun-adjacent technologies, like smoke bombs and grenades, blessedly come for free with base artificer spell objects (e.g. fog cloud and shatter/the newly-added fire burst, respectively). Many guns also already existed in base artificer as infusions: the quickshot gun (revolver), scattershot gun (shotgun), and longshot gun (sniper rifle). That mostly left a hodgepodge of gun parts. I didn't want to stray too far from standard fantasy immersion by discussing rifling, sights, and scopes (which is also why the gun infusions are named the way they are), nor could a single subclass have individually represented each of those aiming components. The Gun Modifications feature consolidates and abstracts common gun components. For example, the "Aimed" modification encompasses the aforementioned aiming components. The "Bladed", "Loaded", and "Silenced" modifications are inspired by bayonets, magazines, and silencers, respectively. The abstract names are intended to leave room for fantastical interpretations. Note that Bladed works well with dual wielding, but Aimed does not.

3rd-level gunsmiths need a gun to modify, and my SME friend's suggestion of the hand cannon—the actual name for the earliest firearm—was perfect for this. A historically-accurate hand cannon would be two-handed and heavy, not light, but "hand cannon" is more evocative than "derringer" to me. The Well-armed feature provides hand cannons and extra gun infusion activations, enabling Gun Modifications.

The last 3rd-level feature, Bullet Charges, is inspired more by Wax and Wayne than anything in reality. I went through many bullet ideas before settling on just two (plus two more with Advanced Munitions). Slug's extra damage and knockback started as two different bullets; an elemental bullet was removed in lieu of giving Bladed any damage type and Explosive variable damage type; Armor Piercing and Antimagic were removed outright. I had also considered combining bullets with spell objects, but that idea lost out to Spell Shooter. Prototypical Arcing bullets could follow an arbitrary path through space, but that felt implausible. Lastly, I'll give an honorable mention to blanks, which I never figured out how to work into the attack-based bullet system. Maybe it could have been a standalone feature to deal thunder damage in a cone. One can get pretty close by making thunderwave spell objects that are activated when fired from a gun, at least (but note that this would still require a standard action).

At 7th level, Advanced Munitions's Explosive and Tunneling bullets bring AOE into the gunsmith's armory. 7th level also brings Propulsive Recoil, which is directly inspired by steel-pushing off of bullets in Wax and Wayne. Propulsive Recoil is the gunsmith's de-facto "defensive" option, allowing them to escape an enemy's reach. An early version of Bladed stepped on its toes by preventing opportunity attacks from a creature targeted by the blade, similar to the Mobile feat. The current Bladed synergizes instead: a Bladed attack sets up a close-quarters ranged attack, which in turn allows escape. Propulsive Recoil can also give a speed boost or out-of-combat jumping ability.

11th level brings Masterful Modifications, which lets you put two modifications on a single gun. The modifications are all mutually compatible, but I don't think any combination is significantly more powerful than the rest. Masterful Modifications also gives a probably-much-needed increase to the number of extra gun infusions a gunsmith can have active. This level's more interesting feature, to me, is Spell Shooter, which effectively lets you cast a spell by spending an attack. For example, if you gave a repair minor damage spell object to an ally, you could shoot the object to heal your ally and then shoot an enemy on the same turn, whereas normally you'd have to choose to make two attacks or cast the spell. As another example, you could shoot a shatter bomb placed in the middle of a group of enemies. You can even activate a spell object with a Tunneling bullet or the spray from a scattershot gun (although you still can't cast more than one spell per turn).

To come up with capstone features, I often think, "what limitation could I break or bend in a fun way?". For the gunsmith, that question led to both 11th level's Masterful Modifications and 15th level's Hybrid Munitions. Unlike gun modifications, bullet charge options synergize in interesting ways:

Arcing + Slug. Push a creature in an arbitrary direction.
Arcing + Tunneling. No longer need three targets to align to hit them all.
Slug + Explosive. Launch yourself up to 25 feet with Propulsive Recoil. Also the highest single-target damage option.
Slug + Tunneling. Push an entire line of targets, or just triply distribute Slug's bonus damage.
Explosive + Tunneling. Make a whole chain of explosions.

That's it for features. Overall, I'm happy with the gunsmith's abilities, but I worry that it's overpowered. It seems very good at pulling off a "nova", burning through a lot of resources at once to achieve high damage per round. I've tried to mitigate that, even while writing this blog post. For example, converting spell slots to bullets originally cost no actions, so a quickshot gun could unload three Slug+Explosive bullets (costing 9 bullet charges, more than any gunsmith's maximum) in a single round. Even worse, activating spell objects with Spell Shooter almost didn't count as casting a spell, so a gunsmith could cast three spells at once (read: three fire bursts) with a single Tunneling bullet. It's possible that the gunsmith is kept in check by its heavy dependence on both Dex and Int; only playtesting will tell.

I'm also not happy that Magic Tactics in Artificer Combat Tactics I and II is a trap option for gunsmiths. The extra attack granted by Martial Tactics II is basically mandatory, while the doubled spell slot efficiency of Magic Tactics II doesn't even apply to the creation of bullet charges. I intend to rework the tactics eventually, but I'm not sure how yet. When I do, the trap will disappear.

Lastly, I'll comment on the fact that the Gunsmith only grants a single free gun infusion known (the hand cannon at 3rd level). I debated for a long time about whether the lack of free gun infusions constituted an unfair tax on infusions known. I think it is not. An artificer can typically only make half of their known infusions plus one (from Sustaining Attunement). The Gunsmith breaks that rule, granting two (and eventually four) extra gun infusions active at a time, making those latent known infusions usable. A gunsmith might be less flexible than other artificers with their infusions, locked into the same set of active infusions every day, but that doesn't seem like a big loss to me.

Despite my best efforts, I wouldn't be surprised if some gunsmith subbuild turned out to be broken. With so many options, it's hard to foresee every problem. I'll be paying close attention to how gun infusions, gun modifications, bullet options, spell objects, and base game rules such as dual wielding and multiclassing are combined during playtesting. I hope you look forward to future improvements to 2D, from gunsmith balancing to a gunslinger subclass and on-topic feats!

Template Character

If you want to make a gunsmith artificer quickly, you're out of luck for now. There are too many diverging playstyles for a single template to do the subclass justice. But whatever you do, take Martial Tactics.