Hotshot Bandolier
Wondrous item, rare (requires attunement)
While wearing this magic bandolier, you can use your reaction when you roll initiative to make a single attack with a ranged weapon you're holding against a target within the weapon's normal range. If you're not already holding a ranged weapon, you can cause one to magically teleport to your open hand or hands as part of this reaction, provided the weapon is on your person.
The bandolier produces its own +2 firearm bullets, which can be loaded into a weapon as part of the bandolier's reaction when you roll initiative. These bullets are special, exploding immediately after the attack. Hit or miss, the target and each other creature within 5 feet of it must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or take 2d6 fire damage; the original target automatically fails this save if it was hit by the attack. If a special bullet that's removed from the bandolier isn't fired before the end of your next turn, it disappears in a small, crackling plume of smoke (like a firecracker). 1d4 missing special bullets reappear in the bandolier daily at dawn, up to maximum of 4.
Other types of magic bandoliers of this kind exist, such as ones that produce +2 bolts meant for crossbows, though ones that produce +2 firearm bullets are most common.
Seems to me, when facing down a whole crew of bandits, speed and distraction are your greatest allies. Draw steel fast and lay 'em low: I guarantee when those explosive tips hit 'em in the chest, they'll lose their nerve right quick.
Of course, I'm always quicker.
—Musings of Galvez, hellbound pistolero
Comments (3)
Isn’t this fairly undertuned for a rare item or am I just reading it wrong? A rare item that requires attunement, that you get to use once with your reaction at the start of a fight, which may or may not hit more than one character, is rolled with disadvantage and then triggers a DC15 dex check. Average dex save modifier for monsters is +2, so that means 40% of the time it just won’t do anything. And all for an addition 2-12+dmg modifier fire dmg, which is the most resisted dmg type in the game. Like for rare and attunement it sits in a class of items along with cloak of displacement, bracers of unarmored defence , all of the Tasha +2 focii and so on. It just feels like it should either not be attunement or not be a rare item - unless I’m fundamentally misunderstanding how it works.
Yup. It should roll with advantage instead of a disadvantage and I'd just make it plain 2d4/2d6 bonus damage to the ranged weapon if the character's weapon doesn't already have a bonus damage rider akin to Dragon's wrath weapon. If the character is already holding something like that, then limited uses are viable but 1d4 is still not enough. Should be 6-12 per long rest.
So, I have a character I've made, Belladonna Wytchwood. She's a Wizard-subclass Plague Doctor. My husband helped me flavor her as wearing a bandolier that holds the potion bottle spells. This seems tailor-made for her 😆.