On this subject it’s interesting in that if I recall sorcerer make the worst Necromancers in PnP. Though, isn’t the Command Undead feat for clerics missing from Kingmaker?
I’d love to see an undead themed DLC that would include that feat along with the dirge bard, undead lord Cleric, and Anti-Paladin. I’m also only a tiny bit upset that animate dead is a generic summon as opposed to adding the skeleton/zombie template to a slain creature. I’d even take the 100 gp obsidian per CR cost.
Neither Octavia nor Linzi are weakened that much by their stat & spell selection, in comparison to Valerie. If I recall correctly, Octavia has color spray, which is hands down the best disabling spell at her level. Linzi is there not only for the songs, but also for the skills. Now imagine they too would follow Valerie's example. How about a wizard companion with 14 intelligence?
It's simply not player friendly to create a companion like Valerie in a game that is not very clear about the rules it uses. If you are familiar with the system, then by all means you can evolve her. But taking away just 2-3 points from her constitution and increasing her strength would have changed nothing about her character concept, and made her far easier to use.
She's a tank, Con is her main stat. If you want the strength based warriors, you take Amiri or Reg. A 14 strength is still respectable for fighting and completely different than a 14 int wizard or 14 cha Bard, since those limit the level of spells they can learn. Her use couldn't be more simple, charge in and pull aggro. There's a reason charge is the first button on her hot bar when you get her.
On this subject it’s interesting in that if I recall sorcerer make the worst Necromancers in PnP. Though, isn’t the Command Undead feat for clerics missing from Kingmaker?
I’d love to see an undead themed DLC that would include that feat along with the dirge bard, undead lord Cleric, and Anti-Paladin. I’m also only a tiny bit upset that animate dead is a generic summon as opposed to adding the skeleton/zombie template to a slain creature. I’d even take the 100 gp obsidian per CR cost.
Sorcerer don't make the worst necro on PnP. The least versatile? Yes but on P:K since only a fraction of PnP spells are on the game, the lost of this spells aren't a big problem, here is people discussing how to make an necro sorc ( https://paizo.com/threads/rzs2rkvb?Building-a-Sorcerer-Necromancer ) Also, since most campaigns are low to mid level...
PS : Animate dead should work more in like PnP. I agree with that.
PS 2 : I will love to see a DLC similar to Ravenloft who allow vampirism, lichdoom or hunt vampires/liches.
@SorcererV1ct0r you keep making me want to start over, yet again, and play a sorcerer. You've even made undead sound extremely tempting, but I'm still leaning toward Infernal, since it gets alot of the spells I want.
She's a tank, Con is her main stat. If you want the strength based warriors, you take Amiri or Reg. A 14 strength is still respectable for fighting and completely different than a 14 int wizard or 14 cha Bard, since those limit the level of spells they can learn. Her use couldn't be more simple, charge in and pull aggro. There's a reason charge is the first button on her hot bar when you get her.
Her use is limited to that charge, because otherwise she is too slow in combat. If you get a second wave of enemies from the back, she's got next to none mobility in combat. What you described is exactly what I find problematic about Valerie: there is no reason she could not work as a tanky fighter that can actually fight, save for her point going all for constitution instead of strenght. Which is wasted on her, because she so rarely gets hit, and has nothing to do with her backstory.
Valerie only really work due to the Pathfinder enemy ai being not that good at switching targets. If the ai was better at choosing and switching them (similar to what the scs mod does for BG), Valerie would only work as a doorstopper. That's the difference between her and characters like Linzi or Octavia; nevermind characters with op stats like Jaethal or Ekun.
You can charge again once a fight is going. I do it all the time and just mouse over people to see when their next action's ready and can figure out if they'd reach them by moving normally quicker or charging. Hell, it can be worth charging anyways, since it gives you a bonus to attack. I often chunk 2-3 enemies off the bat by having my frontliners and rogue charge to start the fight.
In all fairness, Baldur's Gate didn't have attacks of opportunity and tons of feats and statuses Kingmaker takes into account. It does generally go after the first person they see, but some specifically target lowest AC or lowest HP (not sure which, but I've definitely seen it happen). Granted, that's not the majority of fights, but it definitely throws you when an enemy singles out Linzi or Octavia in the back row when they saw your frontline first.
Not all characters are supposed to be offensive powerhouses, this is a defensive character to offset the big damage dealers and create variety. She has her role, and plays it well. There's already strength based warriors, so another isn't really necessary. And no, it's not limited to charge once she gets some levels and items and can move around faster. Most of the time everyone winds up in a big melee cluster anyways, so she can go from target to target without actually moving.
@SorcererV1ct0r you keep making me want to start over, yet again, and play a sorcerer. You've even made undead sound extremely tempting, but I'm still leaning toward Infernal, since it gets alot of the spells I want.
It's overrated. Elementals are better summons, and, since you can't give orders to your summons, and the duration is too short to buff them, animal companions are much much better than either.
If you did want to make a necromancer, make a death domain cleric (possibly herald subclass) with negative channel and enough charisma for selective channel. But there is a companion who does the job just fine.
Undead bloodline makes for a better Eldritch Scion tank.
@SorcererV1ct0r you keep making me want to start over, yet again, and play a sorcerer. You've even made undead sound extremely tempting, but I'm still leaning toward Infernal, since it gets alot of the spells I want.
I was in doubt between Abyssal and Undead bloodline. But since i was planning to play with a ridiculous small party size(since is impossible to solo thanks to resting mechanics) and don't know how hard the game is on post pitax, i decided to pick undead thanks to incorporeal form and DR. Not mention that grasp of the dead is better than + STR at lv 9...
The DR to summons that an Abyssal sorc can give to his summons is good but IMHO is not good for end game. I mean, DR 9/good at lv 18 can increase your minion army survivability but is very unlikely that will protect then against a tough enemy, 2DR.
@SorcererV1ct0r you keep making me want to start over, yet again, and play a sorcerer. You've even made undead sound extremely tempting, but I'm still leaning toward Infernal, since it gets alot of the spells I want.
It's overrated. Elementals are better summons, and, since you can't give orders to your summons, and the duration is too short to buff them, animal companions are much much better than either.
If you did want to make a necromancer, make a death domain cleric (possibly herald subclass) with negative channel and enough charisma for selective channel. But there is a companion who does the job just fine.
Undead bloodline makes for a better Eldritch Scion tank.
You are comparing one animal companion with one summon. OF course animal companion gains, but put a animal companion VS an army of skeletons + elementals... About the duration, at lv 10 you can maintain then for 10 rounds(60 sec), so the duration is not short imo.
Keep in mind that most good spells like haste, lasts for caster level = rounds.
----------------
On IWD/BG:EE, people always say that cleric is better than sorc to be a summoner, but dragon disciple at high levels become immune to fire, and since you have more spell slots, that means that you can summon an Efreet squad and don't care about then hitting you with fireballs. And few enemies can survive an Efreet squad. I used it when i soloed IWD.
charm monster (DC 22), detect thoughts (DC 20), ethereal jaunt (self plus 50 lbs. of objects only), suggestion (DC 21), greater teleport (self plus 50 lbs. of objects only), vampiric touch 1/day—dominate person (DC 23), summon (level 3, 1 babau 50%) https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/demon/succubus
Virtually any person who can be dominated will be dominated. Few creatures have an plausible chance of passing 12 to 24 DC 23 will saves. Mainly creatures with poor will saves... An And if pass, your demon army can charm animals and trow an arnimal army, summon other lesser demons and use vampiric touch.. Wizards and Clerics as summoners wins on flexibility but in therms of numbers, Sorcerers are the best.
This talking about a generalist sorc. An sorc with abyssal bloodline can have more succubus than the generalist sorc "Added Summonings (Su): At 15th level, whenever you summon a creature with the demon subtype or the fiendish template using a summon monster spell, you summon one additional creature of the same kind." https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/sorcerer/bloodlines/bloodlines-from-paizo/abyssal-bloodline/
Not mention, that an caster who needs preparation if he din't prepared and memorized the spell, he can't cast. I know, few GM's will allow it but is just one idea of what the rules allow you to do. Sorcerers are not flexible, but are very powerful.
One fireball and your "army" of undead is toast. And you don't need an army anyway - just enough to form a line between the enemy and the party - and even then only if you don't have a line of tanky companions.
If the ai were any good, it would recognize a few rounds into the fight that a) Valerie is very difficult to hit and b) she has too little offensive power to be a threat. And it would move on to other targets.
Why would it? Undead, owlbears, goblins, they aint that smart. Neither is your average bandit. And this is a universe where trying to move past a melee enemy is likely to get you hit with an opportunity attack.
And smart enemies do target low AC party members. Try sticking Valerie and Amiri side by side on the front row and see who gets attacked.
You wouldn't want the AI to notice Amiri, since if it does she is dead in a round. But if you think about the problem you have described, you are asking the AI to calculate in real time a path around a moving target with a sufficient radius to avoid attacks of opportunity. That's huge amounts of computing power to achieve a result that is not realistic anyway - in the non-turn-based Real World(TM) an armoured knight could quite easily move to block an attempt to move around them.
@DrHappyAngry Again, Valerie works as a tank only because the enemy ai is so weak. When you write "Not all characters are supposed to be offensive powerhouses, this is a defensive character" you showcase just that. If the ai were any good, it would recognize a few rounds into the fight that a) Valerie is very difficult to hit and b) she has too little offensive power to be a threat. And it would move on to other targets.
Difficulty in a game should be created by improving the enemy ai, and not by deliberately sabotaging player characters. And in that aspect Pathfinder (who does a lot of things right otherwise) rates far below Sword Coast Stratagems in my opinion. It's quite telling that the chapter one "boss" can't even move from his starting position in response to the player moving out from his line of sight.
(the 9 in stealth is hilarious, though; you never see that coming)
So she works as a tank in the systems that the game has. Also, if they retarget to move past the frontline, they'll just provoke attacks of opportunity while trying to move past and get to the back row.
Your complaint about improving ai sounds like what people have complained about the civilization series since it's creation. This actually becomes a huge issue to create an ai that's good, but still beatable. I read an article awhile back saying when Quake 3 was under development, they had an extremely difficult time making bots that weren't perfect and just slaughtered everybody. It's still an issue to this day. Technically when you increase most of the difficulty settings past normal, you're still just bringing them up to a more level playing field and removing dividers for crit damage from enemies and the like.
One fireball and your "army" of undead is toast. And you don't need an army anyway - just enough to form a line between the enemy and the party - and even then only if you don't have a line of tanky companions.
Depends the level of undead. Weak CR2 skeletons? If i wanna fight an enemy who have a lot of fire AOE spells, i would summon an army of fire elementals... Not mention, my summon monster at lv 14 creates3 monsters who casts chain lighting and mirror image, Bloody Bones Beast die pretty fast to then.
(the 9 in stealth is hilarious, though; you never see that coming)
Well, 29 max damage for a lv 16 companion is IMHO much small than what someone can summon with Elemental Swarm. His HP and AC are pretty high, probably any non caster can't even hurt him but if this effects don't stack, any elemental swarm will be stronger than this companion.
So no, i don't think that a fireball can defeat then. hu3.
Anyway, i finally got incorporeal form
I was playing evil, but decided to go good only cuz i din't liked the Soul Eaters that you get from Summon monster, IMHO the Axiomite with his DR 10/Chaotic works much more than DR 10/Magic. The WIS damage don't look like is working(or i used against creatures immune), not mention the spell resistance of 19. Soul Eaters was a tough enemy when i fought it but as a summon...
Not every encounter's like that, I'm fighting Armag right now, and he went straight for my cleric. I also think if the game worked like SCS the steam reviews would be way worse than they are now.
Has the game gotten a lot more crashy after the last patch for anyone else? I've had a couple CTDtoday, and before that they were pretty infrequent.
*edit Ugh, my game's screwed. I can't get through the coronation without a CTD or if does finish, I can't move my character. I can cast spells, but can't save the game or move.
*Edit2 Phew, steam boards had an answer. If you get stuck after the coronation, you can rest to get unstuck. You have to actually click the camp icon, though, pressing R won't do anything.
*sigh* ...there are so many interesting weapon types in Pathfinder: Kingmaker, dozens of which were never featured in D&D cRPG's, and yet there are so little actual weapons of them to be found... some I did find were like one unenchanted Nunchaku, one named Staff Sling, one +2 Javelin, one named Punching Dagger and a couple of Earth Breakers. But things like Starknifes, Gauntlets, or Spiked Shields? Haven't even seen a speck of 'em.
Also, I'd really appreciate having more robes to choose from.
Also also, the lack of monk equipment is driving me nuts. Seems they only get a limited amount of amulets, of all things.
*sigh* ...there are so many interesting weapon types in Pathfinder: Kingmaker, dozens of which were never featured in D&D cRPG's, and yet there are so little actual weapons of them to be found... some I did find were like one unenchanted Nunchaku, one named Staff Sling, one +2 Javelin, one named Punching Dagger and a couple of Earth Breakers. But things like Starknifes, Gauntlets, or Spiked Shields? Haven't even seen a speck of 'em.
Also, I'd really appreciate having more robes to choose from.
Also also, the lack of monk equipment is driving me nuts. Seems they only get a limited amount of amulets, of all things.
One think that i hate about some RPG's, is when the RPG's who forces you to play on melee or worst. Forces you to play with an sword.
Swords are overrated IMO. The most common battlefield weapons on most historical periods was spears and other polearms. Swords are backup weapons and very ineffective against armor. Was much more an status symbol and dueling weapon(since most duels are until first hit or first blood) than an actual battlefield weapon. Not mention that an Axe can be used to cut wood, to execute criminals(decapitation IRL with a sword is very hard). I don't understand why they love to picture medieval fights as sword fights. Or worse, on ancient world, pick myths like Achilles and portraits Achilles as an swordsmaster, despite swords being only the secondary weapon for Hoplites on ancient Greek. Not mention, swords cutting metal armor from many different periods, from Lorica Segmentata to to 16th century plate armor like it was paper. Even an heavy warbow will have problems piercing it...
In future, people will probably see CoD and movies assume that everyone on modern times runs with an SMG and 99% of conflicts are CQB conflicts, ignoring that an SMG with pistol caliber aka 9mm, 45 ACP is not effective against armor and is not effective at very long ranges(same disadvantages of swords on the past - range and anti armor capabilities)
If you start the game with Weapon focus, you automatically begin with that weapon. You can also get a star knife as a deity's favoured weapon. I even found a +2 javelin this morning, I didn't think throwing weapons had made it in!
I suppose it's realistic that some kinds of weapon should be rare and obscure, but it would be nice to have some warning (IWDEE warns about the lack of katanas).
Worse still is that some weapon types don't even have a Weapon Focus feat at the moment. One prime example for that are Slings. And I don't even talk about those exotic Staff Slings which are treated as Martial Weapons by halflings.... oh no, I'm talking about the all too common Sling that even commoners can use!
And yes, there are slings in the game. I even found an unenchanted one amids some forgotten tomb.
re: certain weapons being underrepresented/overrepresented, absolutely nothing about this game suggests to me that the devs aren't just flying by the seat of their pants wrt to coding, game balance, itemization, party design, the multiple untested hotfixes that fix three things and break two that arrive daily. there's going to be Trap Builds with a game like this (it's a 3rd Edition tradition). you're going to have weapons that suck, not bc of some in game verisimilitude, but bc the devs aren't quite 100% sure of what they're doing. I was all set to love this game at first, but right now I'm taking the position of being interested in seeing how this game shakes out with patches and third party mods 6 months, a year, two years from now, but the review bombing is pretty much done its damage, so RIP
*sigh* ...there are so many interesting weapon types in Pathfinder: Kingmaker, dozens of which were never featured in D&D cRPG's, and yet there are so little actual weapons of them to be found... some I did find were like one unenchanted Nunchaku, one named Staff Sling, one +2 Javelin, one named Punching Dagger and a couple of Earth Breakers. But things like Starknifes, Gauntlets, or Spiked Shields? Haven't even seen a speck of 'em.
Also, I'd really appreciate having more robes to choose from.
Also also, the lack of monk equipment is driving me nuts. Seems they only get a limited amount of amulets, of all things.
One think that i hate about some RPG's, is when the RPG's who forces you to play on melee or worst. Forces you to play with an sword.
Swords are overrated IMO. The most common battlefield weapons on most historical periods was spears and other polearms. Swords are backup weapons and very ineffective against armor. Was much more an status symbol and dueling weapon(since most duels are until first hit or first blood) than an actual battlefield weapon. Not mention that an Axe can be used to cut wood, to execute criminals(decapitation IRL with a sword is very hard). I don't understand why they love to picture medieval fights as sword fights. Or worse, on ancient world, pick myths like Achilles and portraits Achilles as an swordsmaster, despite swords being only the secondary weapon for Hoplites on ancient Greek. Not mention, swords cutting metal armor from many different periods, from Lorica Segmentata to to 16th century plate armor like it was paper. Even an heavy warbow will have problems piercing it...
In future, people will probably see CoD and movies assume that everyone on modern times runs with an SMG and 99% of conflicts are CQB conflicts, ignoring that an SMG with pistol caliber aka 9mm, 45 ACP is not effective against armor and is not effective at very long ranges(same disadvantages of swords on the past - range and anti armor capabilities)
Otherwise, i agree with robes.
Yes! Swords were totally side arms. Even knights and the original samurai didn't default to them. Knights normally used spears or lances, and originally samurai were primarily bow men. They're just romanticized because they were dueling weapons. You were not going to do anything to a guy in full plate with a sword. Even in the Iliad they'd only pull their swords out after they'd thrown or broken their spears. Bigger swords are also really awkward to swing, often being heavier at the base, and requiring some wrist work to really swing it around. Whereas something like an axe is pretty intuitive, since it's heavier at the end, plus, like you said, most people would have used one to cut wood. It was just easy to carry a sword strapped to your belt, so if your spear broke or got stuck in something, you weren't defenseless.
Most people having used axes to chop wood is relevant to fighting with axes in the same way most people having used knives to cut meat is relevant to swords.
Most people having used axes to chop wood is relevant to fighting with axes in the same way most people having used knives to cut meat is relevant to swords.
Not at all, using knife is nothing like swinging a sword around or even using a knife in a fight. Cutting wood isn't exactly the same as swinging an axe at someone, but would give you some experience with the heft of the axe and knowing how to swing it to land the blade on the spot where you're aiming, and not just hitting them with the shaft. The motion is still a downward arc, whereas cutting meat with a knife is nothing like using one in a fight where you mainly would want to stab with it, maybe slash, but slashing isn't particularly effective.
Comments
I’d love to see an undead themed DLC that would include that feat along with the dirge bard, undead lord Cleric, and Anti-Paladin. I’m also only a tiny bit upset that animate dead is a generic summon as opposed to adding the skeleton/zombie template to a slain creature. I’d even take the 100 gp obsidian per CR cost.
PS : Animate dead should work more in like PnP. I agree with that.
PS 2 : I will love to see a DLC similar to Ravenloft who allow vampirism, lichdoom or hunt vampires/liches.
In all fairness, Baldur's Gate didn't have attacks of opportunity and tons of feats and statuses Kingmaker takes into account. It does generally go after the first person they see, but some specifically target lowest AC or lowest HP (not sure which, but I've definitely seen it happen). Granted, that's not the majority of fights, but it definitely throws you when an enemy singles out Linzi or Octavia in the back row when they saw your frontline first.
Not all characters are supposed to be offensive powerhouses, this is a defensive character to offset the big damage dealers and create variety. She has her role, and plays it well. There's already strength based warriors, so another isn't really necessary. And no, it's not limited to charge once she gets some levels and items and can move around faster. Most of the time everyone winds up in a big melee cluster anyways, so she can go from target to target without actually moving.
If you did want to make a necromancer, make a death domain cleric (possibly herald subclass) with negative channel and enough charisma for selective channel. But there is a companion who does the job just fine.
Undead bloodline makes for a better Eldritch Scion tank.
The DR to summons that an Abyssal sorc can give to his summons is good but IMHO is not good for end game. I mean, DR 9/good at lv 18 can increase your minion army survivability but is very unlikely that will protect then against a tough enemy, 2DR. You are comparing one animal companion with one summon. OF course animal companion gains, but put a animal companion VS an army of skeletons + elementals... About the duration, at lv 10 you can maintain then for 10 rounds(60 sec), so the duration is not short imo.
Keep in mind that most good spells like haste, lasts for caster level = rounds.
----------------
On IWD/BG:EE, people always say that cleric is better than sorc to be a summoner, but dragon disciple at high levels become immune to fire, and since you have more spell slots, that means that you can summon an Efreet squad and don't care about then hitting you with fireballs. And few enemies can survive an Efreet squad. I used it when i soloed IWD.
And talking about pathfinder on PnP, an sorc who can cast 6 tier 7 spells, can easily use Summon Monster VII to raise 6-18 succubus("you can summon one creature from the 7th-level list, 1d3 creatures of the same kind from the 6th-level list" https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/s/summon-monster/#6th-level), and using feats to increase his summon numbers, 12-24( https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/superior-summoning/ ), each one capable of casting
charm monster (DC 22), detect thoughts (DC 20), ethereal jaunt (self plus 50 lbs. of objects only), suggestion (DC 21), greater teleport (self plus 50 lbs. of objects only), vampiric touch
1/day—dominate person (DC 23), summon (level 3, 1 babau 50%)
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/demon/succubus
Virtually any person who can be dominated will be dominated. Few creatures have an plausible chance of passing 12 to 24 DC 23 will saves. Mainly creatures with poor will saves... An And if pass, your demon army can charm animals and trow an arnimal army, summon other lesser demons and use vampiric touch.. Wizards and Clerics as summoners wins on flexibility but in therms of numbers, Sorcerers are the best.
This talking about a generalist sorc. An sorc with abyssal bloodline can have more succubus than the generalist sorc "Added Summonings (Su): At 15th level, whenever you summon a creature with the demon subtype or the fiendish template using a summon monster spell, you summon one additional creature of the same kind." https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/sorcerer/bloodlines/bloodlines-from-paizo/abyssal-bloodline/
Not mention, that an caster who needs preparation if he din't prepared and memorized the spell, he can't cast. I know, few GM's will allow it but is just one idea of what the rules allow you to do. Sorcerers are not flexible, but are very powerful.
And smart enemies do target low AC party members. Try sticking Valerie and Amiri side by side on the front row and see who gets attacked.
And if you wanted it to be more realistic, the Stag Lord should stay inside and shoot through the windows.
Your complaint about improving ai sounds like what people have complained about the civilization series since it's creation. This actually becomes a huge issue to create an ai that's good, but still beatable. I read an article awhile back saying when Quake 3 was under development, they had an extremely difficult time making bots that weren't perfect and just slaughtered everybody. It's still an issue to this day. Technically when you increase most of the difficulty settings past normal, you're still just bringing them up to a more level playing field and removing dividers for crit damage from enemies and the like.
PS : Elemental swarm lasts for 10 min/level https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/e/elemental-swarm/
---------------------------------
EDIT : About my army (images on spoiler)
So no, i don't think that a fireball can defeat then. hu3.
Anyway, i finally got incorporeal form
I was playing evil, but decided to go good only cuz i din't liked the Soul Eaters that you get from Summon monster, IMHO the Axiomite with his DR 10/Chaotic works much more than DR 10/Magic. The WIS damage don't look like is working(or i used against creatures immune), not mention the spell resistance of 19. Soul Eaters was a tough enemy when i fought it but as a summon...
*edit
Ugh, my game's screwed. I can't get through the coronation without a CTD or if does finish, I can't move my character. I can cast spells, but can't save the game or move.
*Edit2
Phew, steam boards had an answer. If you get stuck after the coronation, you can rest to get unstuck. You have to actually click the camp icon, though, pressing R won't do anything.
Also, I'd really appreciate having more robes to choose from.
Also also, the lack of monk equipment is driving me nuts. Seems they only get a limited amount of amulets, of all things.
Swords are overrated IMO. The most common battlefield weapons on most historical periods was spears and other polearms. Swords are backup weapons and very ineffective against armor. Was much more an status symbol and dueling weapon(since most duels are until first hit or first blood) than an actual battlefield weapon. Not mention that an Axe can be used to cut wood, to execute criminals(decapitation IRL with a sword is very hard). I don't understand why they love to picture medieval fights as sword fights. Or worse, on ancient world, pick myths like Achilles and portraits Achilles as an swordsmaster, despite swords being only the secondary weapon for Hoplites on ancient Greek. Not mention, swords cutting metal armor from many different periods, from Lorica Segmentata to to 16th century plate armor like it was paper. Even an heavy warbow will have problems piercing it...
In future, people will probably see CoD and movies assume that everyone on modern times runs with an SMG and 99% of conflicts are CQB conflicts, ignoring that an SMG with pistol caliber aka 9mm, 45 ACP is not effective against armor and is not effective at very long ranges(same disadvantages of swords on the past - range and anti armor capabilities)
Otherwise, i agree with robes.
I suppose it's realistic that some kinds of weapon should be rare and obscure, but it would be nice to have some warning (IWDEE warns about the lack of katanas).
And yes, there are slings in the game. I even found an unenchanted one amids some forgotten tomb.
At least you can alt+tab those away.