How come 2nd Edition mages can use a sling but not a bow?
How come 2nd Edition mages can use a sling but not a bow? Slings require a lot more skill in my opinion. A bow is pretty much a point and shoot affair. And having had personal experience with both, I really struggled to do anything meaningful with a sling in terms of accuracy! lol
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edit: ^ same goes for crossbows, you know the ubiquitous medieval image of a knight with a crossbow
also, using slings, darts and thrown daggers really does require less training than using a bow (but more than most other weapons unavailable to mages) so that was the choice of ranged weapons for mages because they had to be given some ranged weapons to make them do something at low levels.
remember that mages have abysmal thac0 so they suck at it anyway.
but really, they should be able to use light crossbows
cranking is rather slow so such weapons should probably never have more than 1/2 apr whoever uses them. more mechanically complex (gnomish contraption bla bla) and/or enchanted variants (crossbow of speed) that don't have the disadvantage already exist.
I also think that elves should get proficiency (1 star max) in sword and bow, regardless of class. I guess the true original D&D elf is a fighter-mage dual.
There are a lot of rules like this in D&D 2nd ed.
i always disliked the exotic weapons. what is exotic to one might not be exotic to another.
Plus, collectively - we all spent far too much money on the books to be comfortable playing anything else!
The game does recommend that you can have a different cultural bias, granting different proficiencies.
Holding a bulky weapon, like bulky armour, limits the mages movement to cast spells correctly.
Yes this doesnt explain why multiclass characters can use these weapons, but I am sticking with it.
On a more serious note, I suspect that the topic is being over-thought. I think the reason is simple. They wanted Bows and Crossbows to be something that could be heavily augmented for fighter types. If you give any sort of decent combat ability to a wizard, you run the risk of (don't kill me here) "Unbalancing the game". Just my take on the matter.
And no, I do not believe that 'Balance' exists in the game. And I like it that way.
Proficency allows the character to have basic knoweldge of a weapons use (for example, you stab with shortsword, slash with a longsword, you never stop swinging a flail, you remove the safety from a handgun before attempting to fire) and there isn't much training to it. Training comes from practising and using the weapon (read gaining experience and leveling up).
Druids were restricted to wooden and natural weapons only (don't know where scimitar came from though) because it was more intone with their beliefs (mining destroys the land so using metal weapons and armour is a bit hypocritcial).
With mages, the smaller weapons they are allowed to use, do not hinder their movement as much as other weapons.
The crossbow for example is easier to aim and fire, but the reloading the weapon takes a lot of time, concentration and both hands (hence the slower weapon speed). If he is consentrating on loading the weapon, he cannot concentrate on casting a spell at the same time.
It being bulkier than the small weapons make it more difficult for the mage as well. If a mage wanted to cast burning hands for example, he does not have a easy place to store such a large and clunky weapon to fan out his hands and recite the incantation. It is unrealistic for him to do so, where a sling, he can wrap the strap quickly around his wrist or belt and then cast, and then quickly reequip it after the spell goes off. Same with the dagger, dart and sling.
Quarterstaff, as I mentioned, he can lean the weapon on his shoulder (without having a pointy end getting in the way if it slips) to cast the spell. Plus Gandalf may have had something to do with quarterstaff being a mages weapon.
Basically his staff was what he hit things with, but only because it had range and reach.
Staff sling Cost 2 sp, Weight: 2 lbs, Size M, Speed Factor 11 (worse than any other Weapon than a pole arm or two-handed sword!) Firing rate 2 stones/bullets per round- same as a bow) Uses sling bullets/stones.
Writeup (from the Arms and Equipment Guide); Also called a Fustibulus, a staff-sling consista of a wooden rod, three or four fert long, with a sling attached to one end. The rod is used to increase the range that a heavy object can be thrown by enabling the slinger to twirl the sling harder. It is not meant to increase the distance of the average sling bullet. In fact, it has poorer range for stones or bullets.