The longbow is mechanically superior .... but my chakram are not useless, which was the OP's question. Thrown weapons allow me to take advantage of strength bonuses at a time in my characters life when strength bows are not an option.I have strength based characters that start with chakram. Not only are they cheaper than bows, I don't have to pay extra to add strength to damage. Perfect for levels 1-5.The problem is, your premise starts with "Because I can't use a longbow..." It's not so much disputing that longbow is mechanically superior in every way as it is pointing out that there are other options that are cheaper, but still inferior. You're not picking up some chakram because they're better in any way, it's just because you can't afford a longbow yet.
That said, throwing weapons aren't so bad at low levels, They don't really start running into problems until level 6 or so, when magic weapons become a requirement for combat classes, your number of attacks goes up, and the price tag on a composite longbow is utterly trivial.
I'll grant that. Throwing weapons are not useless, they just have a window of usefulness that is far too narrow for my tastes.
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Didn't think so. It's unfortunate since throwing knives are so deadly in reality.
They really aren't. Historically throwing knives are more of a distraction - any damage they inflicted was a bonus.
Only in the movies are people accurate enough that they consistantly get it in the eye/throat (the only way to actually make them deadly).
Ever tried using throwing knives? Not accurate.
Now - throwing axes can be reasonably deadly - but that's a whole different ball of wax - in fact the Francs were originally named after their throwing axe if you go back far enough - it 'bounced' :P
And the romans used their throwing spears along with their charge to kill a few and disrupt the enemy formation.
However - there are no historical troops I know of who used throwing weapons as a primary weapon. It was just the thing they did before they got into melee.
oh cool so this is the new medium-sized mounted characters fallacy
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However - there are no historical troops I know of who used throwing weapons as a primary weapon. It was just the thing they did before they got into melee.That's not entirely true. Skirmishers and light cavalry with darts and javelins were a thing for a very long time.
If you look at India there were also specialist chakram troops, which is pretty cool. They had special hats to hold the discs. Death frisbee hat!
Skirmishers/light cav having thrown weapons as their primary weaponry is kinda debatable. From what I understand they'd chuck a few as the battle began - then generally fall in line or flank etc. They just couldn't carry enough javalins to be feasable for a whole battle.
Though there were a lot of skirmishers that used slings for just that reason. (plus slings are cheap!)
I didn't know that there were specialist chakram troops. I'll have to take your word on that one. (though I remember in deadliest warrior those things basically just bounced off armor - too light :P)
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Hmm . . . I wonder if you can make ranged attacks while your mount charges. The horselord Sand Storm ability would be fairly nice then if you pick up Spirited Charge (maybe need Ride-By Attack to make it work). Though there's very few ranged one-handed thrown weapons that deal slashing damage.
Hmm . . . I wonder if you can make ranged attacks while your mount charges. The horselord Sand Storm ability would be fairly nice then if you pick up Spirited Charge (maybe need Ride-By Attack to make it work). Though there's very few ranged one-handed thrown weapons that deal slashing damage.
Nope, if you and your mount charge, you're limited to a single melee attack, unless you've got some ability that says otherwise (like pounce). Nothing in the horse lord's abilities alters that.
What about Charging Hurler?
That would be another example of an ability that creates an exception to the normal charge rules, so it would work.
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my character is built with the group of skirmishers class
he wields a bunch of people wielding javelins
sometimes they ride horses
sometimes not
it is up to the internet
Distance Thrower and Far Shot let you throw out to your max range with only a -3 penalty. Belt of Mighty Hurling adds 10ft to your weapons and lets you use Str to throw.
and then there is hurling rage powers for barbarians
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16, Contributor
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I've always thought of throwers as crossover characters that should be good in melee and at close range which isn't really the archer schtick. If you are close, you stab em, if you are far you throw a knife. If you kill someone you throw a dagger at his cousin. You build around melee and only spend one or two feats on throwing.