A peasant hero armed with a sling as a primary weapon. is that a viable thing?

[dehro]

Out of pure academic interest (as in, I'm not going to play the character anytime soon), I would like to know if there is a build that makes the sling an actually effective primary weapon rather than just something for the Mage to hold on to when he's run out of magic juice. I looked around but haven't found anything particularly effective or interesting or that wasn't clearly designed with a bow and arrow in mind

[icefractal]

I believe that Halflings get some sling-related stuff. And while it's not a sling, the Halfling Skiprock is a pretty peasant weapon, and there's some highly effective **** you can do with that.

Beyond specific stuff like that - the only advantage I can think of for the sling is that it adds Strength bonus to damage, without needing to be built for a specific strength bonus. Except so do thrown weapons.

I've used a sling for a Master of Many Forms character, because I could wrap it around my arm to wear it and thus have it meld.

[Synar]

I believe I've seen quite a number of prestige classes replicating exactly that (most of the time with halfings), but I think most of them are homebrews.

[Elkad]

It helps if you can get slings improved a bit. With lead bullets they should out damage and out range anything but a longbow. I've house ruled them to be 1d6, 100' range, x3 crit. Due to their density, lead bullets (only) are treated as siege weapons in high wind. Rapid Reload also applies to all slings.

Now you have a decent starting point (and more historical accuracy)

[Spiryt]

Well it has higher damage than bow with high Str, and higher range than thrown weapons.

Off course, just when character can afford bow with sufficient strength modifier, it becomes rather obsolete, together with thrown weapons in general. :smallfrown:

But on low levels it should be certainly viable, especially with basic stuff like Power Throw.