Pathfinder Classes 2: Gunslinger

Ultimate Combat adds gunslinger as a class for Pathfinder. This is my favorite martial class, both in its flavor (I am a firearm enthusiast and I am a fan of the Western genre of fiction that this class draws influence from) and its mechanics. I keep hearing about how it is overpowered, but the people who say that are absolutely wrong.

Based on the fighter template: d10HD, full BAB, good saves are Fortitude and Reflex.

Any class can gain proficiency in firearms, but no class can use them as well as the gunslinger. That really is the beginning and end of its features.

The most unique feature of this class is its "grit" resource. Basically, you get a pool of grit points that you spend on your gunslinger deeds and can, unlike  a monk's ki points, replenish during the day by doing things that look impressive.

At every odd level, you can select a deed that you can spend grit points on. Some of these deeds are special attacks, some are defensive things like better dodging or initiative, and some do things like let you shot out locks.

Why do people say that it's overpowered? GM's are too lazy to learn how to deal with the gunslinger. They have to spend grit points to make attacks against touch AC when they're well within range of an archer or evoker. Encounters don't have to show up right in front of the players, contrary to apparent popular belief. Firearms and ammunition are much more expensive than bows and have a much lower rate of fire. A composite longbow with a decent strength rating will even do more per-shot damage than a musket, let alone per-round damage accounting for the ability to take multiple shots on a full attack instead of having too spend a full-round action reloading (standard action with Rapid Reload, swift action with Beneficial Bandolier, essentially restricting a gunslinger using any early firearms to two shots per round on rare occasions and one per round most of the time at best). Firearms also misfire on a critical failure, which causes additional problems, and bows don't have that.

The entire dislike for the gunslinger is based on the fact that people think that their fantasy settings are based on medieval Europe where firearms didn't exist, even though the technology level and political setup of most settings is much more similar to Renaissance Europe, where firearms most definitely did exist.

If you want to build a gunslinger, the Pistolero archetype is usually the way to go. Faster reload on one-handed firearms makes them better in almost all cases than two-handed firearms. Even with modern firearms, you'll have to dig into the Reign of Winter adventure path to find two-handed firearms that can make all of the character's attacks in a single round (however, if that book is allowed, definitely go for Best Rifle M1981 because ЗА РОДИНУ is a thing to shout while holding it, товарищ can shout it with Nagant revolver, but doesn't seem right). Techslinger is great for certain settings, but outside of those settings, you're not likely to encounter a laser pistol or something.