Anyone know a way around the halfling sling staff getting hobbled?

The halfling sling staff is an exotic weapon(martial for halflings) that takes a move action to reload, and reloading provokes an attack of opportunity. limiting you to one shot fired a round unless you can reduce reload times.

The Warslinger FAQ on the racial trait sets the precedent that the word sling only covers the sling, and not the entire sling family of weapons. Since ammo drop and juggle load, from Halflings of Golarion, use similar language to warslinger by saying it works one way for a sling and another way for the double sling. They now only work with the specific weapons listed, and not the broader sling family. This means that there is no way to reduce reload times for the halfling sling staff down to a free action allowing it to get multiple attacks in a single round, or to prevent provoking AoO for reloading the sling staff.

Does anyone know of a way to work around this new limitation? Otherwise the sling staff is useless to anyone with more than one attack a round.

I don't know who wrote the FAQ but that's a load of manure. The fact that it's attached to a stick doesn't make it not a sling. Pathfinder is supposed to default to 3.5 well the Bowstaff is treated as both a quarterstaff and a bow and everything applies to it as each, not as if it's a separate weapon in need of different feats and abilities. A Sun Blade is treated as two different kinds of swords, if you have feats for either they apply when you use it. On top of that the fact that it's a Halfling weapon and a Halfling trait implies that they should be used together.

The fact that the sling staff is a "racial" weapon makes it doubly odd to me that the feats in the Halfling supplement don't apply. I would like to see that FAQ ruling reconsidered.

I believe rapid reload works with it.

Unless The halfling sling staff has been reclassified as a crossbow or firearm, then rapid reload does not work.

Rapid Reload (Combat)
Choose a type of crossbow (hand, light, or heavy). You can reload such weapons quickly.
Prerequisite: Weapon Proficiency (crossbow type chosen).
Benefit: The time required for you to reload your chosen type of crossbow is reduced to a free action (for a hand or light crossbow) or a move action (for a heavy crossbow). Reloading a crossbow still provokes an attack of opportunity.
If you have selected this feat for hand crossbow or light crossbow, you may fire that weapon as many times in a full-attack action as you could attack if you were using a bow.
Normal: A character without this feat needs a move action to reload a hand or light crossbow, or a full-round action to reload a heavy crossbow.
Special: You can gain Rapid Reload multiple times. Each time you take the feat, it applies to a new type of crossbow.

If you have a positive strength modifier you're better off with a normal sling or a bow, if not you're better off with a crossbow. The sling staff was sadly nerfed with that FAQ.

i've seen NPCs in scenarios with rapid reload ( sling ) . so i'm sad to see that rapid reload requires you to select a crossbow type or firearm type. i was under the impression you just had to choose a ranged weapon that required longer than a free action to load. there could have been rapid reload (blowgun) floating around. =(

that makes the FAQ doubly disheartening. They've gone to such pains to make crossbows accessible and usable for characters. but Slings they have much hate for.

If you have a positive strength modifier you're better off with a normal sling or a bow, if not you're better off with a crossbow. The sling staff was sadly nerfed with that FAQ.

You're correct that the standard sling or bow would be better after this FAQ was issued. I'm sure most GMs running a home game would ignore the FAQ.

However not all games, such as Pathfinder Society, presents quick and easy options for swapping items and feats out to jump to a new weapon. This is why I'm hoping to get enough FAQ clicks to get the ruling looked at, and possibly changed.

This is why one should not rely upon an aggressive or liberal reading of the rules when selecting grey area builds in organized play. There was an ongoing discussion leading up to the FAQ as to whether feats, traits, and related resources that referenced slings also applied to other types of slings other than the sling called a sling. It was a known grey area, with conservative rulings relying an the standards of the rules system, and liberal wider-reaching rulings relying on non-rule system based rationales.

I'm fine with the ruling. It is consistent with how the rule system works. Reversing the decision would require essentially scrapping how the rule system works.

If you don't like the ruling, don't use it. If that isn't an option, don't use the rule option. If in PFS with a character built relying on a liberal ruling, use the rebuilding rules.

For good or bad, and regardless of theories on the relative effectiveness of different weapons, the game doesn't attempt to make all weapons equal. It is a desire of some players, but it is not supported by the game design.

I'm not really concerned with complete equality for all ranged weapons. I know certain weapons, like crossbows, slings or thrown weapons, will take more feats, traits or archetypes to get on par with others.

All I'm trying to do is point out to the developers that by making the sling FAQ, they cut off the sling staff from several necessities to make it a viable choice. Hopefully they will either reverse the ruling on Warslinger to include the entire sling family of weapons, or at least FAQ that the feats in Halflings of Golarion will work with the sling staff.

Otherwise there is no way in the game to improve the move action reload action, or to prevent provoking AoOs while reloading of an exotic weapon.

This is why one should not rely upon an aggressive or liberal reading of the rules when selecting grey area builds in organized play. There was an ongoing discussion leading up to the FAQ as to whether feats, traits, and related resources that referenced slings also applied to other types of slings other than the sling called a sling. It was a known grey area, with conservative rulings relying an the standards of the rules system, and liberal wider-reaching rulings relying on non-rule system based rationales.

I'm fine with the ruling. It is consistent with how the rule system works. Reversing the decision would require essentially scrapping how the rule system works.

If you don't like the ruling, don't use it. If that isn't an option, don't use the rule option. If in PFS with a character built relying on a liberal ruling, use the rebuilding rules.

For good or bad, and regardless of theories on the relative effectiveness of different weapons, the game doesn't attempt to make all weapons equal. It is a desire of some players, but it is not supported by the game design.

The gray area discussed on the forums was about the Warslinger racial trait. However, since the Ammo Drop and Juggle Load feats use the same wording that was called out in the FAQ, the FAQ functionally excludes the sling staff from those feats as well. This is the part that is in question:

Was it the intent of this FAQ to make it completely impossible to fire a Halfling sling staff more than once a round? If so, can you explain the reasoning behind this limitation?

Since there are feats that let players reload slings, double slings, double-barreled firearms, and even heavy crossbows in the middle of the round, I don't believe it is a "liberal" or "aggressive" reading of the rules to expect a similar ability on the sling staff. I also don't think it's an "aggressive" reading of the Halflings of Golarian supplement to expect the Halfling racial feats and traits for using slings to apply to the Halfling sling staff. It is, after all, the only weapon with "Halfling" in the title.

the new weapon masters handbook has a new feat Slipslinger Style Seems to fix this