Making Slings Worthy
Slings have long been an available weapon in D&D, but I can’t recall anyone ever intentionally deciding to use one in my over 40 years of playing. Their utility is limited by the rules associated with them, most important being the range. In 5th edition the range is 30 feet for short range, and 120 feet for long range (with disadvantage), which is not very impressive. They also only do 1d4 of bludgeoning damage.
In comparison, shortbows have a range of 80/320 feet and do 1d6 piercing damage. And since everyone that has proficiency with a sling also has proficiency with a shortbow, you can see that unless you absolutely must have a one-handed ranged weapon, you’d be a fool to choose a sling over a shortbow.
But recently I read some good stories by John Flanagan in his Ranger’s Apprentice series, where one of the characters does use a sling. She disguises it as a belt, and uses it to great effect. And just yesterday I watched a few videos on slings by Lindybeige where he discusses their historical value. Here’s a short one on using a sling with a shield.
That video also hints at the real difference between short and long range. When you are shooting at something in short range, you are directly aiming at it. But when you are shooting at long range, you are typically firing in a high trajectory with the aim of disrupting groups more than hitting a specific target. This helps explain why when shooting at long range you are at disadvantage to hit.
I followed that up with a little research, and it looks like while slings wouldn’t be comparable to a longbow, it should be reasonable to compare them to shortbows.
So, for purposes of my D&D campaigns I have decided that slings, when used with lead bullets, will have the same range as shortbows. When used with stones, they get half that (both short and long ranges).
Without this change, no one would ever want to use slings. With this, using a sling (which is one-handed, unlike bows) means you can use a shield - therefore a sling is worthy of consideration even over a shortbow.
Also, sling ammo is much cheaper than arrows. Slings are lighter and easier to carry (and hide or disguise).
This also makes the Magic Stone cantrip a cool choice. That spell makes the damage rise to 1d6 plus the caster’s spellcasting ability modifier, putting it on par with a shortbow.
Now you could have a rogue with a belt-sling, who can go anywhere and just by finding some rocks will always be armed. Maybe there would be a fairly high DC for a town guard to detect the sling, making infiltration risky but possible. They could also have some vials with acid that can be slung. Or maybe the old restriction on clerics of only using bludgeoning weapons could be used, making the sling a worthy choice there. I’m sure a lot of other interesting combinations could be thought up once it is a respectable option.
Lindybeige is a pretty good channel for this stuff. For his full playlist on slings, which is about a half hour, go here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgjT5gn77w1yR2nEHOsyJdOwZ3puMWL0-