early Firearms/non-magical healing

[Zombimode]

My next campaign will be set on "earth"* in 1492, iberian peninsula. This setting has some implications:

1. While the standart D&D equipment covers a lot of this timeframe, it doesnt cover everything. Pikes for example dont exist in D&D, but are fairly easy to homebrew (more or less a longspear that threatens all squares 15 feet away). Firearms are not as easy.

It was around this time in spain, where firearms became more widespread, but were still rather crude.
In short I think I want firearms to be useable (at least by NPCs), but not really more powerful than crossbows and longbows.
How about:
Arquebus: 1d6 piercing, 19-20x3, 50ft range incr., reloading as heavy crossbow, "exploding" damage dice?
Better range? Bonus damage for closer range? Maybe enabling an intimidiate check as a free action to shaken enemies not used to firearms (like, I dunno, south american natives? )?

2. Since magic in this setting is... lets say rather obscure, there are no healing spells and healing potions avaiable and classes like dragon shaman dont exist.
What kinds of non-magical healing do you know besides resting?

Maybe I should use the vitality points variant for this campaign.
But since this is also a campaing for D&D and roleplaying in general beginners, this might be to confusing.

Well, its of course pseudo-historical, not truely historical.

[Flame of Anor]

My next campaign will be set on "earth"* in 1492, iberian peninsula. This setting has some implications:

1. While the standart D&D equipment covers a lot of this timeframe, it doesnt cover everything. Pikes for example dont exist in D&D, but are fairly easy to homebrew (more or less a longspear that threatens all squares 15 feet away). Firearms are not as easy.

It was around this time in spain, where firearms became more widespread, but were still rather crude.
In short I think I want firearms to be useable (at least by NPCs), but not really more powerful than crossbows and longbows.
How about:
Arquebus: 1d6 piercing, 19-20x3, 50ft range incr., reloading as heavy crossbow, "exploding" damage dice?
Better range? Bonus damage for closer range? Maybe enabling an intimidiate check as a free action to shaken enemies not used to firearms (like, I dunno, south american natives? )?

The range is good. The reload is too fast from a historical perspective, but it's good enough in game. I would bump up the damage die one or two notches, though. As it is, it's significantly worse than a light crossbow in everything but the crit multiplier.

[Flickerdart]

Nonmagical healing...Autohypnosis can give you temporary HP, and there are Epic Heal checks (DC50 and 100 respectively) that heal a decent amount. You may want to attach some sort of consumable that gives +lots to Heal checks to make this more plausible.

[Ksheep]

The DMG does have some Renaissance-era weaponry, ie. pistol and musket. While slightly newer than the time frame you're looking at (mid-1500's), you could still use them as a jumping off point. I'd say use the musket, drop the damage one die, maybe increase the reload from standard to a full-round. It would still only allow one attack every other round, but you wouldn't be able to move while reloading.

As for healing, I'd say heal checks. Also, add various herbs that can be purchased for a bonus toward heal checks. Different herbs can be used for different things, and you can either gather them yourself with a survival roll, or get them at an apothecary. Possibly add ointments made from said herbs that provide better bonuses and/or are faster acting, but are more expensive.

[Rogue Shadows]

^^^
Heal checks are a good idea.

Hmm...say when you make a Heal check, it heals an amount of HP equal to the result of the Heal check? You might want to put a limit on how often characters can benefit from this per-day, though. As well as make sure the check takes awhile, so it's not really practical in combat.

Unless you go the "bandaids fix everything" route. Which is perfectly valid.

[Telentis]

You could use some sort of medical tools that help healing, and herbs that speed up HP recovery.

[Alabenson]

As far as early firearms go, you may want to take a look at D20 Modern - Past. It has stats for a large variety of early firearms, along with the dates of their invention.

[Moriato]

I would give an early firearm a short range increment, maybe 10ft, to reflect the fact that they were notoriously inaccurate at anything but very close range. I would also make it a ranged touch attack rather than a normal ranged attack.

If you don't intend to have any kind of "rapid reload" feat for firearms, I would raise the damage significantly. I mean who's going to use a weapon that does 1d6, no strength bonus, once per round? You'd be better off throwing rocks. Literally, even with the improvised weapon penalties.

[Cerlis]

1 way to solve both problems is to do the HP variant. I think the Injury system would work great

http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/UA:Injury

you wouldnt necessarily track hitpoints so people are wounded or they arent and the more battered up they are the higher chance of them getting knocked unconcious. You could homebrew that a good heal check means that you recover an injury point for that hour ( or sooner). Since its possible to critically fail this (you go unconcious and dying if you fail the fort save by 10 or more) it would be more realistic of lucky shots. and if you wanted to differentiate certian weapons you could rule that some have an improved DC.

For instance a sword and gun can both kill you. but if you are evasive enough you can just get scratched or bashed by a sword. However (and dont let Video games fool you about the weakness of Arrows) if you get hit by an arrow/bolt it will almost always penetrate you. So you might rule that the DC for any fort save against a bow/crossbow is +2 more. Now if you get hit by a bullet it doesnt matter if its not a fatal wound. you will immediately feel immense pain that has a good chance of knocking you out if not dazing you. thus Bullets, would add +4 to a save (or you can rule its less than the bow, since i think the first types of guns couldnt go through armor that arrows could).

for the sake of your players perhaps the DC increase would only apply to criticals. Thus making critical hits (like getting shot in the lung) more significant, while getting shot in the shoulder is just badass battledamage.