Dnd 5e pepper box gun

[stoutstien]

So I had an idea for a item used by an artificer that is really just a pepper box gun loaded with blowgun needles. was thinking of trying a new way of working with saving throws. So it would be the standard 15 foot cone with the save DC 8+Prof+ int/Dex and I want the damage to increase with the lower the target rolls. So every number lower than the save DC =1 more needle hitting the target+ I don't know 3 damage on a save. (If they are unable to roll a ST it results in max damage.
Note this would be a once a short rest concept due to loading would take at least 10 min.
Thoughts?

[Lalliman]

A pepperbox gun doesn't fire all its ammo at once. It fires one at a time and rotates like a revolver. Even if you fired all at once, it probably wouldn't spread into a wide cone, because each barrel just propels its dart forward. You'd need something more like a blunderbuss for this.

Semantics aside, increasing the damage for every point by which the target fails their save is pretty complicated, and totally out of tune with the rest of the game. There are creature abilities that have increased effect if you fail the save by 5 or more though, so I suggest you do it that way. For every 5 points by which you fail the save, you take extra damage.

Normally blowgun darts deal 1 + Dex damage, but applying your Dex to the damage of an unguided projectile like this doesn't make sense. So instead I'd just choose an arbitrary damage die. Maybe something like:

Every creature in a 15 foot cone must make a Dexterity saving throw, taking 2d6 piercing damage on a failed save or half damage on a successful one. For every 5 points by which a creature fails the saving throw, they take an additional 2d6 piercing damage.

[stoutstien]

Aye, most pepper box shot like revolvers but some had barrels on of set angles to produce a spread. Mostly used in ship boarding. But yea I like the idea of just adding more die on critical fails