Competitive Throwing Weapon Build: Starfall

[CryntheCrow]

Throwing weapons. A fun idea, but suffering in actual play. Returning weapons don't return immediately, so they don't function for twf spam, and the only magic item in the game that enables full attacks with a single badass weapon, the blinkback belt, occupies the item slot meant for physical improvement.

All that changed with the release of the weapon master's handbook. Now we can have a build that is not just functional, but good. Not optimized archer good, but still very strong and with a ton of flavor. This build is based not on spamming a ton of daggers, but on picking one enemy a round and ruining their day, while dealing significant damage to anything around them. And you do it all by going all Xena on people. I give you: Starfall.

Race: Human
20 pt. buy:
Str:18
Dex:14
Con:14
Int:10
Wis:10
Cha:10

Fighter (No Archetype)

Traits: Defender of the Society, Reactionary

Feats:
Human: Point Blank Shot
1: Startoss Style
1f: Weapon Focus (dagger, chakram, or starknife, but switch to chakram by level 4)
2:Startoss Comet
3:Precise Shot
4:Startoss Shower
5:Weapon Specialization
6:Vital Strike
7:Greater Weapon Focus
8:Deadly Aim
9:Devastating Strike
Weapon Training: Trained Throw
10: Far Shot (or quick draw, if you really want the option to full attack)
11: Greater Vital Strike
12: Greater Weapon Specialization

Weapon of Choice: Chakram with returning enchantment.

So, one of the biggest strengths of this build, especially at early levels, is very high damage on hit. Startoss style gives us Weapon Specialization effectively every other level. Without Quick Draw, most of our damage comes from using our standard action to nuke an enemy and all his minions. Every level feels like a substantial boost in power. You won't put out the same damage output as an archer against single targets, but unleashing the fury on every opponent nearby is a quick way to end encounters.

By level 5 your damage will be envious to even a 2h barbarian. 2d6+15 might be a fair amount more than 1d8+13, but they won't be doing it from the safety of range or heavy armor, or following up on another opponent.

By level 10, we're unleashing a 2d8+21 blow on one unlucky fellow, then battering a nearby opponent for 1d8+19, both at +12. We're moving at full movement in full armor, and we can use a shield.

We've decent health and AC, we can kite and chase unlike a full attacker, and because we're fighters, our abilities only scale as the build levels further. Strong at every stage of the game, weak only in saves and skill points. If you're tired of arrows and bolts, give it a shot.

[Errant Mercenary]

The new feats are fun. A build I was tinkering with was a cleric .

Cleric, elemental domain, whatever domain.
Energy Channel, Precise Shot, Starshot feats, Vital Strike.
Swift action, 2x damage of channel energy dice on your next 3 strikes (level 10 cleric with phylactery...7d6=14 extra damage). Vital Strike if you can be bothered.
Add a Conductive weapon and the elemental domain's first awful power is actually a bit of extra damage too.

The reason for cleric is that after playing as the only martial in a group I felt like the BMX Bandit. Finding something else to do with Standard actions would be fun...myrmidarch for example. Or with a move action, Freebooter!

Returning weapon: Bad enchantment as written, if you throw and move, you wont get your weapon back. Blink Back Belt!

PS: While Starfall is a cool name, the build itself is nothing special. It is just a standard throwing Startoss build with the obvious feat choices and nothing else going for it. Add some flare to it? Look into VMC choices since figthers can spare feats?

[CryntheCrow]

Errant Mercenary wrote:

The new feats are fun. A build I was tinkering with was a cleric .

Returning weapon: Bad enchantment as written, if you throw and move, you wont get your weapon back. Blink Back Belt!

PS: While Starfall is a cool name, the build itself is nothing special. It is just a standard throwing Startoss build with the obvious feat choices and nothing else going for it. Add some flare to it? Look into VMC choices since figthers can spare feats?

I hadn't seen a listed startoss build when I searched, but it actually was dramatically different when I started to post. The old build replaced Deadly Throw with Two-handed thrower and used a huge-sized starknife with the impact enchantment to exploit Vital Strike while using Two-Weapon Thrower to get 1 1/2 strength bonus. Unfortunately, I realized that throwing a two-handed weapon even with the feat was technically a separate action from Startoss Comet. And since a Chakram is technically a ranged weapon, it can't even receive the impact enchantment. If you can get your DM to let Two-Handed Thrower not require a standard action, this build becomes dramatically more powerful and cool. But it wouldn't work in PFS.

Also, blink back belt would only function with a build that had Quick Draw to full attack. Its much simpler to simply move before you attack than to spend every round and your physical enhancement slot using your move action to draw your weapon from your belt.

[Errant Mercenary]

First time you mention PFS, many on these boards play at home games..the level 12 shouldve told me that though.

Shame 2handing doesnt work, wouldve been interesting to see more variations of the use of these feats.

PS. mentioned Myrmidarch before, but scrap that, standard actions and all that.

Warpriests probably get some of the best usage out of these feats.

[Alex Mack]

Here's a build I assembeled recently for PFS. It starts with 4 level of Far Strike monk, gets a level of Savage Technologist and Fighter before moving into sentinel. Sentinel of Pharsma is crazy good with daggers as it stacks so many static bonuses on to hit and damage. Big plus for this build relative to fighter is better saves and skills. Currently I'm not liking that 1 fighter level too much and the build lacks Finesse and both the Rage and Ki-Pool are a bit low.

DPR at level 9 vs AC 22 is at around 100 with a Ki-Point and 70 without. RS+TWF could prolly do better.

Human Farstrike Monk of the Iron Mountain 4/Savage Technologist-Hurler Barbarian 1/ Fighter 1/Sentinel of Pharsma 5

STR 12 DEX 18 CON 14 INT 12 WIS 14 CHA 7

Traits: River Rat, Adopted (Enlightend warrior)

1 FSM 1 PBS, Quickdraw, WF, Startoss 1
2 FSM 2Toughness, Precise Shot
3 FSM 3 Deific Obedience (Pharsma)
4 FSM 4 Ki Pool/ Key Pool
5 ST 1 Startoss 2
6 ?Fighter 1? Startoss 3
7 Sentinel 1 Additional Traits: Save Booster/Berserker of the Society
8 Sentinel 2 Deadly Aim
9 Sentinel3 Imp. Critical
10 Sentinel 4
11 Sentinel 5 Weapon spec

Notable Equipment: Agile Dagger, Blinkback Belt