So, the question, "Is a Strong/Martial Artist better at gun fighting than a Fast/Gunslinger or Fast/Soldier"
So lets check it out.
1) Is Martial Artist Better than Soldier and Gunslinger for using Guns?Well lets see. We get better BAB, not a big deal in the world of low defenses and little to no armor, but OK, check.
We get ahead by just +1 defense one level earlier in otherwise the same defense progression, not much, but still, Check.
We get "better than good" Ref saves and poor other saves compared to two "just good" saves each from Soldier and Gunslinger. This is a hard call but I'm calling it a Wash vs Soldier (Fort+Ref is nice in modern) and a small lead vs the Gunslinger (Ref+Will is less nice in modern).
We... don't care about Reputation scores (but Gunslinger wins that, the others tie).
Its worth noting that the Martial Artist gets significantly less skill ranks per level than either of the others. But at least he has a nicer class skill list than Soldier. Still with the most ranks AND a good skill list the Gunslinger wins skills hands down.
Now the big bit, lets see, class Features.
Gunslinger Class FeaturesGunslinger adds real bonuses to actual shooting. Some are rather insignificant (forced "free" weapon focus feats) but at least make up much of the lost ground on BAB to the martial artist, or a cover ability that makes up (and exceeds) the Ref and Defense lost ground on the martial artist. Some of the bonuses are actually rather nice like extra attacks, a choice bonus feats you actually want, extra damage, the ability to fire without provoking AoOs, etc...
Is there a level at which one might escape the class early with all the goodies in hand and go on to bigger better things? Not so much because Sharp Shooting and Bulls Eye are right at the top (unfortunately), but you could bail at level 5 with Lightning Shot and the numeric bonus abilities that make up for (and exceed) the basic BAB, Saves and Def loss to Martial artist.
Is the class useless up until a certain level? While the best abilities are rather late in the class there is a reasonable progression within your ranged speciality for most of the class so it isn't too bad.
Would you be better off just taking more fast levels? While Defensive roll and even accelerated movement are
nice they aren't so nice you need to stick around past level 3 and take them. Level 3 is all you need to get into gun slinger and is a nice level to leave fast in general, so you might as well do so.
Would you be better off entering this fast from Strong levels instead? No. You will not meet requirements any sooner or contribute meaningfully to the career path.
Soldier Class FeaturesAn odd choice since this is SUPPOSED to be a class you enter from Strong. And like all of those they give it an extra BAB requirement in an attempt to stick it in the eye for a Fast hero and make them wait until level 4 to enter. So it is going to make you eat level 4 of Fast whether you want to or not, its not a BAD level but its not great either. Alternately you can eat 2 levels of
anything else you qualify for (body guard is nice except for the "WTF?" Concentrate requirement), or 1 level of Strong or Tracer. Take the level of
Tracer, really, select "Human" as your target species, no really you ARE supposed to be able to do that.
Anyway. The soldier's bonus feats are only mildly useful for gun use, his other class features range from utterly unremarkable to vaguely nice numeric bonuses to damage and criticals that can and will be used with guns, or at least,
A gun (stupid specialization restrictions).
Is there a level you might bail out happily? Well probably not, this class is if anything worse than the Gunslinger for weighting its good stuff to the far end. You really MUST stay until at least level 5 to make this class worth it at all, you should probably consider going all the way.
Is the class useless up until level 5? Pretty much. Weapon specialization is the best thing you get early, its OK but its hardly amazing.
Would you be better off entering from Strong levels instead? If you went melee then maybe, if you went gun style as suggested... probably not. The extra level or two on entry hurts but since basically anything else you spend those levels on is at least as good or better than this class anyway, what the hell might as well wait hey?
Martial Artist Class FeaturesOK this is another Strong targeted advanced class. So again you need +3 BAB to enter. So again you take a level of Tracer, an extra level of Fast or two of something else if you try and do this without Strong class levels. So Strong DOES enter this a level earlier than you.
But it is worth noting it has
Two unarmed melee feats as its entry requirements. At entry level 3/4/5 thats a lot of feats. Feats NOT spent on gun related advancement. They are also both really bad feats. Even if you want to be Mr Melee.
Anyway.
"Living Weapon" is not gun/ranged related. Is rather poor even for melee. And is so poorly worded it actually unintentionally denies you the use of off hand attacks and unarmed two weapon fighting.
"Flying Kick" is not gun/ranged related and largely sucks.
Your bonus feats are all NOT gun (or even ranged) related.
"Flurry Of Blows" and "Iron Fist" are also BOTH not gun or ranged related. Flurry of Blows is, vaguely,
OK but not good enough and only useful in unarmed melee, and Iron Fist is rather mediocre.
Is there a level a gun specialist breaks out of this class early with all the goodies in hand? Yeah, LEVEL ZERO. There is nothing in here a gun fighter wants. Indeed you only even enter this class, maybe, if you want to use unarmed attacks a lot. And ONLY then, if you want to mix in some swords with your fist then you don't take this class. You CERTAINLY don't mix it with guns and ranged attacks. If you DO like punching things you probably stay until either level 8 or 10. Which is sad.
Is the class a smooth progression or does is suck for a while? Well. For an unarmed guy it a a smooth progression, starting from "not as good as a guy who specialized with hitting things with sticks at my level" and ending in "still not as good as that guy is now but better than I was back then". For a gun guy it is a rather terrible progression where you get nothing nice ever.
Is it better to enter this class from Fast? Maybe. If you are using this class as a gun character then HELL YES. But if you actually use this class as intended at least you WILL use your +2 melee damage bonus talent from strong so... yeah you'd have that at least. Personally even for unarmed melee I would consider entering from Fast 5 (yes FIVE one later than you need to) with Uncanny Dodge 2, and Weapon finesse and fighting as a Dex based unarmed dude. You'd suck but at least you would die a lot less with your massively superior defenses.
2) Is Martial Artist So Good Our Gun Expert Enters it One Level Early?No.
Since he doesn't want to enter it at all.
Even if he DOES decide to enter it for its 'leet' lack of contribution to his gun fighting career... there is nothing in there he is in any hurry to get. He takes at least those 4 levels of Fast first and doesn't care that he could have gotten in one level sooner with Strong.
Well that was a short section compared to the last one.
3) Are there some other classes we should consider?Yeah the Tracer class is pretty crash hot.
And oddly enough the
Dreadnaught class isn't bad, if you like the bigger guns.
But d20 Modern is pretty low on good classes and as far as d20Modern goes the Gunslinger is actually
a pretty crash hot Advanced Class so it's certainly enough to consider on its own.
Well that was another short section.
So Big Round Up which Class/Build is the better GunslingerI'm dropping the Soldier as the Fast/Gunslinger is a nicer all rounder and will be enough of a comparison to shame the Strong/Martial Artist (Gun Guy).
A Strong 3/Martial Artist 10 GUN EXPERT! compared to a Fast 3/Gunslinger 10 has... (both maxing out dex)
About +19 attack bonus (+13 BAB +5 Dex +1 Weapon focus) compared to the Fast/Gun Slinger +16 (+9 BAB +5 Dex +2 from Focus pseudo Feats they MADE you take) attack bonus. Yes it took you
13 whole levels of suck to draw ahead by a whopping +3 Bonus. And yes that IS
only if you take Weapon Focus as a feat, but if you are a Strong gun expert you probably DO because
it's the only "gun" feat on your bonus feat list so you take it at level 2 or get forced to burn yet another class resource on something not gun related. Not you CANNOT just go and take Greater Weapon Focus on the Strong/Martial Artist either. You lack the feats, but it doesn't matter because lame as it is that feat does not even exist in D20 Modern.
And a +14 Defense vs ... +14 Defense! Surprised? Well defense bonuses are crazy like that, the progressions in d20 modern defense are INSANE. Only note that the Fast/Gun Slinger can take cover for extra (that's extra extra vs a melee alternative because as a gun guy he can take cover
at all and but still extra vs the gun martial artist because he gets a class based bonus when he does) Oh, and he has Uncanny Dodge... Note: Short of some truly zany shenanigans these are some of the best defense bonuses in the game. Notice they are lower than EITHER builds attack bonuses. Think on that and the fact that the Gunslinger has more ways to sacrifice attack bonus for more attacks and more damage. A lot more.
The Strong/Martial Artist has (before any attributes) +5/+8/+4 Fort/Ref/Will.
While the Fast/Gunslinger has (before any attributes) +4/+7/+6 Fort/Ref/Will. Only he also gets improved Cover bonuses to Ref again... Oh and he has Evasion...
Then the Strong/Martial Artist has a whole raft of talents and bonus feats
That do not actually add to gun fighting at all.
And the Fast/Gunslinger has a whole raft of talents and bonus feats
That DO add to gun fighting.
Fast/Gunslinger wins the "who is the better gun fighter" contest hands down. And will probably even do a pretty fair run if you compared him to a Fast/Tracer instead.
Looking at the incredibly poor comparison I am amazed that anyone ever thought the martial artist would be inexplicably better with guns.
Strong is the only base class with full bab. Martial artist has full Bab as well, though both soldier and gunslinger have 3/4. Straight attack-wise, it's superior
By 3 points at character level 13 with less than 1/2 the gun based feats and NO gun based class abilities/talents. And less skill ranks, and worse skill lists, and equal or worse defenses, and so on.
Just cop the 3 point attack bonus hit for the option of further eating attack penalties for extra bullets from two handed, double tapping, bulls eye, lightning shot whenever your still very nice attack bonus exceeds the commonly poor defenses of d20 modern targets.
It will be worth it by a LOOOOOONG shot.