Thoughts on Halfling war slinger arcane duelist

[matthra]

So I was thinking of making a more team friendly character for PFS, and it doesn't get much more team friendly than a bard. Halfling makes a pretty logical choice for bard, and war-slinger just seems like a pretty awesome alternate racial trait.

The problem is that ranged combat takes a fair amount of feats to be effective, so I'd probably have to take the two level fighter splash and Lore warden archetype seems a no brainer. The question is do you guys think the fighter splash will water the bard down too much? Here is an outline of the build I was thinking of so far:

Halfling
War Slinger alternate racial trait

Str: 12
Dex: 18
Con: 12
Int: 10
Wis: 8
Cha: 16

Traits: Helpful, Freed Slave

Lv 1: Bard (1) - Arcane Duelist Archetype
Feats: Point Blank Shot, Arcane Strike(AD)

Lv 2: Fighter (1) - Lore Warden Archetype
Feats: Precise Shot (F)

Lv 3: Fighter (2)
Feats: Rapid Shot, Weapon Finesse (F), Combat Expertise (LW)

Lv 4: Bard (2)
Feats: Combat Casting (AD)
Stat: +1 Dex

Lv 5: Bard (3)

Lv 6: Bard (4)
Feats: Deadly Aim

Lv 7: Bard (5)
Arcane Bond (Sling)

Lv 8: Bard (6)
Feat: Disruptive (AD)
Abil: Blade Thirst
Stat: +1 Dex

Lv 9: Bard (7)
Feat: Clustered shots

lv 10: Bard (8)

Lv 11: Bard (9)

Lv 12: Bard (10)
Feats: Spell Breaker (AD), Spell Song (not sure on this one)

Tactics: At range just fire off as many sling bullets as I can, stack static damage (arcane strike, deadly aim, strength buffs, point blank shot, etc.) to make up for having a d3 damage die. When forced into melee use a shield, Armor, Expertise, small size and high dex to make myself nearly unhittable, and aid another for +4 to hit on for the parties power attack melee guy. My melee damage will be rotten, but the ability nearly guarantee a solid hit from the parties barb makes me melee damage almost incidental. This is on top of all of the usual bard shenanigans.

Why a sling?: Normally slings suck so hard you can hear the wind whistling towards them. War slinger changes that, with reload as a free action, slings one advantage becomes really cool, being able to add any amount of strength damage per bullet. Get an enlarge person, great more damage, get a bulls strength, more damage still, no messing around with static composite ratings. 1d3+22(~ish) three times a round with hits being cumulative for penetrating DR is fairly respectable. Your still behind where a ranged focused fighter or ranger would be, but not by a huge amount.

What do you guys think?

[Krodjin]

You will still provoke AoO's when reloading, even with War Slinger, so you should probably try to stay out of melee if possible.

Seems like a cool idea though.

[Imbicatus]

For a dedicated slinger, a Sohei Monk with weapon training in the thrown group will be better. For a character that is a party buffer/support with the ability to make a suck weapon serviceable, you'll do okay.

[matthra]

I didn't think the reload AoO is to big of a deal since I'll provoke AoO's for firing the sling when threatened anyway. If I had gone with the snap shot feats, it would have been an issue, since they would have gotten an AoO for me reloading on my AoO.

any thoughts on feats and such?