Sling Stones?

[Abraxas]

What do sling stones weigh?
Sling bullets have a listed weight of 5lbs/10 bullets but here is no listed weight for sling stones - anyone know of a listing in any other book?

Given the reduced damage I am leaning toward 5lbs/20 stones.

 

[DanMcS]

Sling stones do less damage because they are less dense than lead bullets, but about the same size. So yeah, lighter than bullets. Half as light? I dunno. I just googled, and found that many types of stone are 1/5 as dense as lead, so anything from that to 1/2 could work (sling stones might be a little bigger, volume-wise, than bullets, just to get a bit more weight in the toss).

 

[Abraxas]

I was thinking half the weight because they do damage as if one size category smaller than the character - weapons for small characters weigh half as much as weapons for medium characters - so go with half the weight.

 

[DanMcS]

That also works. Me and my silly science

I think they didn't bother including weight for a bunch of rocks because they figured most PCs would carry bullets, and if you run out, you don't so much pick up a pouchful of rocks as scrounge for them as you go, so weight isn't really an issue.

 

[Nim]

That also works. Me and my silly science

I think they didn't bother including weight for a bunch of rocks because they figured most PCs would carry bullets, and if you run out, you don't so much pick up a pouchful of rocks as scrounge for them as you go, so weight isn't really an issue.

True. Though even sling stones are a pretty specific shape, like the bullets...sort of oblong, like a tiny football. Random rocks grabbed off the ground in a hurry would work in a pinch, but you'd have pretty bad aim. Call it a -4 nonproficiency penalty for using improvised ammunition.

 

[Nim]

Picture at http://www.staff.ncl.ac.uk/nikolas.lloyd/weapons/sling.html, by the way. Looks like the book weight (.5 pounds) doesn't match the historical weight (.15 - .2 pounds), but that's true of so many things it's not worth quibbling about

My favorite part, though, is the bit about how the used to write insulting messages to the enemy on the bullets....

 

[Christian]

Picture at My favorite part, though, is the bi...uid is [i]so[/i] going to do that ... :cool:

 

[interwyrm]

Picture at http://www.staff.ncl.ac.uk/nikolas.lloyd/weapons/sling.html, by the way. Looks like the book weight (.5 pounds) doesn't match the historical weight (.15 - .2 pounds), but that's true of so many things it's not worth quibbling about

My favorite part, though, is the bit about how the used to write insulting messages to the enemy on the bullets....

How did you find that site? Very informative!

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

True. Though even sling stones are a pretty specific shape, like the bullets...sort of oblong, like a tiny football. Random rocks grabbed off the ground in a hurry would work in a pinch, but you'd have pretty bad aim. Call it a -4 nonproficiency penalty for using improvised ammunition.

Or, use the rules actually in the book, and apply a -1 penalty to attack rolls and downsize the damage by one die size.

Sling: Your Strength modifier applies to damage rolls when you use a sling, just as it does for thrown weapons. You can fire, but not load, a sling with one hand. Loading a sling is a move action that requires two hands and provokes attacks of opportunity.

You can hurl ordinary stones with a sling, but stones are not as dense or as round as bullets. Thus, such an attack deals damage as if the weapon were designed for a creature one size category smaller than you and you take a –1 penalty on attack rolls.

 

[Christian]

Or, use the rules actually in the book, and apply a -1 penalty to attack rolls and downsize the damage by one die size.

I think we're clear what the rules are in the book. He was just proposing a house rule for using random stones found at the battlefield vs. using stones carefully selected from a rushing creekbed and carried around for use as ammunition. Not any random pebble will work well as a sling stone, after all ...