Ed 'Elminster' Greenwood's page

Anyway, ebooks are getting too damned expensive! Except for mine, which are perfectly priced based on their awesomeness.

Wait a minute... Are you guys talking pre or post 1385 DR? I think Elminster is, like, the only Elect still around...

James Jacobs wrote:

(shrug)

Your mileage may vary, I guess.

Not every build needs to be a damage per round contender.

I'm curious... what are Throwing Weapons supposed to be contenders of exactly? There's a pretty significant gap in support between throwing weapons and bows. Even crossbows have more feats and archetypes floating around for them. I don't think anyone expects throwing weapons (or the Starknife for that matter) to rocket to the top of any damage output contest. But it would be nice if a throwing weapon build actually kind of existed at all, instead of just being a gimmick for melee folks to use on rare occasions.

In history (and by physics) throwing weapons would be just a standby or disruption technique for fighters of other types. For instance, an archer might carry a knife for melee, throwing, repairs and even eating.

Small throwing weapons were more of a distraction, because of how exacting you would have to be to get that exact critical strike with just muscle power and dexterity to to provide force and aim to the throw. I have watched my dad pin a roach to the wall with a folding buck knife from 15-16 feet away, but in a fight, he always said to rely more on your fists and what comes to hand because you can only carry so many knives and it is too easy to miss a prepared target.

Now, spears limit how many you can carry, but you can stab people, stop horses and throw them much farther more efficiently than a knife. Part of this is by learning trajectory so that you can let physics work for you, which does not work as well with small thrown weapons.

No matter how strong you are, there is only so far you can throw with any accuracy. This is why atlatl's, then bows, and then crossbows were invented.

The people that would want to break physics and damage via throwing weapons farther than they can physically throw become wizards. Those that don't want to mess with thrown weapons (other than spears) become archers.

Now, you could always make your own world with modified gravity that allows thrown weapons to be more effective.

Remember that the rule in Pen and paper games are only guidelines. It takes imagination to make it more than just a game of math and statistics.

It has four points, not one ;)

(sorry I had to make this joke)

Badum bump. ::: canned chuckle :::

I can see it if it was about half the size it is usually presented as, but they all look like they're about two and a half feet across. They weigh three frickin' pounds. That's the weight of hefty hatchet.

Per the game dynamics, a handaxe (hatchet) is 3lbs, the starknife is depicted in some of the art more on what would be a 6lbs-8lbs weight, not 3lbs, based on the amount of structure metal that would be required. The Starknife is the weight of 3 daggers, not 4 short swords.

This is where GMs need to consider the game dynamics and listed uses over "artist impressions". If you look at the average Alchemist image, the guy would blow himself up just running to a fray 8x out of 10 times.

Starknife weight and damage suggest a smaller than "anime style oversize" weapons. Images make them more like something that you would see next to an anime character like "Cloud" and his sword that he could not be able to properly manuvere in a real combat situation.

Just shows that GMs and players need to consider common sense over excessive imaginative interpretations.