So this weapon is really good, and giving it extra benefits is dangerous as far as making it the only weapon a halfling would ever want to use, but it feels "not-quite-right" that the weapon doesn't have a built in feature to be used as a melee weapon, either as a club or a staff. Personally, if it could be used as a staff, I'd be alright with the ranged damage dropping to a D8. This would allow for some design space where the halfling ranger and fighter become experts at the fire and fight combat style, getting a good ranged attack and not have to switch weapons to use a two-handed weapon.
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I agree that it is a good weapon. It is good enough that with just point blank shot, a halfling fighter is a dangerous enemy, even without benefiting from any of the other archer fighter feats for a long time.
Assisting shot is way too expensive on a weapon with a reload action, and the staff sling does so much damage, it isn't practical not to attack with it when you have it loaded.
Double shot requires a weapon with no reload. Same with triple shot.
Incredible aim is usable at level 8. As could be Slippery shooter, but it is another stance feat and is competing with point blank shot pretty heavily.
Debilitating strike is a great feat for this weapon at level 10.
Incredible follow up is also good at 12.
Multishot paragon is not useable at 16.
Impossible volley is not usable at 18.
Weapon supremacy is a great feat at level 20.
Out of 11 fighter feats, there are 5 feats that the halfling fighter can use with their signature weapon. FInding 6 other feats within the fighter class that do anything for the halfling becomes a real challenge. Making the multi-shot feats an option would be game breaking, halflings definitely don't need to be getting rapid reload and then treating their weapon as a reload 0 weapon, that would be too much.
But if the weapon could be opened up as being a melee/ranged weapon, then they could have one other combat style that they are developing and they would be a fun tactical character to play.
Neither the club nor the staff are agile or finesse, so it wouldn't be an overpowered addition, but the open handed style has options that would make it a fun build, like dueling parry, dual handed assault and dualing riposte.
It is not like the halfling fighter is some overpowered option at this point, but I feel like this would give the halfling a unique and interesting fighting style, with very little additional rules required.
In the DD playtest lead by Jason, was the halfling staff sling used as a staff at one point? where in the rules does it say it works like that?
So this weapon is really good, and giving it extra benefits is dangerous as far as making it the only weapon a halfling would ever want to use, but it feels "not-quite-right" that the weapon doesn't have a built in feature to be used as a melee weapon, either as a club or a staff. Personally, if it could be used as a staff, I'd be alright with the ranged damage dropping to a D8. This would allow for some design space where the halfling ranger and fighter become experts at the fire and fight combat style, getting a good ranged attack and not have to switch weapons to use a two-handed weapon.
I like this suggestion a lot. It would help give the sling staff a clear niche to occupy.
I'm not entirely sure that giving the sling staff extra benefits is that dangerous, though. My expected damage calculations for the sling staff as compared to the expected damage of a composite short bow seem to indicate that the sling staff is on a par with, or slightly behind, the composite shortbow with respect to damage. And the composite shortbow doesn't require any feat investments. So, as it stands, it seems like the composite shortbow is a strictly better bet for a Halfling than the sling staff.
Now granted, there are some qualitative differences, like the fact that the sling staff deals bludgeoning versus piercing damage. Still, as it stands, it seems mechanically difficult to justify a halfling fighter picking a sling staff over a composite shortbow.
Which is to say: adding some nice features to the sling staff, like dual use as a melee weapon, would be a welcome addition!
I watched the video of the twitch stream of Jason GMing the first section of DD and it looks like at the 1 hour 17 minute-ish mark, the halfling druid uses the staff sling as a melee weapon, but I can't figure out where the rules for that would be.
Huh. Maybe as an improvised weapon or something?...
If that was the case, it really seems like Jason should have taken a moment to explain how that worked. It seemed like everyone at the table just knew that the weapon could be used that way. I wish I could tell what that damage die is. I can't tell if it is a D6 or a D8. It didn't look like a D10, so I am pretty sure it wasn't a ranged attack made adjacent to the enemy. IF there was a thread about the play test twitch stream I would ask there but I haven't seen anything like that .
The halfling sling staff could be used as a club in PF1. It would be great to see that continue in PF2