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Well, first thing is that you're comparing a Simple weapon to a Martial weapon, and the Simple weapon is supposed to be weaker (whether from lower damage or from other traits).
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Sling is basically an opener or backup weapon in most cases. You don't want to be a dedicated slinger unless they introduce upgrade options. My rogue basically keeps it as a weapon that could be easily bluffed as a decoration that they can tuck away on their person with little effort.
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Also, like, historically speaking, a sling does actually take longer to loose multiple shots than a longbow does - an actual sling (not a slingshot, that's a totally different weapon) is a long loop of cord or rope, with a pouch in the middle that you wrap a bullet (the original origin of the word - a round bit of lead, clay, or stone, often with something insulting to your opponent carved on it!) up in, and then spin it around and release one end of the rope to throw the bullet way further than an unaided human can (there are also many reports of slingers routinely outranging archers IRL)
But yeah, the reload is both a game balance and a historical accuracy thing! (A truly historical sling, without any concern about being balanced as a simple weapon, would probably look something like 1d10 propulsive, reload 1 with an 80ft range increment.)
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That is coincidentally the stats for a halfling sling staff. :)
Yeah, slings are not fast and easy to reload, at least not compared to a bow.
Although "IRL" stats are not a good reason on their own. The real reason is mechanical balance. And the sling is a simple weapon.
It has 1d6 damage, 1 reload, 50ft range and propulsive.
A shortbow is 1d6 damage, 0 reload, 60ft (and you can get propulsive), but is martial instead of simple.
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I have less an issue of the reload one but the fact that a ton of feats that work for reload weapons seem to specifically write out slings by specifying bows/crossbows/guns.
I would love to make a halfling slinger but the feat support for such a thing is kinda lacking compared to bows/xbows/guns.
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Well, first thing is that you're comparing a Simple weapon to a Martial weapon, and the Simple weapon is supposed to be weaker (whether from lower damage or from other traits).
This is really oversimplistic.
The gap between a club and a warhammer is a die size. The gap between a dagger and a shortsword is a die size (and the dagger even has extra traits).
Consistently the distance between weapon tiers tends to be one trait or die size worth of value (sometimes less, there are a lot of advanced weapons that don't really feel any better than martial counterparts, and some simple weapons with weirdly high trait budgets).
The simple reload weapons are way undertuned even for simple weapons.
I have less an issue of the reload one but the fact that a ton of feats that work for reload weapons seem to specifically write out slings by specifying bows/crossbows/guns.
I would love to make a halfling slinger but the feat support for such a thing is kinda lacking compared to bows/xbows/guns.
Agreed. I'd love to have an archetype specifically for those who want to use slings as well as one specifically for those who want to use thrown weapons. Both are underserved ranged playstyles.
Well, first thing is that you're comparing a Simple weapon to a Martial weapon, and the Simple weapon is supposed to be weaker (whether from lower damage or from other traits).This is really oversimplistic.
The gap between a club and a warhammer is a die size. The gap between a dagger and a shortsword is a die size (and the dagger even has extra traits).
Consistently the distance between weapon tiers tends to be one trait or die size worth of value (sometimes less, there are a lot of advanced weapons that don't really feel any better than martial counterparts, and some simple weapons with weirdly high trait budgets).
The simple reload weapons are way undertuned even for simple weapons.
It's the first thing, not the only thing, but absolutely the first. You can certainly decide that Paizo undervalues the impact of Reload, but you should be comparing like weapons first, to get there. Weapons that have the same proficiency level and same handedness are what should be balanced against each other, between their damage die and whatever amount of value is assigned to other traits.
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That is coincidentally the stats for a halfling sling staff. :)
Ah, the halfling sling staff - really should be a weapon that lets you use it for melee or range (sling staves are a real thing, and their major advantages were that 1) a sling on the end of a stick makes your sling circle wider, so you can huck your bullet even further, and 2) if an opponent gets up in your face you have a nice study stick to hit them with - if it's loaded it can serve as a flail as well!
It is unfortunate that we get very little sling support - they were historically a very popular form of ranged infantry in a lot of the Mediterranean, to the point that several different places would literally hire out slinger mercenaries as specialised troops.
I agree with the sentiment that Paizo undervalues the impact that reload 1 has on a weapon compared to reload 0.
On a character that plans to be using that weapon often, it really is something that you have to build around just to get back to a "neutral" point of comparison with non reload weapons.
The only class that can do it well IMO is a Precision Ranger. And even then the feats that help manage reload by doing other things at the same time generally don't allow it to work with slings, to someone else's point.
Now, since you could choose an Arbalest crossbow as a Ranger, if I had a player come to me and say they wanted to use a sling or slingstaff and were asking if the crossbow feats could instead be used with slings I would say absolutely, because the Arbalest is already better (mostly) aside from not adding strength damage (but on a precision ranger that's going to be a small amount of damage).
That is coincidentally the stats for a halfling sling staff. :)Ah, the halfling sling staff - really should be a weapon that lets you use it for melee or range (sling staves are a real thing, and their major advantages were that 1) a sling on the end of a stick makes your sling circle wider, so you can huck your bullet even further, and 2) if an opponent gets up in your face you have a nice study stick to hit them with - if it's loaded it can serve as a flail as well!
It is unfortunate that we get very little sling support - they were historically a very popular form of ranged infantry in a lot of the Mediterranean, to the point that several different places would literally hire out slinger mercenaries as specialised troops.
And Halflings have some very interesting ancestry support for slings that should make it pretty good but so many of the class ranged weapon feats just specifically prevent slings from using them. Like take gun slingers why can't there be a halfling SLING slinger. Even if you can't use it as a melee a staff sling with gun slinger type support + legendary prof + the giant killer halfling ability that lets them increase the weapon die vs bigger opponents could make for some amazing underdog punking big monsters with their sling stories.