Rifle Cartridges (3.5e Equipment)

Rifle Cartridges
Cartridges are metal projectiles jacketed in casings that contain gunpowder and a primer. They are propelled at great speed and power. The number of cartridges contained within a magazine depends on the type of weapon. Steambolt rifles for example use magazines that contain 5 such cartridges. Five rifle cartridges weigh approximately 1 pound. An empty five-round magazine weighs an additional half-pound, adding a total of 1½ pounds to the loaded weight of a rifle using this setup.

Rifle ammunition is sold in secure, metal containers containing 100 rounds, usually prearranged in magazines. Such an ammunition box weighs 32 lb. and is valued at 200 gp. (2 gp/round).

Armor Piercing Rounds
Certain projectiles are specially created in order to be able to pierce armor and deal more damage. Armor piercing rounds function in many ways similarly to a magical enhancement, and are denoted as +1 through +5 rifle cartridges. The prices per batch of 100 are 700 gp (7 gp/catridge) for +1 ammunition, 2,200 gp (22 gp/cartridge) for +2 ammunition, 4,700 gp (47 gp/cartridge) for +3 ammunition, 8,200 gp (82 gp/cartridge) for +4 cartridges, and 12,700 gp (127 gp/cartridge) for +5 ammunition.

Unlike ordinary magic ammunition, a weapon using armor piercing rounds does not get an enhancement bonus on attack rolls. An armor piercing round deals +2 points of extra damage and bypasses 1 point of DR of any kind for every point of its enhancement bonus.