Slinging Alchemist's Fire (Or other such goodies)

[DivineAspect]

Please add a line to the Sling stating that you can use a sling to deliver Alchemists Fire or other equivalent items, such as oil, holy water, tanglefoot bags, etc.

[Etales]

DivineAspect wrote:

Please add a line to the Sling stating that you can use a sling to deliver Alchemists Fire or other equivalent items, such as oil, holy water, tanglefoot bags, etc.

Yeah, I love this idea. I had a Halfling Thief in 2nd edition who used his sling to launch small clay spheres full of Alchemist Fire, Hot pepper, etc.

He was a blast!

[Fake Healer]

There is a gnomish sling that does this but at a -2 hit due to the size of a flask. There is also alchemical bullets in a couple of different supplements that do slightly less damage.
A sling in itself isn't really equipped to handle a flask sized item to hurl unless you either adjust the webbing of the pocket or have some sort of customized pocket that will accept different sized items. There is a lot of difference between something slightly bigger than a golf ball and something like a 5lb bag of goo or a bottle of liquid.

Oh and -----Slinging.org the best website for all things sling related including making your own.
-the sling has a record distance that is much further than the english longbow record.
-the average slingers had a rate of fire that was almost exactly the same as an average bowman.
-a sling bullet can punch a 6" diameter hole in a 3/4" sheet of plywood at 50ft.

[DivineAspect]

A Sling is Free, aka easily made from scraps. I can tie a String to a coke bottle and get almost the same range I get with a sling, aka line of sight out to about 150 feet. Though I'll admit that the accuracy is much lower, and it's a bit of a workout to do it for more then a few minutes.

[Mark Moreland]

I like this a lot. The 10' range on splash weapons greatly reduces their effectiveness, and this seems a good solution. Great for halflings, too, as a splash weapon's damage isn't affected by size.

[Velderan]

This is a very cool idea. It also would de-suck the sling.

EDIT: There was also talk in the main sticky thread about a war sling as a possible halfling-centric weapon. I'd also like to see that get the ability to throw alchemical goodies.

[Krome]

COOL SITE!

I was thinking about slings earlier... I thought "who cares. slings were a waste anyway." Then I hit that site and started looking around a bit- hit up Wikipedia too (you guys should look at that page too- clay shot being heated to to start fires!). Just a LITTLE bit of research overcame my prejudice quickly.

First thing I realized is, sling should be in Martial Weapons.

Yes, anyone can pick up a ling and use it.

But then again anyone can pick up a longbow and use it, or a glaive or what ever.

The difference lies in using the weapon well. A trained slinger can get great range and do as much damage as a long bow, but it requires a lot of training. Maybe enough to make it an exotic weapon.

So, I would say, put the sling in Martial Weapons with stats similar to a longbow. Put a Halfling War Sling as an Exotic Weapon and allow it to deliver flasks as well as special bullets that do even more damage. There should also be specialized bullets for starting fires, for shrapnel, or whatever.

Oh and read the Wiki page where the bullets often had symbols and writing on them such as "Catch This!" lol