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I would like to make a halfling ranger and use a halfling sling staff as my ranged weapon. Can anyone tell me if the typical feats such as point blank shot, rapid reload, or many shot etc. can be applied to this? lots of these feats seem specifically tailored to the bow and do not seem to work for the crossbow for sure and slings.
Can anyone tell me if the typical feats such as point blank shot, rapid reload, or many shot etc. can be applied to this?
Point-Blank Shot (Combat): "Benefit: You get a +1 bonus on attack and damage rolls with ranged weapons at ranges of up to 30 feet."
Rapid Reload (Combat): "Choose a type of crossbow (hand, light, heavy) or a single type of one-handed or two-handed firearm that you are proficient with..."
Manyshot (Combat): "Benefit: When making a full-attack action with a bow, your first attack fires two arrows."
It would also seem to appear that Quick Draw will allow you a better rate of fire.
Only if you're throwing the staves instead of firing stones or bullets with one.
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It would also seem to appear that Quick Draw will allow you a better rate of fire.Only if you're throwing the staves instead of firing stones or bullets with one.
From another thread "Well if it helps when I was in chat I asked James Jacobs about this and he said quick draw would work fine. I know, not an official answer but good enough for me. " and that's good enough for me as well.
From another thread "Well if it helps when I was in chat I asked James Jacobs about this and he said quick draw would work fine. I know, not an official answer but good enough for me. " and that's good enough for me as well.
Yes, it works if you have a bunch of slingstaves and you're flinging the entire staff like a club.
If you're drawing bullets, they're already ammunition so it's already a free action to draw them.
My search-fu is not up to snuff today, but I do recall suggestions from the designers to allow Rapid reload for slings and sling staves.
Beyond that, the halfling warslinger racial trait is also helpful.
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From another thread "Well if it helps when I was in chat I asked James Jacobs about this and he said quick draw would work fine. I know, not an official answer but good enough for me. " and that's good enough for me as well.Yes, it works if you have a bunch of slingstaves and you're flinging the entire staff like a club.
If you're drawing bullets, they're already ammunition so it's already a free action to draw them.
Sling: A sling is little more than a leather cup attached to a pair of strings. Your Strength modifier applies to damage rolls when you use a sling, just as it does for thrown weapons. You can fire, but not load, a sling with one hand. Loading a sling is a move action that requires two hands and provokes attacks of opportunity.
Sling Staff, Halfling: Made from a specially designed sling attached to a short club, a halfling sling staff can be used by a proficient wielder to devastating effect. Your Strength modifier applies to damage rolls when you use a halfling sling staff, just as it does for thrown weapons. You can fire, but not load, a halfling sling staff with one hand. Loading a halfling sling staff is a move action that requires two hands and provokes attacks of opportunity.No it's a move action thus quick draw allows you to grab sling bullets faster and give yourself a better rate of fire...
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No it's a move action thus quick draw allows you to grab sling bullets faster and give yourself a better rate of fire...
Loading a sling or sling staff is a move action.
Drawing ammunition is a free action.
Quick Draw will not help with either of those two actions.
It would make a whole lot more sense for Rapid Reload to work with slings than Quick Draw.
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RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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No it's a move action thus quick draw allows you to grab sling bullets faster and give yourself a better rate of fire...
Pulling a bullet out of your pocket and loading your sling are two different things.
Quickdraw lets you retrieve certain items as a free action. But that just gets them into your hand.
You can already draw ammunition as a free action. It's putting it into the sling that costs a move action. Quickdraw has no effect on that.
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Quick Draw (Combat)
You can draw weapons faster than most.
Prerequisite: Base attack bonus +1.
Benefit: You can draw a weapon as a free action instead of as a move action. You can draw a hidden weapon (see the Sleight of Hand skill) as a move action.
A character who has selected this feat may throw weapons at his full normal rate of attacks (much like a character with a bow).
Alchemical items, potions, scrolls, and wands cannot be drawn quickly using this feat.
Normal: Without this feat, you may draw a weapon as a move action, or (if your base attack bonus is +1 or higher) as a free action as part of movement. Without this feat, you can draw a hidden weapon as a standard action.
I agree with James Jacobs. It seems reasonable that if it speeds up your ability to draw and throw weapons so quickly that it gives you full use of your FA that it would aid in firing a sling. It's good enough for a house rule IMO but I would like to see it officially addressed.
You need to look at the sling-specific feats in the Halflings of Golarion book.
No, you really don't. It's a trap. Ammo Drop doesn't actually let you use Rapid Shot, and once you've taken both Ammo Drop and Juggle Load, the archer has taken Manyshot and Deadly Shot, and you're beat on both rate of fire and damage (and range).
If your GM doesn't allow Warslinger to work on staff slings, spend a feat on Whip Slinger for more-or-less the same effect.
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It seems reasonable that if it speeds up your ability to draw and throw weapons so quickly that it gives you full use of your FA
But it doesn't. It only speeds up your ability to draw weapons. The feat conveniently reminds you that the natural consequence of being able to draw throwing weapons as a free action will be that you can full-attack with them, but the feat doesn't actually affect the throwing at all.
It's good enough for a house rule IMO but I would like to see it officially addressed.
I wouldn't mind it as a houserule either. As for getting it "officially addressed", it already has been: they officially wrote the feat. Asking for a developer to chime in and verify that a feat really does do exactly what it says it does and not something else is the reason we can't have nice things.
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Ok, just looked it up on the SRD entry for halflings. Check out the Warslinger alternate racial trait. You give up the +2 on acrobatics and climb to be able to load slings as a free action, without spending a feat.
I could swear there were also some feats related to slings in the Halfling book. I'll have to flip through it when I get home to see what I'm thinking of.
Edit: Ninja'd by Rasmus.
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Ok, just looked it up on the SRD entry for halflings. Check out the Warslinger alternate racial trait. You give up the +2 on acrobatics and climb to be able to load slings as a free action, without spending a feat.
I could swear there were also some feats related to slings in the Halfling book. I'll have to flip through it when I get home to see what I'm thinking of.
If it wouldn't be too much trouble, I would like to hear what they are. PM please if your willing. Thanks.
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If it wouldn't be too much trouble, I would like to hear what they are. PM please if your willing. Thanks.Ok, just looked it up on the SRD entry for halflings. Check out the Warslinger alternate racial trait. You give up the +2 on acrobatics and climb to be able to load slings as a free action, without spending a feat.
I could swear there were also some feats related to slings in the Halfling book. I'll have to flip through it when I get home to see what I'm thinking of.
Actually, Rasmus posted the names of the feats in his post. You can look them up on the SRD.
Seems strange that the rules would provide Ammo Drop and Juggle Load specifically to cover the area that JJ would think one feat (Quick Draw) would cover.
Reloading a sling quickly is, frankly, much harder than drawing arrows quickly. Hell, an actor could draw-fire-draw-fire fast enough to at least make it look like he could shoot a bow that fast. See how many people you can find that can load a sling and fire it, then immediately load and fire it again that quickly. Keep in mind that the usual problem is that the sling pouch is still in motion after the first shot, which is why the feats are worded the way they are (dropping the ammo into place exactly on cue).
Still with me? Now try it for a double-sling--work in a third shot. : D
I always found the biggest pain in the butt to be the fact that sling bullets weigh 1 pound each, when you're a Small character with a penalty to Strength.
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They're heavy, but not that heavy. I just checked the Core Rulebook on the PRD. They're 5 lbs for 10 bullets, but that's medium sized weight. Small weapons weight half as much as medium. So that's .25 lbs per bullet for a halfling.
Given that slings add the strength modifier to damage, anyone using one should have at least average strength, rather than being a completely str-dumped PC. So they should be able to carry 20 or 30 small bullets at once.
After reading this thread, I have high hopes for a Strength-focused halfling double slinger (if Warslinger applies to the double sling). Or a non-halfling, if I want to burn two traits on it. But the image of a halfling brute brings back fond memories of Dark Sun et al.
Off the top of my head: Fighter 2/Rogue 18? Ranger has no sling style (*cries*). Just slips into the four iterative attacks range, still gets 9d6 sneak attack. Pick up Rapid Shot, Sling Flail for melee, magic items to boost Strength and Dexterity via bull's strength, cat's grace, enlarge person, alter self, and/or giant form....
Add on a haste effect and it's, what, eight attacks a round with sneak attack and strength damage? Not too bad for David. Can play up the beefy halfling angle by picking up some grapple feats for flavor.
Edit: Ranger's not bad either, on balance, if I wanted straight BAB and favored enemy(humanoid (giant)) instead of sneak attack. Take the archery style for the non-bow-specific feats like Rapid Shot and Pinpoint Shot (for those bullet of slaying moments).
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Ask your GM about Rapid Reload or Quickdraw for the sling, most reasonable GMs will let you grab one or the other. If you are in organized play things are a little murkier and I would stick with the racial trait from the APG or with the feats from the Halfling book which allow something similar. The APG racial trait is a bit better IMO and if you really want that bonus to climbing and acrobatics you can take Skill Focus to make up for the loss.
You can take any feat that is available to ranged weapons, feats which require the bow or crossbow say that explicitly (like Manyshot does).
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The Warslinger racial trait as I'm reading it would let you make your full attack with a sling or sling staff, wouldn't it?
A halfling ranger with a sling staff is actually a build I've been wanting to try out myself. Weapon Focus(sling staff) would then apply to your melee and ranged attacks, and you wouldn't even need Quick Draw because your ranged weapon is your melee weapon.
The Warslinger racial trait as I'm reading it would let you make your full attack with a sling or sling staff, wouldn't it?
A halfling ranger with a sling staff is actually a build I've been wanting to try out myself.
Sure.
How about [Luring][Beastrider] Cavalier? Get a Wolf or Dog, optimized for tripping and AoO, use it more as a fighting buddy than a mount.
My character at the moment is a halfling zen archer using a sling staff instead of a bow. I think it´s just fine if you´re not playing PFS just to allow nearly everything that´s for a bow for sling´s also. As long as it´s not arrow specific, why should´nt it work for a sling?
Normal slings don´t do much damage, even if you don´t need a composite version of it to add STR and they also have a low crit. Slingstaff is a martial weapon for halflings too, for the rest exotic.
And yes, the halfling warslinger trait applies to the sling. The slingstaff is a kind of sling, so it also applies there, as well as with the double-sling.
Ammo-drop and juggle load are a little crappy feats, but to their aid:
you don´t get AoO´s with them. Could be one feat though.
Weapon Focus, point blank, precise shot, improved precise shot and deadly aim all apply to slings for sure.
Add in halfling slinger, arc slinger and large target and you will have a though build doing a lot of damage even without a lot of STR.
Don´forget, arc slinger allows point blank boni for 80 feet with a slingstaff.
Weapon Finesse works reat with a slingstaff too, because you can use it as a light club, where all the enhancements apply hehehe.
Just ask your GM to either allow bow-specific feats for slings or trade the ranger bow feats for some you can use with a sling.
Normal slings don´t do much damage, even if you don´t need a composite version of it to add STR and they also have a low crit. Slingstaff is a martial weapon for halflings too, for the rest exotic.
And yes, the halfling warslinger trait applies to the sling. The slingstaff is a kind of sling, so it also applies there, as well as with the double-sling.
Ammo-drop and juggle load are a little crappy feats, but to their aid:
you don´t get AoO´s with them. Could be one feat though.Weapon Focus, point blank, precise shot, improved precise shot and deadly aim all apply to slings for sure.
Add in halfling slinger, arc slinger and large target and you will have a though build doing a lot of damage even without a lot of STR.
Don´forget, arc slinger allows point blank boni for 80 feet with a slingstaff.
Weapon Finesse works reat with a slingstaff too, because you can use it as a light club, where all the enhancements apply hehehe.
Also, Weapon Focus and Weapon Specialization apply to the both the staff part and the sling part: +1 to hit and +2 damage on both ranged and melee attacks? Thank you, Mr. Sling Staff!
If you get Rapid Shot or "Flurry of Bullets", check out Clustered Shots. It lets you add up all the damage from multiple shots in a round before subtracting DR. Hammer the Gap adds additional damage for each shot you make in the round.
You can also pick up Close Quarters Thrower or Point Blank Master to avoid AoOs when using the sling in melee.
Snap Shot is less useful since you threaten AoOs with the staff already. You can get Greater Snap shot to threaten further out. (Or just use Combat Patrol and keep whacking with your stick.)
If you need to do more damage, try Deadly Aim and Vital Strike. I'm not sure about Focused Shot, because it sounds like you have to give up the rest of your attacks for the round.
I still like the idea of the halfling staff sling myrmidarch.
Focused shot is more for people with high INT that don´t have a lot of attacks, like some casters with crossbows.