Improving Throwing Viability

[Mekura]

I've been thinking of how I run my games of late, and I've been wanting to encourage builds beyond people playing single focused characters, or at least changing up the usual builds beyond Two-handers and Archers in terms of martial combat. And one of the builds that has a lot of fun and flair is throwing builds, be it hulking boulders or tons of daggers. But generally, its just considered weaker than a typical archer. Heck, even Crossbows might be superior for all I know. So, I've been trying to think of a House Rule to make Throwing weapons more viable as a combat option, without completely altering the game.

How can I implement a few decent changes not only to enable people wanting to build around Throwing, while also making it a more viable combat option as a back up to more melee characters? I'm aware there are archetypes, but I'm trying to focus on either combat rule edits or new feats/feat changes.

[LoneKnave]

Throwing weapons use STR to hit as well as damage like in 5e. Have a feat/option that replaces that with DEX for light thrown weapons (could be just built in, or part of Weapon finesse... which could also be built in).

That fixes about half of it.

Now all you need is a cheap way to enchant. Something like "thrower's gloves" that work like amulet of mighty fists for thrown weapons could work. Alternatively, you could have magic thrown weapons just teleport back into your hand/quiver automatically, so you can use them right again.

[mechaPoet]

You could also rethink how throwing weapons themselves function. This may not be to your liking if you like your games with more of a distinct "real world" simulationist kind of approach, but you could have throwing weapons function as an abstract amount of ammunition. In the same way that you could have a +1 longbow, you could have an abstract, functionally infinite pile of +1 throwing knives/axes/etc.
Note: the important thing to note about the pseudo-infinite amount of magical throwing weapons for those wishing to exploit that particular feature is to restrict the amount as necessary. They want to sell individual knives for "infinite" profit? They eventually run out, such that it's really only effective to sell your Big Pile of Knives as any other +1 weapon, or whatever. They can drop a Big Pile of Knives when disarming themselves, but cannot produce a literally infinite amount of knives to, say, fill up a 20-feet-deep pit trap.

There are a couple of things to figure out about treating throwing weapons like this: how useful are they in melee? Should they be strictly ranged? Is it unfair/unbalanced to have a ranged weapon that can't effectively be sundered/disarmed/etc. (although I'm leaning toward "no" on this because this is essentially how shuriken function and I don't see anyone talking about how game-breaking shuriken are)? Does treating them more like ranged weapons essentially reduce them to short-range, possibly melee-useable bows (alternative way to frame this question: is that weapon niche a reduction of throwing weapons, an expansion on them, or a more horizontal shift, and does that matter? Is that the space you're aiming for?) Are you okay with the abstract amount of ammunition? Possible there's some TWF/ranged attack overlap here, and you'll have to figure out how you want that to work.

[boring7]

Well, if you want to break the game with an infinite loop.

Blinkback Belt + throwing shield + quickdraw = infinite attacks. If you get "distance" on the shield and Clustered Shots you can kill anything and everything that gets within 100 feet of you. Your shield occupies all positions within a 100 foot radius over the course of 6 seconds, and then you fall 100 feet into the large crater you just created.

Anyway, that ridiculousness aside, my half-thought-out wild idea is to first make the range increment for thrown weapons 30'. This spits on hand crossbows, but hand crossbows were terrible anyway.

If you want the Hulking barbarian's thrown Axe to be totally badass, just make the range increment 30 feet and auto-crit if done as a full-round action. It makes for battle-ending attacks, and even if he tries to abuse it with a blinkback belt and/or a scythe of throwing and returning he'll only be getting one shot a round.

To make a dart-tosser or daggerman keep up with a full archer you want precision damage. Simple answer is give quickdraw for free and make sure the build has sneak attack. SA only works within 30 feet anyway, so you're good to go. Also since each knife has to be magic on its own, you need some sort of way of mass-enchanting them for ranged attack purposes with a custom magic item, as LoneKnave suggested.

[rainzax]

I use ST for melee attacks, thrown weapons, and both "power" and "finesse" maneuvers, and the repurposed Climb>Athletics skill to bypass movement AoOs
and
I use DX for finesse weapons, ranged weapons, and "finesse" maneuvers (Dirty, Disarm, Repo, Steal, Trip)

Agile Maneuvers gives DX to "power" maneuvers (Bull, Drag, Grapple, Overrun, Sunder)
Weapon Finesse gives DX to damage
Point Blank Shot gives DX to damage (w/in 30ft)

thus diversifying both stats

[Lord Vukodlak]

Magic gloves that bestow their enchantment and special abilities bonus on thrown weapons just like bows bestow their enchantment bonus on ammunition.