POINT NUMBER ONE -- Halflings. I love them. Beyond humans, they are the race I play the most. Heck, my EN World handle is Mighty Halfling.
One of my favorite 3.5e niches they have is their thrown weapon/sling bonus. I've built two different characters around the bonus.
Anyway, I'd love to see it back. It's a great little thing, and I'd especially like to see the Throw Anything feat the core. (Which, right now it is)
The idea of the little guy whupping his opponents with a sling or dart harkens back to David & Goliath, and that's a great image for Halflings. Likewise, it shows that Halflings (described as sometime slaves) know how to make due with what they've got. But there's also a mechanical reason: Halflings are slow in combat and frail. Allowing them a bonus for thrown weapons/slings keeps them safe. (Of course, those Save Bonuses are a big help, too!)
POINT NUMBER TWO -- Since we haven't seen a weapons chapter yet, let suggest this to you: Make a bunch of the thrown weapons qualify as Ammo, rather than individual items. This helps A LOT when you're buying magic items and helps counter the "you attack by unarming yourself?" theory. By making darts, throwing knives (not daggers) and shuriken ammo, you help a lot with "restocking fees." Perhaps you can make the sheaths/cases/straps that house these weapons the magicked item, and the "holder" simply charges the item.
Additionally, to further help weapon throwers, you could make a magic set of gloves that imbues what's being held (or any item from a specific weapons group) with a bonus. Yes, that how to get weapon throwers to match the sword-swingers.
The problem with this is that ammo gets lost when you use it. That's part of the reason for the reduced cost - they're expendible. This is not to say that I have a serious problem with it, but is to say that this could make the Magic Darts of Murgle Dozi an expendible commodity. I would prefer the advantage that while I might only have three MD's of MD, I can almost always get them back.
See for me, I'm suggesting that this change means you don't have to worry about getting them back -- you can throw them at fleeing foes, across gorges, and opponents can't use your magic items on you after you unload on them! Plus this change means you can very well pick up "reloads" without a major expenditure -- the weapons aren't magic, the "quiver" is. Heck, I'd even take this change if you had to buy Masterwork Ammo to get it to work.
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My post cross-posted to another thread. Funny.
Anyways, I was saying that you could create a magical item (gloves) that gives any weapon the returning property. This would not make non-magical throwing knives magical, but it would make it so that if you had a couple of different knives with different magical qualities, you could use them without becoming 'unarmed'.
I'm thinking this was just an oversight ... I mean, why take it away?
Agreed. I hope it's fixed, or at least discussed, in the next P20 pdf.