My girlfriend is looking to play a druid that is a knife expert. Since forbidden weapons is no longer harmful, I was wondering if this is at all feasible at any level.
On that matter, is there any good throwing knife build? I want to be able to pitch her something if the druid isn't any good.
A knife throwing build is one of the hardest to pull off in Pathfinder. A 3/4 BAB class will make it even tougher. Generally speaking a knife or dagger throwing build needs both TWF and PBS feats to be viable, and druids are fairly feat-starved.
I'd love to see a build that works, especially a druid build. I've done rogues and fighters, but never a druid.
I disagree that druids are feat starved. Natural Spell, and then what? Casters are generally the least feat starved classes in the game, in my opinion.
However, there is going to be little incentive for a druid to throw daggers. You'll need both dex and str if you want to hit and do damage, and the druid doesn't really have spells to enhance this form of combat.
Not to mention that throwing weapons in Pathfinder is extremely expensive for no adequate reason (when it comes to magical weapons). Unless Ultimate Combat introduced a solution for that.
If you're the DM, I'd suggest a homebrew item, magic gloves that bestow a bonus to thrown weapons the same as a magic bow bestows its bonus to arrows.
Look into the Knife Master archetype for Rogues. Combined that with the Scout archetype and Shot on the Run / Spring Attack feat(s) and she will be able to be dealing d8 sneak attacks every round by level 8 with ease. You'll need to start with Weapon Finesse, Dodge, and Mobility at low levels to get sneak attacks off, after that pick up Point Blank Shot, Shot on the Run and Spring Attack for easy sneak attacks every round.
Good Rogue talents for this would be Offensive Defense, Weapon Training, Ninja Trick (Deadly Range), Snipers Eye and Powerful Sneak.
In my experience druid builds tend to follow either a summoning or wildshape path, and both of those generally require enough feats that a druid knife thrower is going to be hard to pull off.
I play an archer druid and her feats are wholly invested in the PBS tree right now so she would have none left over for TWF to be able to throw additional knives.
So while "feat starved" might be a bit of hyperbole, I stand by my statement that this build requires enough feats that it's going to be a tough row to hoe for a druid.
But as I said, I'd love to see someone pull it off.
What is it about the Druid that she loves? Is it the nature flavor, the animal companion?
If so then I would suggest a Ranger, full BAB class, wilderness warrior, still gets an animal friend, similar in flavor to a Druid, and can be a deadly thrower. I would suggest the TWF combat style, taking the ranged feats she needs with her normal feat slots.
Ranger probably wont work though if its the full spellcasting or wild shape shes in love with.
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Druid is a strange choice for a throwing build, but you could pull it off. Daggers aren't even "forbidden" to druids, they're proficient in them.
You'd need Far Shot, since the range increment on a dagger is so short. Opening Volley is good too, since a dagger is both a melee and thrown weapon. Quick Draw is pretty much mandatory, otherwise you'll be spending every round drawing one dagger and throwing it and never doing anything else.
Honestly, throwing weapons are a pretty tough strategy to make viable. You see, the game kind of assumes that as you level up, you're going to have magic weapons. You can get returning weapons, but they only return once per round, so you'd need as many weapons as attacks you can make in a full attack (usually at least four by higher levels), and you'd need to pay to make them all +1 returning, as least. Compare that to the guy with a bow, who only needs to enchant one weapon.
There is hope though- the Blinkback Belt is a magic belt that lets you throw up to four light weapon and have all of them return every round. You'd still need four magic daggers, but you don't need to pay for them all to be returning.
The best throwing knife build I can come up with? As weird as it may sound, an Inquisitor of Desna. They get proficiency with the starknife, which is identical to a dagger in melee but better for throwing, and they get the Divine Favor, Wrath, and Returning Weapon spells, plus judgements. Returning Weapon should hold you until you get a Blinkback Belt, and Divine Favor and Wrath both target "you", so they'll apply to all the starknives you can throw. Same applies to Judgement, but sadly not Bane.
There is hope though- the Blinkback Belt is a magic belt that lets you throw up to four light weapon and have all of them return every round. You'd still need four magic daggers, but you don't need to pay for them all to be returning.
Thanks for pointing me towards that belt.
Actually the belt is even better. The weapon is actually teleported back, immediately after the attack, so you can full attack with just one thrown weapon. Makes the increased costs of throwers a non-issue.
There was this PrC from 3.5 called the "Master Thrower". I always thought they were neat, had a halfling I made named Mepiarias Handlehood --Mep to his friends.
This looks to be it:
http://aaronwiki.us/index.php?title=Master_Thrower
There is hope though- the Blinkback Belt is a magic belt that lets you throw up to four light weapon and have all of them return every round. You'd still need four magic daggers, but you don't need to pay for them all to be returning.
Thanks for pointing me towards that belt.
Actually the belt is even better. The weapon is actually teleported back, immediately after the attack, so you can full attack with just one thrown weapon. Makes the increased costs of throwers a non-issue.
Another option is the dagger of doubling. "A wielder with a free hand can split this +1 dagger into two identical +1 daggers as a swift action, or a free action if she has the Quick Draw feat. The doubled daggers can't be split again. If either dagger is thrown while doubled, the hurled dagger vanishes after resolving the attack and the remaining dagger can be split again." (Ultimate Equipment, pg. 153) This lets you wear a stat-boosting belt.