Weapon/Stunt idea: The Gunblade

[Mr. Death]

Talking with a friend earlier about Squall's gunblade from Final Fantasy VIII, and how she plans to adapt it into Pathfinder, so it got me thinking of how it might work in Dresden. For those unfamiliar, the Gunblade is mostly sword, with a revolver as a hilt, and when the trigger is pulled, the cartridge inside goes off, the explosion vibrating the blade for extra damage. In the game, you had to time a button press with the character's strike to get the benefit. It's also said in-game that it's very difficult to use properly.

Now, as for replicating this in Dresden, firstly it's probably a Weapon:3 sword just on its own. I was thinking of a stunt for Gunblade Mastery to represent the good timing -- something like, whenever you roll a natural +3, add 2 to the weapon stress.

Thoughts?

[Taran]

There's the fist stunt that lets you do +3 damage with a FP.  Some people don't like having to pay a FP to use a stunt but it seems to fit.   Or maybe using a FP to invoke an aspect gives you a +3 to hit instead of a +2?

OR  when you spend a FP invoke an aspect to hit (and succeed) you ALSO get a +2 to damage.

[PirateJack]

As awesome as the gunblade looks, I'm going to have to be That Guy and point out that it possibly the single most useless weapon ever devised in reality.

That said, stunts adding +2 damage every hit are used as examples in the rulebook, +3 and above usually requires a Fate Point.

[dragoonbuster]

Why not just make it an aspect and invoke it when needed? This is what this comes off as to me. I'd save the refresh on the stunt, personally.

BUT, if you're set on a stunt, I definitely wouldn't go with the +2 damage on a +3 or higher roll; you'll rarely get to take advantage of that. I do like the +2 stress when invoking one of your aspects to boost the strike roll.

Or you could go for +2 stress on a successful strike that gains 2 or more shifts over your target's defense, aka, nailing a great strike. That's more statistically useful than the "on a +3 roll."

[Sanctaphrax]

Normally I'd just suggest a stunt giving +2 stress with that weapon, but IIRC you always count it as a Compel when you can't use the weapon of your choice. So that probably wouldn't be appropriate for your games.

Even so, though, I think your proposed stunt is too weak. Might be good enough if it just required a natural +2, but even then it wouldn't be great. Less than 1 in 5 rolls is +2 or better.

There's the fist stunt that lets you do +3 damage with a FP.

Killer Blow. It's not very good. You spend a Refresh point to buy the stunt, and a fate point to activate it, and in exchange you get a +3 stress bonus. If you just invoked two Aspects you'd get a +4 bonus, and it'd be to hit rather than to stress.

Your other suggestions sound much better to me.

Or you could go for +2 stress on a successful strike that gains 2 or more shifts over your target's defense, aka, nailing a great strike. That's more statistically useful than the "on a +3 roll."

Also a good idea, if you ask me.