Sling (and hand crossbow) improvements

[Greywander]

This article (http://ludusludorum.com/2016/05/12/a-defense-of-the-humble-sling/) makes a good case for why slings are undervalued in D&D 5e and offers some suggestions on how to improve them. But while it does a decent job of balancing them against bows, it ignores the hand crossbow, the other major one-handed ranged weapon. The javelin is the other weapon that falls in a similar niche, but I'd say it already has a well defined role by virtue of being the only one of the three that can make melee attacks and uses STR instead of DEX.

Both the sling and hand crossbow are one-handed weapons, but RAW still require a free hand to reload. I think this is kind of silly. Historically, we know slings were used with shields. As for hand crossbows, while not realistic the "style" seems to be for a "sword and gun" type of fighting, wielding a melee weapon in one hand and a hand crossbow in the other. So first I'm going to propose the following changes:

Sling. A sling may be reloaded even when holding a shield in your other hand.

Hand Crossbow. A hand crossbow may be reloaded even when holding a weapon or item in your other hand.

This gives each weapon a clear niche, makes the hand crossbow more appealing to rogues (who can't use shields anyway), and prevents combining a shield with the Crossbow Expert.

Furthermore, I'll borrow from the article linked at the top and separate slings into short slings and long slings, as well as beefing up the long range of slings and distinguishing between sling stones and sling bullets. Both slings are simple weapons, and anyone with sling proficiency has proficiency with both. I'm not sure about strong winds halving the range of bows, but I suppose it makes sense. In any case, slings are unaffected by strong winds.

Short Sling. Costs 1 sp
Stone: 1d4 damage, range 20/80
Bullet: 1d4 damage, range 30/180

Long Sling. Costs 2 sp, has the Loading property
Stone: 1d4 damage, range 20/150
Bullet: 1d4 damage, range 30/450

Sling stones weigh 1/2 pound each and can be scavenged for free or bought for 1 cp per stone.
Sling bullets weigh 5 pounds for a pack of 20, and are purchased for 1 gp.
Non-magical sling ammunition generally can't be recovered, as it embeds itself into whatever it hits. This makes them difficult to both find and extract, unlike arrows or bolts.

For those who really want to become expert slingers, we can give them a feat.

Sling Expert
Thanks to a lifetime of practice with the sling, you gain the following benefits:
Your range with a sling is doubled.
The damage die for a sling is 1d6 when using sling bullets.
You can hurl sling bullets with such accuracy that you may use your bonus action to make them bounce off your target and strike a second creature within 10 feet of your target, dealing 1d6 bludgeoning damage to the second creature.
You may load and sling objects of an appropriate size, such as alchemist's fire or vials of acid.


Thoughts?

[Fnissalot]

I have read the article before and agree with a lot of what you have written. Overall, it look good. Add a short description of how many stones you find if you search/scavenge for a minute to the sling stones.

The feat is probably too good. I would modify the first to let you use your bonus action to double the range for attacks this turn and remove the third point.

You then need to define what "You may load and sling objects of an appropriate size, such as alchemist's fire or vials of acid." actually intends. Can you shot them as part of an attack action? Does it still do the sling damage or only the flask effect? How does this affect range?


For example, this probably needs to be rewritten a bit:
Sling Expert
Thanks to a lifetime of practice with the sling, you gain the following benefits:

You can use your bonus action to optimize your shots with a sling. Both the normal and long range is doubled when attacking with a sling with which you are proficient until the end of your turn.
The damage die for a sling is 1d6 when using sling bullets.
You may load and sling objects of an appropriate size, such as alchemist's fire or vials of acid. You can shot them as a new attack option that you can use with the Attack action. The item gains the same range as the sling (stone) used to launch it. Replace the attack roll of the item with a ranged weapon attack roll with a sling. On a hit, resolve that items on hit effect.

[Amnoriath]

The feat is fine, in fact it may be a little underpowered the only consistent battle features is turning it into a throwing axe and a weak off-hand like attack that expects a creature to be with in 10 feet of it. While the ability to throw items is quite nice it might already be allowed.

[Greywander]

The feat is probably too good. I would modify the first to let you use your bonus action to double the range for attacks this turn and remove the third point.
I was in a hurry to go somewhere and didn't put as much thought into the feat as I should have. I disagree about using a bonus action to extend your range, though; while you could fluff this as "aiming", I think that would apply only to crossbows (or guns), and maybe bows (remember that compound bows didn't exist, so it would take an inordinant amount of strength and stamina to hold an arrow at the ready for any extended period), but aiming doesn't make sense for either throwing or slinging.

It seems part of the identity of the sling as a weapon, distinguishing it from other ranged weapons like bows, was that it had incredible range but wasn't as accurate at long ranges. That's why the normal range is so poor while the long range is unusually high. Furthermore, the effective range seems to depend on the skill of the user. Hence, with a feat you can extend your range with a long sling out to 900 feet, farther than you can shoot with a longbow, but your normal range is still only 60 feet. Sharpshooter, of course, pairs very nicely with the sling, representing even more training to get almost superhumanly accurate at long ranges.


You then need to define what "You may load and sling objects of an appropriate size, such as alchemist's fire or vials of acid." actually intends. Can you shot them as part of an attack action? Does it still do the sling damage or only the flask effect? How does this affect range?
Yeah, I didn't define this clearly enough, did I? You did a good job of clarifying what I meant in your version, though I think I'll reword it to better match similar abilities that already exist.

As I said, I wrote the feat a bit hastily, and was trying to think of a cool feature I could add in, and the idea to lob things with a sling came to me. I think I might have actually read that somewhere (Middle East, perhaps?) people had actually lobbed grenades with slings, so that's probably what led me to this idea.


While the ability to throw items is quite nice it might already be allowed.
Maybe, but I would definitely treat it as an improvised weapon attack. With this feat, you would explicitly be allowed to make an attack roll using the sling instead of an improvised attack, and you could lob the item at the same range you could a sling stone.

Now, for redoing the feat and putting a bit more thought into it, there seems to be a couple of factors to consider, as can be seen in other feats such as Crossbow Expert, Great Weapon Master, and Polearm Master:
These feats may give a slight boost to the effectiveness of the weapon, but most seem to offer more options or abilities instead.
All of these offer you something to do with a bonus action if you meet specific requirements.
CE and GWM offer benefits that apply more broadly than just wielding the weapons specific to the feat.

With this in mind, here is my new and improved version of the feat:

Sling Expert
Thanks to a lifetime of practice with the sling, you gain the following benefits:
Your range with a sling is doubled for both normal and long ranges.
The damage die for a sling is 1d6 when using sling bullets.
When you make an attack against a creature at least one size larger than you, you may use your bonus action to whisper a prayer to the gods, adding 1d4 to that attack roll and dealing an extra 1d4 radiant damage.
When you make an attack with a sling, you may load an appropriately sized object, such as a flask or vial, instead of a sling stone or sling bullet, using your item interaction to retrieve the object, if necessary. Make the attack roll using your sling instead of an improvised weapon attack, and the range is the same as if you were launching a sling stone.

The first two benefits are minor improvements to the use of the sling. Going from 1d4 to 1d6 is mostly symbolic, as most of your damage will probably come from your DEX mod. The range increase is nominally the main benefit, and brings the sling closer to how it was used historically, but as people have pointed out when it comes to pimping out Eldritch Blast, you'll rarely have the need or opportunity to engage from so far away. The real benefit is the extended normal range (which is still worse than a shortbow or light crossbow), while the long range is in practice a ribbon (though someone is going to make that epic shot at 800+ feet that takes out the fleeing Big Bad).

Note that the third benefit doesn't specifically require a sling (could also work with spells?), but it does require specific conditions. It's also a reference to the Biblical story of David and Goliath, and could be seen as a reference to halfling slingers, since it encourages you to play a small race. Basically, it just gives you the benefits of the Bless and Divine Favor spells for one attack. I'd say it's comparable to making an additional attack, as you don't get to add STR or DEX mod to damage like you would with PAM, CE, or GWM, but it also makes you more accurate.

The final benefit allows you to basically throw certain kinds of items much farther and more accurately. Most players probably won't get much mileage out of this, but that one guy who uses items creatively will love this. In addition to acid and alchemist's fire, poison, ink, oil, and perfume are all valid items for this feature. I expect someone to try to use this with potions, expecting them to work on contact rather than ingestion. I'll leave it up to the DM to decide if this should be allowed.

Now that I think about it, I'm not sure if a thrown flask does improvised weapon damage or not. Alchemist's fire says it deals 1d4 fire damage on the start of each of the target's turns, but since you're making an attack with an improvised weapon, would it also deal 1d4 bludgeoning damage on a hit? Would you add your STR or DEX mod to the damage dealt?