I think this is the third ‘Into the Breach’ by Flying Pincushion. Into the Breach is a series of books expanding on paizo’s base classes with new Archetypes, Class options, Alternate Classes and Prestige Classes, This one focusing on the Gunslinger. The 34 page document kicks in with the crunch on page 5 and the last page is legal information leaving 29 pages of content.

First lets look at the Archetypes…

The Black Powder knight comes out as kind of a merger between Gunslinger and Paladin. It gets Lay on Hands and a gun variant on Divine Bond. I wish the Divine Bond thing was rewritten because there are a few ambiguities, like what effective Paladin level the BP Knight has or whether or not he can take a steed. The other abilities are general protection things although one ability seems weird. Essentially you purposely misfire to deal damage to all enemies in 30 ft and stabilize all allies in 30 ft. Why it does both of these things I don’t understand, I guess because of Paladin powers. Overall I’m not excited. As an archetype of a mundane weapon-based class it seems to be dipping too far into a class with magical abilities. Not to mention that Paladin has a Gun-wielding archetype.

The Boltslinger seems to be a Crossbow Gunslinger. It does mostly what it’s supposed to do, although I’m not sure if it makes crossbows viable. (probably not) The odd abilities out of the bunch: Bolt Ladder lets you ignore hardness to walls when making footholds for climbing. Seems as oddly specific and compares to the Monk’s Slow Fall ability in usefulness. Poison use is also Weird but not really bad in any way.

Bombard Blades get a free melee weapon that is also a gun. Well not a real gun. Its more that it uses ammunition to explode on whatever you struck. The wording explaining it feels very clunky with some redundant language but seems to function once you read everything. In the end it looks like a fun class and comes with a new weapon for everyone else.

Cunning Scoundrel is funny and looks fun. Basically a Gunslinger with Sneak attack and some tricks involving weapons that are hybrid gun/melee weapons like Axe Muskets.

Frogman is an Underwater Gunslinger slinging spear guns. It mostly does what it says on the tin but it has a few oddballs. One ability adds to the Frogman’s Swim Speed when it should probably grant a swim speed if the creature doesn’t already have one. The frogman has two abilities that are weirdly specific. One works if the enemy could fall off of something and into water and apparently summons predatory aquatic creatures. As a class ability this is just nonsensical.

Powderman is pretty much Bomberman. It has one ability that is very unclear about how it works but otherwise functions as one would expect. Gains the Alchemist Bomb Class feature at a lvl 4.

The Wyrd Hunter is some sort of anti-supernatural serial killer I guess. Honestly it looks pretty weak despite looking like it functions properly

The Trickshot is a bit more exciting. It can make ranged Dirty Tricks with guns and gets bonuses to it. In some ways this may be too strong because it gets sort-of called shots per attack. Looks good and fun.

Now onto the Alternate Class: The Gungineer.

The Gungineer has some different deeds and grit (they are named differently) and really they seem very Gunslinger-ish. Nothing terribly off beat or anything. It does get a special named weapon that cannot be enchanted (no word on what to do if it gets lost) This named gun can get abilities based on a pool of modification points much like an Eidolon’s Evolution points. Its about as cool as it sounds but at such a short book it leaves you feeling like the concept alone could have been a 100 page book.

Now the Prestige Classes:

Theres the Grey Eye, a necromancer Gunslinger. Basically the Gunslinger has to get his eye popped out and replaced by some kind of necromancer eye, capable of storing grit and giving some some necromancy themed abilities and spells. I like it well enough, although BAB and HD aren’t tied.

The Hex gunner is a Witch x Gunslinger prestige class and really does what you’d expect. Shoot hexes. Honestly nothing is going to make me like this. Its written well enough but I’ve seen three archetypes for Gunslinger that shoot Hexes and I think there’s a Witch archetype as well. Witchslinging as a prestige class does not appeal to me.

The Qiang Seng is a Monk x Gunslinger. Like the Witch based PC its an idea I’ve seen a lot but this one has Ki-Grit so I like it a lot more. It gets ‘katas’ which are sort of Gun-fu talents as well as deeds/ki powers that use ki or grit interchangeably. This looks very fun.

After that are three new grit feats which aren’t very exciting save for Cleaving Shot which does what it sounds like it does.

Then there are new gun/weapons which look fun.

Overall there are some bumps in the road. A few abilities from some classes are ambiguous or goofy but nothing came out to me as being pure garbage and a few options are pure gold. I only noticed one actual typo.

I think I’ll give this 4.5 out of 5 stars. niggling problems aside some of the concepts or and mechanics feel like they really NEED to be there so I’ll float it to a low 5 star when partial stars aren’t available.