5e questions regarding Rate of Fire

[WolfhillRPG]

Good day,

I have played AD&D 2e for years and recently "upgraded" to 5e. One of my go to characters has always been a Halfling fighter. Sure when imagine it at first it seems silly, but then when you consider a sling carrying little guy who specializes in that weapon you start to see huge benefits. Fast forward to 5e and a sling seems ultimately pointless. In 2e slings and darts lacked damage but made up for it in volume. I cant seem to find any information regarding ROF (aside from reloading for crossbows, etc) which leads me to think that darts and slings are only handy for players who cant use a bow/crossbow.

Am I just missing something?

 

[toucanbuzz]

Darts and slings can be decent since you can (now) add your ability score modifier to the damage and attack rolls.

1. Some classes don't have proficiency in bows. Small creatures have problems using heavy ammunition weapons like longbows.

2. Darts are cheap and as a non-ammunition weapon, retrievable after being thrown.

3. Darts can be thrown one-handed, leaving you options for your off-hand such as a shield or other items.

4. Slings can be used one-handed, albeit if you're reloading you need a free hand.

5. Sling ammo, if your DM allows it, could be rocks you find, making it good for prolonged excursions.

 

[iserith]

If the game uses the optional Feats rules, choose the Sharpshooter feat and take the -5 to hit and +10 to damage against monsters with low ACs or when you have advantage.

It will be hilarious when you do 17 damage with a sling in a single attack. Think of all the David and Goliath jokes.

 

[WolfhillRPG]

That's what made the character so interesting in 2e. +1 hit with Halfling throwing trait, Dex bonus to hit, and a ROF of 3/2 with a weapon specialization. An platoon of Halfling slingers suddenly becomes formidable.

 

[Swarmkeeper]

You can use the sling for as many attacks as you have per round. At first level, that's once. As a second level fighter, you could use Action Surge and attack twice with your sling. When you get Extra Attack, you can use the sling 2 times (and up to 4 times at level 20... or 8(!) times with Action Surge).

Sounds like a fun character concept. Run with it! Don't let the optimizers (including the one that's in all our heads) tell you that your PC needs to use a shortbow!

 

[jgsugden]

One change I informally made for 5E: The type of weapon/description is fluff.

If someone is proficienct with bow and wants to deal bow range and damage, but describe it as a sling.... go for it. I'll even allow minor mechanical changes (such as bludgeon rather than pierce).

I'd rather they'd changed weapon proficiencies from being weapon specific to a point based system. You'd have a proficiency level of simple, basic, martial, expert and master weapons. Each weapon you find would have characteristics (damage type, special abilities, damage die, proficiency level required). The proficiency level would be determined by countinging special abilities (finesse, light, ranged weapons, extended range, versatile, etc... some special abilities might be free, but they'd be 'either/or' abilities where it could only be used one way) and die upgrades from d4 (d6=1, d8=2, d10=3, d12/2d6 = 4). Simple weapons get 1 upgrade, basic 2, martial 3, expert 4, master 5. Heavy / two handed weapons get 1 free upgrade. Everything else is fluff. One special ability that would cost more than 1 level of advancement would be an ability to make one extra attack during any attack action with the weapon.

Fighters would be the weapon masters. Barbarians, rangers and paladins would be experts. Warlocks, bards, clerics, rogues monks would get martial. Sorcerers and druids basic. Wizards simple.

 

[Bacon Bits]

Good day,

I have played AD&D 2e for years and recently "upgraded" to 5e. One of my go to characters has always been a Halfling fighter. Sure when imagine it at first it seems silly, but then when you consider a sling carrying little guy who specializes in that weapon you start to see huge benefits. Fast forward to 5e and a sling seems ultimately pointless. In 2e slings and darts lacked damage but made up for it in volume. I cant seem to find any information regarding ROF (aside from reloading for crossbows, etc) which leads me to think that darts and slings are only handy for players who cant use a bow/crossbow.

Am I just missing something?

Nope, you're not missing anything.

I'm not sure why people are beating around the bush here. There is no incentive for a Halfling Fighter to use anything other than a shortbow, a hand crossbow with Crossbow Expert, or a thrown javelin or handaxe. And Halflings have no particular affinity for thrown weapons or slings.

 

[Oofta]

You may find that in 5E there are fewer power-ups for specific niche builds. This was a design decision, and part of the goal of not being required to be a grognard to build effective characters.

There are still plenty of people that like to argue about optimization, but to me it seems like it's not nearly as important as it was in previous editions. Yes there are builds that do 2 points per round after 10th level*, but in real play I just don't see the massive differences I saw in previous editions.

So halflings get some cool things, but sling specialization isn't one of them.

*sometimes you can get quite a bit more damage for certain builds when the stars align and the build can go nova, but generally the difference is not that big round after round

 

[DEFCON 1]

If you like the concept of your sling-using Halfling Fighter, don't be afraid of speaking with your DM and asking "Hey, as a halfling I normally could be using a shortbow and hitting for 1d6 + my DEX mod in damage. But as I'd love to recreate the 2E-style halfling that got bonuses to using slings... would it be all right if I refluffed the mechanics of the shortbow to be a 'sling in the hands of a halfling' that would get me 1d6 + DEX bonus damage, rather than the standard sling damage of 1d4?"

Hopefully your DM will realize there's no reason not to let you fluff your 1d6+DEX ranged damage attack into whatever weapon form you want... especially if you even say you'd be willing to stick with the sling's range rather than ask for the shortbow's.

 

[rgoodbb]

This might change your character too much, but If you could somehow gain access to the Magic Stone cantrip through a feat or a Multi-class or a nice DM, then it might feel a bit more powerful but as others have said, go for it anyway. Halfling Slingers totally rock! Forget incentives for a tad more damage.