Halfling Slinger Idea

[ToastyTobasco]

Foreword: I'm limited to PHB 1&2, DMG, and all the "Complete" Books (With a minor exception here for Races of Faerun)

So, I've been invited to a 3.5 campaign and I started on 5e last year and that didnt last long. I'm ecstatic that I get to do D&D again and the ideas have been flooding in on top of all the cram reading I've been doing of the books. Anyway, to the point:

I've been talking to my DM and he liked the idea of a Slinger. He said would be willing to give me the proficiency for Warsling and Skiprock as racial bonuses and make a few bow feats count for slings to help me along. This character is devoted to the use of the sling to a borderline zealot level.

Initially I thought I would need to go pure Fighter to get the most due to the boatload of feats they get but I started looking into Cleric and saw things like Divine Power adding +6 to Strength on top of things like Enlarge person. Then theres little things like Magic Stones.

Would a Cleric Slinger, Fighter/Cleric, pure Fighter, or some crazy Barbarian Slinger for raging be the best to optimize this character idea?

Yeah yeah, sling doesnt get a lot of love and a bow can do everything better, blah blah. I have a halfling slinger minifig that I want to turn into a legend.

[daremetoidareyo]

What bow feats?

Manyshot? Rapid shot? (Ranger!)

Rapid reload (dm permission) might be a feat you want because reload time is bad for slings, although I'm not seeing a reload time clause on the halfling war sling...just the normal sling...

Consider dead eye (Dragon compendium) (Dex to damage)...never mind, just looked up and saw the sources

[Dagroth]

See if your DM will allow the Master Thrower PrC to count for Slings.

Since he's giving you proficiency with the War Sling & Skip Rock, and you need Weapon Focus for Master Thrower... get a level of Exotic Weapon Master. Close Quarters Ranged Combat is a better stunt than the one you can get from Master Thrower.

Your level 1 should be Halfling substitution level Rogue. Admittedly, this is in Races of the Wild, but there shouldn't be any problem. This gives you "ranged sneak attack". The wording is a little tricky and the table is poorly written... but what it means is you get +2d6 sneak attack for ranged attacks at 1st level. It also means you get +0d6 sneak attack in melee, but you don't care about that.

After that, 2 levels of Fighter (for the bonus feats) and 3 levels of Cleric. Consider getting the War Domain so you can get your Weapon Focus for free. The Magic Domain is a good second domain because it obviates the need for UMD. The Transformation Domain (Spell Compendium). If you want to mess around with Divine Metamagic, you'll need to use the Alternate Class Feature from Dragon Magic for Rebuke Dragons to replace your Turn Undead.

After that, you'll want to stick with PrCs. Church Inquisitor is ridiculously easy to qualify for, so grab the first level of it next. It's almost like they wanted to give everyone a way to avoid multiclassing penalties.

At this point, you're level 7 and your BAB is a little low at only +4. Master Thrower requires +5 and you got Point Blank Shot & Precise Shot from your Fighter Bonus Feats... so, 1 more level of Church Inquisitor is in order.

At level 9, get 1 level of Master Thrower (if the DM lets you... he probably will, it's a fun class but not overpowered). I recommend either Deadeye Shot, Sneaky Shot (for that +2d6 Sneak attack!) or Trip shot.

Level 10, get Exotic Weapon Master 1 so you can do ranged attacks against people standing right next to you and they can't do anything about it.

Your next 3 levels should be Church Inquisitor. This gets you to caster level 7, which means you can cast 4th level spells. As soon as you can (15th level, sadly), get the Holy Warrior reserve feat. +4 damage for all weapons for 1 feat? Worth it.

At this point, you either go Sacred Exorcist because you want Turn Undead (giving you 2 separate pools of turn attempts to fuel Divine Metamagic) or you get the rest of your Master Thrower levels.

After that, it depends on if you want more Cleric levels for casting power or other special tricks. Get level 2 of Master Thrower no matter what. Evasion is too useful to do without, especially with as high a Dex as you're going to have.

If you don't go for more Cleric power (via Sacred Exorcist, the rest of Church Inquisitor or Contemplative PrCs), then at 3rd, 6th or 9th level grab Improved Initiative and qualify for Occult Slayer.

Or, if the DM allows it (since he's allowing archery feats to be used for the Sling), get Rapid Shot and jump into Order of the Bow Initiate. In fact, if he allows it, get into it instead of Exotic Weapons Master since the 2nd level gives you the "ranged attacks don't provoke" ability.



Now, obviously you can do all this without the Halfling Rogue level at 1. You can get that at any time you want, since it's your favored class. That will get you to caster level 7 & 4th level soells at level 12, which means you can grab Holy Warrior then too.

[ToastyTobasco]

See if your DM will allow the Master Thrower PrC to count for Slings.

Since he's giving you proficiency with the War Sling & Skip Rock, and you need Weapon Focus for Master Thrower... get a level of Exotic Weapon Master. Close Quarters Ranged Combat is a better stunt than the one you can get from Master Thrower.

Your level 1 should be Halfling substitution level Rogue. Admittedly, this is in Races of the Wild, but there shouldn't be any problem. This gives you "ranged sneak attack". The wording is a little tricky and the table is poorly written... but what it means is you get +2d6 sneak attack for ranged attacks at 1st level. It also means you get +0d6 sneak attack in melee, but you don't care about that.

After that, 2 levels of Fighter (for the bonus feats) and 3 levels of Cleric. Consider getting the War Domain so you can get your Weapon Focus for free. The Magic Domain is a good second domain because it obviates the need for UMD. The Transformation Domain (Spell Compendium). If you want to mess around with Divine Metamagic, you'll need to use the Alternate Class Feature from Dragon Magic for Rebuke Dragons to replace your Turn Undead.

After that, you'll want to stick with PrCs. Church Inquisitor is ridiculously easy to qualify for, so grab the first level of it next. It's almost like they wanted to give everyone a way to avoid multiclassing penalties.

At this point, you're level 7 and your BAB is a little low at only +4. Master Thrower requires +5 and you got Point Blank Shot & Precise Shot from your Fighter Bonus Feats... so, 1 more level of Church Inquisitor is in order.

At level 9, get 1 level of Master Thrower (if the DM lets you... he probably will, it's a fun class but not overpowered). I recommend either Deadeye Shot, Sneaky Shot (for that +2d6 Sneak attack!) or Trip shot.

Level 10, get Exotic Weapon Master 1 so you can do ranged attacks against people standing right next to you and they can't do anything about it.

Your next 3 levels should be Church Inquisitor. This gets you to caster level 7, which means you can cast 4th level spells. As soon as you can (15th level, sadly), get the Holy Warrior reserve feat. +4 damage for all weapons for 1 feat? Worth it.

At this point, you either go Sacred Exorcist because you want Turn Undead (giving you 2 separate pools of turn attempts to fuel Divine Metamagic) or you get the rest of your Master Thrower levels.

After that, it depends on if you want more Cleric levels for casting power or other special tricks. Get level 2 of Master Thrower no matter what. Evasion is too useful to do without, especially with as high a Dex as you're going to have.

If you don't go for more Cleric power (via Sacred Exorcist, the rest of Church Inquisitor or Contemplative PrCs), then at 3rd, 6th or 9th level grab Improved Initiative and qualify for Occult Slayer.

Or, if the DM allows it (since he's allowing archery feats to be used for the Sling), get Rapid Shot and jump into Order of the Bow Initiate. In fact, if he allows it, get into it instead of Exotic Weapons Master since the 2nd level gives you the "ranged attacks don't provoke" ability.



Now, obviously you can do all this without the Halfling Rogue level at 1. You can get that at any time you want, since it's your favored class. That will get you to caster level 7 & 4th level soells at level 12, which means you can grab Holy Warrior then too.
........Holy cow. That is a whole lot more than I was expecting. I dont think I've ever seen so many PrC's for a single character in a post. Just wow. This looks amazing

Also, I think it's rapid shot that has the reload as quick action. Its one of the Ranger free ones and that's what I talked about in particular with him.

[Dagroth]

........Holy cow. That is a whole lot more than I was expecting. I dont think I've ever seen so many PrC's for a single character in a post. Just wow. This looks amazing

Also, I think it's rapid shot that has the reload as quick action. Its one of the Ranger free ones and that's what I talked about in particular with him.

Yeah... it relies on the DM being lenient with certain things concerning PrCs. Basically, at least in the case of Order of the Bow Initiate, you're just adapting the PrC to a different ranged weapon.

I kinda threw all that together based on a character I once built who threw Javelins. I didn't go the Cleric route, because the character was just supposed to be a support role NPC for a group who had very little ranged combat ability.