My question is simple. I envision it being realized at some point that one could bind an elemental (air, fire, or possibly even water) to a device such that the elemental could push projectiles through a tube, thus creating very powerful projectile launchers (i.e., guns, or at least the equivalent to a pneumatic air cannon). This is my version of the arcane firearm analogs that I think ought to exist in Eberron. This thread isn't really meant to debate whether this would actually happen or not, but this is rather the assumption my question starts with.
The question is, when you're talking about bound elementals instead of real world pneumatics/hydraulics, does it make any difference (in regards to power) what kind of elemental is used to propel projectiles? I know that the level of the elemental is obviously a factor, but given the absence of real world physics (mostly), is there any reason to choose, say, a fire elemental over an air elemental or water elemental?
I just wanted to throw this idea out there for speculative purposes. Thanks.
I'd see the stats as:
Proficiency: +3
Damage: 1d8
Range: 15/30
Price: 100gp
Weight: 10 lb.
Group: Crossbow (their use is similar)
Properties: Load free (minor action to reload the ammo box), high crit, brutal 1, ammo 20
Ammo property (homebrew): your weapon has a limited number of shots before it must be reloaded.
I suspect that somebody with the Mark of Storm might gain some additional benefit.
In regards to your question, I don't think that the type of elemental will matter; you could use a fire elemental and some explosive substance for a more firearms feel, and water and air are both hydraulic fluids (with air being less dense), but I think for rifles, an air elemental makes the most sense given its similar capabilities to a blowgun.
I've been reading a lot about air cannons and have been repeatedly surprised at how powerful pneumatic projectile throwers actually are; if someone with a physics degree could come in here and confirm/refute this, I am getting the impression that they may even compete with low-velocity black powder weapons (at least in higher pressure models).
In any case, I had just been reading about the Girandoni Air Rifle before I posted this. I think it would be extremely (almost laughably) easy to make the equivalent of firearms powered by bound elementals. You simply say that the same technology that binds an air or fire elemental to that ring around airships can be used to bind it to the barrel of a gun, having a chamber in the back that the elemental is bound to before being released into the barrel to push the projectile. It so absurdly obvious to me at this point that I don't know why I never thought of it before. I think I am going to say that they are still experimental weapons, obviously, but this has more to do with the scarcity of Khyber shards and the monopoly over elemental binding that the Zil Gnomes have.
Boy, won't those Darguuls be horrified when they attempt to invade Zilargo thinking they could easily overwhelm those "weak" Gnomes, only to be repulsed by Zilargo's new elemental cannons and rifles...
It's the Cannith Windchester!
So, the first models would be large field pieces, with a member (or two) of the crew being a magewright specially trained in controlling elementals. Eventually, though, a mechanism (like the lever shown above) would be developed to artificially force the elemental back into the storage chamber, thus allowing practical small arms to be developed.
Small arms development would skip straight into repeating rifles at that point, with no analog to musketry at all.
I imagine that an air or fire elemental would naturally tend to want to expand as much as possible, so this is what would drive the projectile forward. It still works a little like air compression, but without the mechanical devices since you're dealing with a living being in the elemental (and so can use other, more magically flavored, means to control it).
Hm. Ok... Another way to do it is to bind the elemental into a loop, and one part of the loop is the barrel of the gun. The bullet would then be tossed into the jet stream created by the elemental. Since the bullet is now bound to a specific path, it travels down the barrel and exits while the elemental keeps zooming through its racetrack. I'd imagine the contraption looking something like a chainsaw with a gun barrel on top.
Machine gun.
This is all made out of cardstock/foamcore and could add some flavor to any table. I would think that inside the "lightning chamber" is where the bound elemental would go.
The only problem the lightning gun would have in my version is that the elemental can't actually leave the contraption within which it is bound. If it could... well, then it would be dangerous to the wielder. So, considering this, I'm not sure where the electricity would come from. Sounds like it'd be cool in general, though.
Simple. A lightning gun uses negatively charged crystals to scrub base particles from the weave, which are stored in a capacitor and ionized by a captured lightning elemental to give the particles the proper offensive qualities. When fully charged, the gyroscopic accelerator empties the capcitor's contents in a highly precise stream of, now lightning, particles that effectively resembles natural lightning in form, appearance, and function for most intents and purposes. The entire charging process is highly efficient and normally takes no more than six seconds.
Simple. A lightning gun uses negatively charged crystals to scrub base particles from the weave, which are stored in a capacitor and ionized by a captured lightning elemental to give the particles the proper offensive qualities. When fully charged, the gyroscopic accelerator empties the capcitor's contents in a highly precise stream of, now lightning, particles that effectively resembles natural lightning in form, appearance, and function for most intents and purposes. The entire charging process is highly efficient and normally takes no more than six seconds.
LMAO... point taken.
I personally prefer keeping the technobabble to a minimum, however.
Simple. A lightning gun uses negatively charged crystals to scrub base particles from the weave, which are stored in a capacitor and ionized by a captured lightning elemental to give the particles the proper offensive qualities. When fully charged, the gyroscopic accelerator empties the capcitor's contents in a highly precise stream of, now lightning, particles that effectively resembles natural lightning in form, appearance, and function for most intents and purposes. The entire charging process is highly efficient and normally takes no more than six seconds.
LMAO... point taken.
I personally prefer keeping the technobabble to a minimum, however.
Fine then. A wizard did it. Ruin my fun, why don't ya.
Fine then. A wizard did it. Ruin my fun, why don't ya.
One of the things I love about Eberron is that when you invoke A wizard did it, it's meant to be taken literally. :P
Oh, and Tv Tropes Will Ruin Your Life.
Especially since in 4E there are a lot more elementals then the basic 4, and one of them are storm elementals which combine air and lighting. All they have to do is charge an arrow, which is fired just like a crossbow, and you have your taser gun ;) Mind you, all you have to do mechanically is add the flaming enchantment to a crossbow and you have your elemental gun, although, that might not have the punch you are looking for.
I'm definitely looking more for an arcane gun analog than a supercrossbow. Something about it just feels more... clean. But I see no reason to make magic guns in the sense of guns that shoot spells (I was moving in this direction before). It's just that recently I have taken an interest in pneumatic cannons and it struck me that something similar (but D&D flavored) would fit right into Eberron.
I generally associate gunpowder with alchemy, so that's obviously inappropriate to me (although on Mr. Baker's blog he did answer a quesiton about gunpowder once and suggested that this could perhaps be a development of goblins since they are deficient in arcane magic; I may want to take this further and say that alchemy-as-Khorvairians-know-it was a development of Dhakaan, although much of it is lost). Basically, the "guns" I am thinking of are elementals pushing projectiles, which would appear as if they were simply pneumatic cannons, while in fact they are far more powerful because it's an elemental pushing it rather than gas pressure.
One character in a previous game had a Shocking Burst crossbow that we flavored to basically be an air tazer: the bolts fired were of a conductive material that an arc of lightning from the bound elemental leapt to in order to inflict damage.
We also has a pertinent thread a little while ago that may be of some interest.
My question is simple. I envision it being realized at some point that one could bind an elemental (air, fire, or possibly even water) to a device such that the elemental could push projectiles through a tube, thus creating very powerful projectile launchers (i.e., guns, or at least the equivalent to a pneumatic air cannon). This is my version of the arcane firearm analogs that I think ought to exist in Eberron. This thread isn't really meant to debate whether this would actually happen or not, but this is rather the assumption my question starts with.
A projectile launcher is more likely to be more similar to a recoilless rifle than a firearm: a simple tube that launches a projectile with an elemental bound to it, rather than an elementally-bound item that launches other objects.
The idea would likely seem strange to most eberron scolars: why get an elemental to throw a solid object at a target when you could probably get it to throw a lightning bolt or searing ray more easily. However, the laws of any particular setting are mutable in the hands of the DM, and if he wants to rule that elemental guns work better this way, then they just plain do, and its likely that the inhabitants have always known it and developed gunlike effects over their history just as they have done with other magical effects.
The question is, when you're talking about bound elementals instead of real world pneumatics/hydraulics, does it make any difference (in regards to power) what kind of elemental is used to propel projectiles? I know that the level of the elemental is obviously a factor, but given the absence of real world physics (mostly), is there any reason to choose, say, a fire elemental over an air elemental or water elemental?
It would likely have to be an air elemental.
Given that gunpowder and similar substances do not work/exist in Eberron, there is no association of fire with pressure: fire consumes or melts stuff, it doesn't throw it around. Even Fireballs have no "blast" component to them.
Likewise Water and Earth elementals don't really have the ability to throw stuff around other than by using their physical form to pick it up and fling it. Maybe an earth-elemental powered spring gun?
This leaves Air elementals, which seem to be the obvious candidates for getting a projectile to fly.
Once you get away from the "binding to the projectile" concept, you could perhaps develop gun-like weapons. They might evolve from an "elemental-bound blowpipe" into a more gunlike weapon that doesn't just enhance its users breath, but replaces it.
Its going to need a siberys shard somewhere, although whether its hidden in the mechanism or visible is up to you. There is no real need for it to look like a tube unless you are determined that it should. A wingless crossbow is perhaps more likely to start with, for ease of reloading if nothing else.
Likewise the ammunition is likely to appear more as bolts or blowgun darts: there is no fire involved that would require solid metal ammunition, and they fly better and do more damage.
Its also quite likely that they will require a dragonmarked user (probably Mark of Storm) to get the best results from, or even to use at all.
Given that gunpowder and similar substances do not work/exist in Eberron, there is no association of fire with pressure: fire consumes or melts stuff, it doesn't throw it around. Even Fireballs have no "blast" component to them.
Actually, fire elementals are used for the propulsion of airships (the actual lift is mostly because of the wood used which comes from Aeranal) so there is precedence for fire elementals being used for propulsion.
I suppose a larger one could release the elemental? I could see fire elementals being very useful in this capacity; ram a missile into the target, and then they have to deal with the raging, released fire elemental as well as the impact damage from the missile. Wicked.
In any case, I was imagining that small arms could be built, which is why I imagined it would be more like an air rifle or a firearm. I don't think that the advantages of a high speed rock or metal slug would be lost on people with mechanical throwing devices, and I'll have you know that a metal slug flying at high speed does far more damage than a crossbow bolt (and the reason why the slug is metal has nothing to do with the fire; it's the same reason why slings use lead bullets instead of chunks of wood). Not that you're points are invalid at all; I just think there are more creative ways to use it.
The ammunition has a small peice of Kyber crystal at the back (about the size of a grain of rice)
the trigger raises the ammunition into the barrel. there is a bound elemental in the shard at the back of the barrel, where a firing pin would normally be.
when the ammunition touches the bound elemental's crystal, the elemental is free to move to the ammunition, which it does.
when it does, it realises that the ammunition is even more confining than the gun, and hates it. therefore, it moves back into the gun, and rejects the ammunition, launching it.
because of the brief time spent in the ammunition, the ammunition gains a small elemental charge, depending on the type of elemental.