David and D&D Math - The Miracle of a Single Sling Stone

In the latest, Fifth Edition of Dungeon & Dragons (D&D 5e), the weakest creature that has the "Giant" creature type is the Half-Ogre, with a mere 30hp on average. I wonder, is it possible for a character to deal 30 damage with a single sling stone? For some characters, yes. For David, no.

A sling normally deals 1d4 damage, meaning that you roll a four-sided die (a d4), getting a random number between 1 and 4. Let's assume that David rolled maximum damage. So, we have 4 so far.

With all attacks, the attacker adds either their Strength or Dexterity Modifier to the damage roll. Since the sling is a ranged weapon, David would use his Dexterity modifier. If we assume that David has the maximum possible Dexterity modifier, that'll give us +5 for a running total of 9 damage.

This damage can be increased further if we assume that the sling is magical. A normal magic weapon can grant a bonus to attack and damage rolls up to a maximum of +3. That's 12 so far.

But not only can the weapon be magical, the ammunition can be magical, too. If we assume that David was using magical sling bullets instead of regular river stones, we can add another +3, for a running total of 15. We're halfway there.

And then, of course, the attack could have been a crit. If a character rolls the maximum result of 20 on an Attack roll to see whether their attack hits, they score a Critical Hit, which deals more damage. However, the normal rules for critical hits only increases (in fact, doubles) the number of dice used in the attack, giving us another d4, for a maximum addition of +4 damage, bringing us to 19.

The only way we can go higher from here is to add use class features or additional magic. Class features that increase damage include Barbarian Rage, Paladin Smites, and Rogue Sneak Attacks. But David was not a Barbarian, Paladin, or Rogue.

Alternatively, we can add more magic. Spells like Hex and Hunter's Mark can increase damage (but David wasn't a spell-caster), and certain magical weapons deal additional damage. For example, there's a magical, flaming sword that deals an extra 2d6 Fire damage. There could, theoretically, be a magical, forceful sling that deals an extra 2d6 Force damage.

But David's sling wasn't a magical, forceful sling. It wasn't any kind of magical, and his ammunition wasn't magical, either. And, frankly, it's even a bit ridiculous to say that David had a +5 Dexterity Modifier. In my opinion, he was probably closer to +2.

If we're being realistic, the most damage David could have hoped for from a single sling bullet was 10. That's 4 from the d4 of the regular damage, +4 from a second d4 from it being a Critical Hit, and +2 from a more realistic Dexterity modifier. That would only take away one third of the weakest giant's hit points, and even then, the odds of David dealing that much damage are 1 in 320.

The bottom line is that, while a sufficiently magical character could theoretically have done it, there is no way David could have slain a giant like Goliath with a single sling stone. It had to have been a miracle.