Slings: Projectile or Thrown?

[Caliber]

I seem to remember this being debated before, and I remember the final answer being Thrown.

However, I cannot find any evidence backing me up. Anyone want to point me in the right direction?

 

[Caliban]

I seem to remember this being debated before, and I remember the final answer being Thrown.

However, I cannot find any evidence backing me up. Anyone want to point me in the right direction?

According to page 97 of the PHB, in the Projectile Weapons entry, slings are projectile weapons.

Some people suggest that slings are somehow both thrown and projectile weapons, but the Thrown Weapons entry on that same page doesn't list slings, and I haven't been able to find any other support for this view in the core rules.

 

[Berk]

ahhhhh this wonderful topic.

If I remember correctly the concensus reached here was that it was a normal projectile, ie.. like a sling bart simpson would use or a wrist rocket type thing.

Personally I play slings as if they were more or less flung, not thrown but flung out of a piece of leather with a cradle.

 

[theoremtank]

I would certainly argue that a sling is a projectile weapon as you cannot throw a bullet with your arm close to as fast as the sling will launch it. The word cetripital (or was it centrifual) comes to mind. I can't remeber the difference between the two, but I'm pretty sure one of the concepts applies in what makes that bullet come out so fast.

 

[Caliber]

Hmm. I thought it was a Thrown weapon because I would imagine a high Str affecting damage. Plus of course, its a somewhat iconic Halfling weapon. Guess maybe I was wrong.

 

[Dr. Zoom]

It's a projectile weapon according to PH, page 97, therefore you don't get your Str bonus to damage, just like a bow. And halflings do not get their racial bonus with a sling, although I can understand a house rule that halfings get the racial bonus to thrown weapons plus slings, since older editions included slings for halflings.

 

[the Jester]

Dr. Zoom's got the right of it.

Jeez! You aren't "throwing" anything with a sling, I just don't understand why this keeps coming up. To me, throwing something means just that- throwing, with your hands...
I just don't see the ambiguity here.

 

[Caliber]

Well as I already mentioned, it seems to me that someone who is really strong could throw a stone from a sling a lot harder than someone who was weak.

Unlike the other projectile weapons, this one seems to be based completely on your strength. And of course, slings had been a somewhat iconic halfling weapon, and I would think they had kept their bonus with it.

If you want to know why I posted, it was because I thought slings were throwing weapons and Dr. Zoom said they weren't. Just wanted a second (and third and fourth and fifth and ...) opinion.

What can I say? I'm hard-headed.

 

[The Souljourner]

The problem with slings is that you're not really using your strength, you're using the angular momentum of the bullet as it twirls around. It's not really a matter of strength so much as speed. You don't really use your whole arm when using a sling, it's mostly just your wrist twirling around. Since you're using so little of your body, strength makes very little difference.

So there's my real-life explanation. The in-game rules are fairly clear - it's a projectile weapon.

-The Souljourner

 

[Gez]

The word cetripital (or was it centrifual) comes to mind. I can't remeber the difference between the two

Centripetal and centrifugal.

Centripetal force draw things toward the center (like a whirl in your bathtube when you empty it, it's centripetal). Centrifugal force send things away from the center.

To remember which is what, use etymology. Centrifugal: center - fugitive , fleeing from the center.

Of course, physically speaking, the centrifugal force don't exist -- it's just a pseudo-force that seems to exist, but is actually inertia.