D&D 5E Questions about slings

[Shades of Eternity]

Okay, I have a question about slings. The sling is a perfect fit for The Elderberry Tales—it's a classic weapon of shepherds and commoners, has biblical connections, and plays into the themes of a peasant uprising. How can we make it a prominent and viable weapon in 5e mechanics while integrating it with the world’s magic and themes? Slings are generally underpowered, so I'm looking for ideas that work.

The world is William the conqueror vs the Peasants rebellion

 

[GreatestHonor]

The easiest way i can think of is ammunition. Many tables dont keep track of nonmagical ammo, but for those that do, the sling is great because even when you run out, chances are that there will be a small rock or two within reach.

 

[bedir than]

I've used a sling as my primary ranged weapon in a majority of my 5e characters and have never noticed feeling underpowered. Using it with Magic Stone is nifty when you start encountering resistances too

 

[Charlaquin]

What’s the Elderberry Tales?

With the stipulation that we’re using the 5e mechanics, I assume simply house ruling slings to have a higher damage die is off the table, yeah? Just checking cause that would obviously be an easy way to make it more viable. Without that, the main tools we have to make slings useful are its other properties that stand out from other ranged options. It’s the only ranged weapon to deal bludgeoning damage, so if bludgeoning damage is highly desirable in your campaign, that will inherently make slings an appealing ranged option. Perhaps skeletons are a very common threat in your campaign. Or, if you bring back the ahistorical but commonly used in fantasy notion of clergyfolk not being permitted to use weapons that draw blood (i.e. deal piercing or slashing damage), then slings would be the only ranged weapons usable by clerics and perhaps paladins.

Slings are one of a very small number of ranged weapons that lack the two-handed property, the only others being thrown weapons, and the martial hand crossbow (and pistol if your game has firearms). You still need a free hand to load it, but… I don’t know, seems like there could be some way to take advantage of that…

Slings are very cheap. If money is a very significant concern in your campaign, a sling might become a more appealing option, especially if you allow using rocks instead of proper sling bullets as ammunition. Maybe the sling counts as an improvised weapon when used that way, so there’s still a reason to buy ammunition if you can afford it.

And, of course, you can make slings more appealing with their ammunition. Perhaps magic sling bullets are extremely abundant and easily available. In-universe, I could see there being a common folk practice of carving runes and/or holy scripture into sling bullets, to justify the commonality of such magic items.

EDIT: Oh, yeah, and there’s the magic stone spell. That’s probably not as much of a draw in the 2024 rules due to the new and improved version of True Strike, but still. It’s something.

 

[Shades of Eternity]

What’s the Elderberry Tales?

whelp
here's the synopsis

The Elderberry Tales - Part 1 - Overview and Background

The King is Dead, and the Bastard Reigns Supreme It was not supposed to be this way. Our King fought well, but he was already tired before ...

breadthofpopsanity.blogspot.com

the other parts are here under the elderberry tales.

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these are some great food for thought.

thanks all.

 

[Stormonu]

make the user a rogue, add their sneak attack to the damage.

 

[MerricB]

Give every creature resistance to slashing and piercing and vulnerability to bludgeoning.

Slings become THE ranged weapon of choice!

 

[Chaltab]

In Tales of the Valiant the sling's Weapon Action is ricochet, meaning you can hit targets even if they're behind total cover if you have a surface you can bounce the projectile off. That alone made me seriously consider playing a sling fighter in TOTV.

 

[overgeeked]

Yeah, slings are underwhelming in most games compared to how great they were historically.

I’d suggest something like damage vs armor category. Vs heavy, 1d4. Vs medium, 1d6. Vs light, 1d8. Vs none, 1d10. Treat crits as head shots and check if the target is wearing a helmet so they can step up the damage before rolling for the crit.

 

[pukunui]

Or, if you bring back the ahistorical but commonly used in fantasy notion of clergyfolk not being permitted to use weapons that draw blood (i.e. deal piercing or slashing damage), then slings would be the only ranged weapons usable by clerics and perhaps paladins.

Which is a silly idea really ... I mean, you absolutely can draw blood with a rock. Heck, you can draw blood with a fist.

I guess the idea is more that they can't wield weapons designed to draw blood.