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There are many feats that efect bows and crossbows but none for slings or Halfling staff slings. Why is this? Is this just an oversight on the authors part. Even in the new archtypes the Sniper says for accuracy that it only effect bows and cross bows. Why Not slings?
Why are Halfling staffslings Martial weapons? Where normal slings simple weapons. IN 3.5 staffslings were simple weapons. This takes away one of the halflings iconic weapons unless they spend a feat for non martial characters to gain a martial weapon proficency. Combine this with what I have outlined above makes the sling a very suboptimal weapons choice for a nonmartial hafling. I think this needs to be errataed.
Halfling staff slings ("Sling staff, halfling") are Exotic weapons that are far better than a normal sling, for a halfling it is a martial weapon. This happens with most racial weapons, so non-martial characters don't get a huge boost in their weapon selection.
In this case I don't think that it would be very unbalancing as a simple weapon for halflings, it is slighty better than a ligth crossbow unless the user can manage to get a good Str Ability Score. You may houserule it, but it is ok for general use.
However it's true that there aren't may options for high-level sling users (afaik). Most characters prefer bows, thrown weapons and crossbows for many reasons. Furthermore a sling is a unique ranged weapon, it needs reload like a crossbow, but you apply your strength to the damage (something you can't do with crossbows, but you can do it with Mighty bows), it would need its own tree of feats imo.
Houseruling it, some abilities for ranged weapons should apply to slings imo, others shouldn't. However if you want to be a high level slinger you'll need more love for slings.
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You see, when it comes to the "Sling vs. Bow" debate, I prefer the sling. Sure, it has a smaller range and lower base damage, but lets break this down:
Sling
Cost - 0gp
Range - 50 ft.
Damage - 1d4
Longbow, Composite
Cost - 100gp
Range - 110 ft.
Damage - 1d8
At first glance, the longbow is the superior weapon. Higher range means you can start hitting stuff earlier, but, in all honesty, how often does it come up where a baddie is more than 50 ft away from you after the first round. Most adventures are dungeon crawls or take place in areas where the just isn't that much space for that 110 ft range to be a serious advantage. certainly sometimes it will be, but those really aren't the norm.
Now we can look at the damage. You get a full 2 points of (average) damage out of the longbow which, at low levels, is a boon. But you get your Strength mod to damage on a sling FOR FREE. Let's say you get lucky and roll an 18 for strength. With a sling, your average damage becomes 6.5. With the bow, your average damage is 4.5 UNLESS you drop another 400gp, at which point it becomes 8.5. and it becomes even more skewed at higher Strength scores. A character with 30 Strength will have spent 2300gp on a +1 Sling that does 1d4+10 damage (12.5 average), whereas he would have spent 3400gp on a +1 Composite Longbow (+10) that does 1d8+10 damage (14.5 average). Dropping an extra 1100gp on 2 average damage seems a bit silly to me.
Now, all of this breaks down once we get into iterative attacks, where the longbow's average damage shoots up to 56 if he hits with all 4 attacks (assuming he hasn't taken rapid shot, etc.). Which is why I've always allowed Rapid Reload to apply to the sling as well.
I know I've gone roundabout your question to put some numbers up here, but the long and short of it is that slings are naturally less accurate, and bows/crossbows are more efficient uses of your gold, which is a renewable (and oft infinite) resource when compared to feats and ability points.
The new Advanced Players Guide includes a new Racial Trait for Halflings to reload slings as a free action.
By RAW, Goliath chuckles heartily and beats David senseless. History is changed forever.
The sling has gotten the shaft ( ;-) ) on how it's been portrayed by hollywood and in raw by game designers.
http://www.slinging.org/
Sling enthusiasts have a couple of preferred methods for launching a bullet but twirling it around over your head before release isn't one of them. It's also not a slow weapon...the rate of fire is faster than a bow (and better effective range up until the introduction of the English Longbow in warfare). The Romans equipped their skirmishers with them... to harass the enemy on the run.
I just remove the move action to reload and make sling bullets ammunition (rather than thrown weapon) with a half strength damage adjustment.
I think sling ammo should do a range of damage... Clay and bits of tile, 1-2, Basic Rock, 1d4, Lead shot 1d4+1.
I think you should be able to double load your sling. A sling can take a an extra stone with a little loss of accuracy and range: -2 to hit -10 range on both stones/shot.
Slinging around pebbles with a sling sure is a nice pastime, but I'll take a nice, elven bow any day of the week. Or a 3-stone hand-gonne from Alkenstar.
http://www.slinging.org/
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The connection between slinger and sling is an intimate one, a relationship rarely found in modern weaponry.
...
Jayne: Six men came to kill me one time and the best of them carried this. It's a Callahan fullbore autolock, customized trigger and double cartridge thorough-gauge. (he holds it out to Mal) It's my very favorite gun.
Mal: She has a name.
Jayne: So does this! I call it Vera.
You get your sling, I'll get Vera, we'll have a shoot-out ;-P
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I like the sling because it combines nicely with the Magic Stone spell; Earth is one of my domains. Generally, though, I use Acid Dart for ranged attacks, since I can wield my primary weapon and shoot acid simultaneously. Since I get 7 acid darts per day, I seldom use physical weapons for ranged attacks.
Besides, I am still constrained by residual memories of the old days when clerics were not allowed to use piercing or slashing weapons such as a crossbow. I know that is no longer RAW but old habits die hard.
This will be remedied in the upcoming rulebook, Ultimate Slings.
