Chakrum Fighter

[evilnerf]

Hey, I have a concept I like of a warrior who uses Chakrams. What class/archetype would work best with this?

[Imbicatus]

Either a fighter or an arsenal chaplain warpriest are the best options for a thrown weapon build. You need several feats to make a trowing build work, and you need access to weapon training for Trained Throw AWT and the ricochet toss mastery feat.

[Theliah Strongarm]

I can't think of any archetype right now that would support this thematically. Have you tried a rogue archetype? Rogues seem really good at throwing stuff.

[KainPen]

I think the Slayer has a few slayer talents that work well with thrown weapons also, in addition to Ranger thrown weapon combat style as an option, I could be just thinking about the combat style.

[Claxon]

Fighter or any archetype of a class with Weapon Training class feature is the correct answer.

You need ricochet toss so that you only need to enchant one weapon.

Here I have a Arsenal Chaplain warpriest who specialized in Starknives, but most everything should apply to Chakrams as well as Starknives.

[Dwarftr]

There is a monk archetype that could work as well.

PFS Legal Far Strike Monk
Source Ranged Tactics Toolbox pg. 9 (Amazon)
Far strike monks are masters of thrown weapons, from shuriken to throwing axes to spears. The far strike school views thrown attacks as an extension of unarmed strikes, and masters of this school can infuse thrown weapons with their ki.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: In addition to the standard monk weapon proficiencies, a far strike monk is proficient with all thrown weapons.

Flurry of Blows (Ex): A far strike monk can make a flurry of blows as a full-attack action as long as he’s attacking with thrown weapons. He can’t make a flurry of blows with his unarmed attacks or any other weapons. A far strike monk’s flurry of blows otherwise functions as the standard monk class feature.

A far strike monk can’t use Rapid Shot when making a flurry of blows with a thrown weapon. This ability alters flurry of blows.

Bonus Feats: A far strike monk adds the following feats to his list of bonus feats at 1st level: Far Shot, Point-Blank Shot, Precise Shot, and any targeting feat. At 6th level, he adds the following feats: Improved Precise Shot, Parting ShotAPG, and Trick Shooter. At 10th level, he adds the following feats: Improvised Weapon Mastery and Pinpoint Targeting.

Fast Thrower: At 1st level, a far strike monk gains Quick Draw as a bonus feat, even if he doesn’t meet the prerequisites. At 4th level, he gains Shot on the Run as a bonus feat, even if he doesn’t meet the prerequisites. At 8th level, when using the Shot on the Run feat, he can make a second ranged attack with a –5 penalty at any point during his movement. At 15th level, he can make a third ranged attack with a –10 penalty at any point during his movement. This ability replaces Stunning Fist.

Invisible Blade (Ex): At 3rd level, when a far strike monk uses the Stealth skill to maintain his obscured location after sniping, he takes a –10 penalty on his Stealth check instead of –20. This ability replaces still mind.

Ki Pool (Su): At 4th level, in addition to the normal abilities of his ki pool, a far strike monk can spend 1 point from his ki pool to increase the range increment of a thrown weapon by 20 feet for 1 round.

Ki Missile (Su): At 5th level, a far strike monk can spend 1 point from his ki pool as a swift action to change the base damage dice of thrown weapons to that of his unarmed strikes. These weapons are also treated as ki focus weapons, allowing the monk to apply his special ki attacks to his thrown weapons as if they were unarmed strikes. This effect lasts until the beginning of his next turn. This ability replaces purity of body.

Trick Throw (Su): At 11th level, a far strike monk can infuse his thrown weapons with ki to hit targets that he might otherwise miss. By spending 1 point from his ki pool as a swift action, the far strike monk can ignore concealment. By spending 2 points, he can ignore total concealment or cover. By spending 3 points, he can ignore total cover, even throwing weapons around corners. The weapon must still be able to reach the target; for instance, a target inside a closed building with no open doors or windows cannot be attacked using Trick Throw. These effects last for 1 round. This ability replaces diamond body.

[Imbicatus]

Far Strike monk can be a decent dip, but you still really need ricochet toss in addition to the normal ranged feats, and either startoss style or two weapon fighting. That means fighter or warpriest for the combination of bonus feats and weapon training.

[Son of the Veterinarian]

Warpriest? I'd suggest Desna since a chakram and starknife are pretty much the same thing.

[evilnerf]

Son of the Veterinarian wrote:

Warpriest? I'd suggest Desna since a chakram and starknife are pretty much the same thing.

Possibly. The concept I had in mind was more Akin to a Sikh warrior though.

[Nefelpitou]

everyone seems to agree that you need ricochet toss. however you can easily qualify for weapon mastery feats with the martial focus feat. so no fighter dip necessary.

martial focus:

You have honed your skills with a group of related weapons.

Prerequisite(s): Base attack bonus +5.

Benefit(s): Choose one fighter weapon group. While wielding a weapon from this group with which you are proficient, you gain a +1 bonus on damage rolls.

Special: The Martial Focus feat counts as the weapon training class feature with the chosen fighter weapon group for the purpose of weapon mastery feat prerequisites and what weapons you can use with weapon mastery feats.

unless I misinterpreted something this should help.

[Imbicatus]

Throwing builds are very feat heavy, and adding martial focus makes them more so. Which is very trying if you are playing a class without many bonus feats. You can get it as a non weapon training class, it just further delays your build.

[Drahliana Moonrunner]

Son of the Veterinarian wrote:

Warpriest? I'd suggest Desna since a chakram and starknife are pretty much the same thing.

Haven't seen that many circles with four points on them. Also a star knife is gripped from the center, not from the edge, so I don't get where you see any form of simmilarity.

Starknife is Desna, Chakram is Xena, Warrior Princess.

[World's Okayest Fighter]

Is there some way to have charkums not break or allow you to use one chakram with enhancements to create multiple copies of it? I don't wann keep buying multiple chakrams.

[Son of the Veterinarian]

Drahliana Moonrunner wrote:

Son of the Veterinarian wrote:

Warpriest? I'd suggest Desna since a chakram and starknife are pretty much the same thing.

Haven't seen that many circles with four points on them. Also a star knife is gripped from the center, not from the edge, so I don't get where you see any form of simmilarity.

Starknife is Desna, Chakram is Xena, Warrior Princess.

If you do an image search on Chakrams there are several with pointy bits. None are historical, but oh well.

[Lincoln Hills]

World's Okayest Fighter wrote:

Is there some way to have charkums not break or allow you to use one chakram with enhancements to create multiple copies of it? I don't wann keep buying multiple chakrams.

A chakram is a thrown weapon, not ammunition. Aside from shuriken (which are specified as following the 'ammunition' rules), thrown weapons have no chance of breakage unless some specific spell or ability says otherwise.

As far as multiples, I don't know of any items that replicate or produce thrown weapons in bulk. Your best bet may be a batch of cold iron chakrams, a wand of magic weapon and a friend who can take a few rounds buffing your gear before fights.

[Devilkiller]

Besides the Ricochet Shot feat folks there’s also the Blinkback Belt so long as the DM will agree that a chakram could be held with a sheath or strap.

I don’t think that spending one feat for Martial Focus to qualify for Ricochet Shot is that big of a feat tax if you’d rather play another class instead of Fighter, especially since some of those other classes might give you bonus feats too. For instance, the Far Strike Monk gets several useful bonus feats along with a bunch of potentially fun Monk abilities. You’d get EWP(chakram), Quick Draw, and Shot on the Run along with bonus feats at levels 1, 2, 6, 10, 14, and 18. So, a Fighter gets 10 bonus feats which could be used for thrown weapons whereas this Monk gains 9.

That’s not a big difference in feats, plus the Monk is actually more front loaded. The Far Strike Monk’s Far Shot is superior since you can make extra attacks (one at 8th level, two at 15th) . Finally, the Monk also gets Improved Unarmed Strike, which could be useful for style feats and maybe some grappling. Being able to achieve a decent AC without armor also might be well suited to the OP’s character concept.

That’s not to say that the Fighter is bad, just that maybe the Monk could be fun too.

[Claxon]

Blinkback Belt is bad since you lose the ability to wear stat increasing belts for for more dex/strength/con.

I agree with Imbicatus, the best way to build thrown weapon characters is fighter or war priest levels for the bonus feats and weapon training.

It's not that other classes can't work eventually, but more that they take that much longer to get online. If you need to take martial focus then you can take it at 5th level. This will push back ricochet toss until level 7 for most classes, since most aren't going to get a bonus feat at 6th level to pick it up. And now you've had to sink a extra feat, on what is presumably a class that doesn't get a lot of free bonus feats like fighter/warpriest.

[The Shaman]

I think there were canon rules for stacking item features on the same item slot, but this is something best checked with the DM.

[Devilkiller]

Yeah, you "should" be able to get Blinkback Belt on a Belt of Dex for 2500gp more. I guess some DMs might not allow combining enchantments, but I don't think banning it is common practice. Maybe I'd be surprised...

Anyhow, paying 7500gp to basically get Ricochet Toss without spending a feat while bypassing the Martial Focus prerequisite doesn't seem like a bad deal to me.

A Core Monk actually wouldn't be able to pick up Ricochet Toss until 9th level due to the BAB requirement. I'm not sure if Far Strike Monk works with Unchained Monk or not.

[Frosty Ace]

I recommend a Fighter. You can wear heavy armor, meaning you can melee with you Chakram without cutting yourself.

And if going Fighter, you either want Startoss style or TWF. Not sure which is better. It's really a question of quantity vs quality. Depending on the party/available buffs (Divine spells, some for of Inspire Courage) TWF wins out easily.

Regardless, feats you need: Quick draw, Point-blank shot, Precise Shot, Far Shot, Distance Thrower and Ricochet Toss. The rest depend on if you go Startoss or TWF. Twf could do without the penalties or Rapid Shot and deadly aim (Both debatable considering, again, party buffs).

[Serisan]

When I ran Emerald Spire in PFS, one of the players had a Cardcaster Magus using chakrams with a Blinkback Belt. He had few issues with low stats, though he started preparing a few Cat's Graces toward later levels. That said, with the 15 minute workday of Emerald Spire for each floor, his resources weren't tried as hard as other casters could be.

Imbicatus has the right of things here, though. I've never been able to put together a build that I liked for thrown that got "online" sooner than 6 or 7. In PFS, that's half a career.

[Overthinker]

Get DM to admit that chakram is light weapon. Throw large chakram as two handed hula-hoop of death! Only 2d6, but vorpal hula-hoop much fun!