Slinger Build (3.5)

[ekarney]

The title explains the most of it, I'm looking to try and make a build revolving around the usage of slings.
However, I'm totally stuck and have no idea where to start since there's very little content available that specifically affects slings.

I mean I guess strength rogue would be a start?

[Psyren]

Our very own Giant came up with some sling-based homebrew: Halfling Rock-Skipping Champion (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=9623050&postcount=6)

Alternatively, you can be just about any class, and grab the Pathfinder feats Ammo Drop (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/ammo-drop-combat) and Juggle Load (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/juggle-load-combat) by the time you have more than two attacks. You can use these with a double-sling or halfling sling staff as well.

[Molosse]

http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2qkpe?I-Throw-a-Rock-at-it

[Zaq]

As you said, there isn't really anything special for slings out there, so there's not going to be a lot of unique options open to you that wouldn't be open to, say, a shortbow user. About the only stuff I can think of would be the Halfling War Sling and Halfling Skiprock from Races of the Wild, which let you ricochet a shot to an adjacent target after you hit your first target. (I think there are special alchemical sling bullets in some book or another, but I don't remember which book they're in offhand, and I seem to recall that they're too expensive to use as a primary kind of ammo, but I may be wrong about that.) If you've got a feat to burn, it wouldn't be a bad idea to invest in the War Sling and the Skiprock, but ranged combat tends to take a lot of feats, so you might not have the luxury for a while.

Fundamentally though, your biggest problem is that it takes a move action to load a sling, and Rapid Reload doesn't do anything to help with that, so it's basically impossible to get more than one attack per round with a sling. You could maybe have a whole bunch of pre-loaded slings on your person and draw them with Quick Draw to make your iteratives (and maybe even Rapid Shot), using Unseen Servant or something to gather your dropped slings and maybe even reload them, but that basically means that you're never going to be able to afford to put magical enhancements on your slings, which really kind of sucks. (Plus, it's kind of silly, so I could see some GMs frowning on it—it's anything but overpowered, but you know how GMs can get sometimes.)

Overall, aside from Quick Draw shenanigans, I don't see a way around this. You're going to only get a single attack per round, and you're not even going to have the luxury of moving while you're doing it. If ToB was more ranged-friendly, I'd say you should go for a ToB character and focus on standard action Strikes, which really makes it matter a lot less that you're only making one attack a round; unfortunately, very few ToB strikes work with ranged weapons, so that's kind of a bust unless you look into homebrew (or maybe PF; I'm not very familiar with PF, so I couldn't say). If your GM is willing to let you adapt the rules a little bit, maybe you could tweak Arcane Archer to work with slings instead of bows? Attaching a spell to a missile is a pretty good trade for only attacking once per round, even though as written it only works with arrows. (Naturally, you get two levels of Arcane Archer and hightail it back to your casting class, but that's nothing new.)

If you don't want to go magical, I'm not sure what other class would work for you, to be honest. Rogue seems like a good choice on the surface, but I don't think it's a good idea—getting Sneak Attack at range after the first round basically requires you to be invisible or hiding in plain sight, which often requires some manner of move action, which you don't have. (If you have an ally who likes throwing around Grease and other similar effects, that might work better, but that's still relying on outside help, which may or may not be the best idea.) Fighter will get you the ranged feats you want, but since there aren't a whole lot of feats that do much for sling users, you probably won't want too many levels of Fighter. You do get to add your STR to damage with slings, so maybe Barbarian? It's a lot less effective than just being a melee Barb (or even a thrown weapon Barb), but you knew that when you decided to be a sling user.

In truth, I'm not sure that you can bludgeon a sling user into being an optimized character. The fact that you need to use a move action every round to load the sling just kills any hope of making good use of your turns. You're pretty much always going to be better off just throwing things.

[Dgrin]

Honestly, if you want to be effective, I'd suggest you to grab Sling Flail (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/sling-flail-combat) feat from Pathfinder and go usual Barbarian :smallbiggrin:

By the way, you should specify if that is 3.5 or Pathfinder.

EDIT: If it is 3.5, then, I believe, Zaq is right and there's nothing to look at, at least I cannot remember anything. For Pathfinder, you may look into Halfling alternate racial trait (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/core-races/halfling) named Warslinger, which allows you to reload slings as a free action without spending feats. From this point, it is simply worse bow with a couple of specific feats like Arc Slinger (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/arc-slinger-combat) and usual stuff like Precise Shot, Rapid Shot, Deadly Aim...

Also, Ranged Tactics Toolbox has nice magical ammunition for slings: boulder bullets that expand rapidly when launched from a sling or sling staff, increasing in size and dealing greater base damage (up to 8d6, I think)

Alternatively, pick up Sling Glove (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/equipment---final/weapons/weapon-descriptions/sling-glove) which is reloaded as a free action by default

[Flickerdart]

How picky are you with the definition of Sling? A Gnome Calculus is a sort of sling, able to fire alchemical flasks. Combine it with Alchemist Savant - a class built around brewing spell grenade type things - for an Arcane Archer sort of thing.

[ekarney]

Oh, whoops, yeah, I'm rolling with 3.5.
I'm aware that I'll never get an full optimized sling build, not with this amount of limited content I'm just aiming for a viable one.
If I can use the build to provide a similar style of in-between role dancing thing It could be viable.

Though, Zaq, mentioning ToB was brilliant, because you know what's in ToB?
Aptitude weapons. Aptitude weapons mean I can apply rapid reload to an aptitude sling, with the light crossbow quality Also allowing me to apply other crossbow feats to the sling. (Right? I hope so)

I think I have the basics of a build coming together

Human
1 Fighter 1 /Point Blank Shot/Crossbow Sniper/Defensive Archery
2 Scout 1
3 Scout 2 /??? (Buy Aptitude war sling now)
4 Scout 3
Possibly throw some artificer in there for infusions,

I'm not really sure where to go from here though
Possibly get shot on the run?


Also, what choices do I have for ammunition?

I could also apply the same principles to the gnome calculus now that I think about it, but what does that leave me for mundane ammunition?