Throwing / Returning Double Weapon?

[ShivStabbington]

One of my players brought this up to me - and immediately discarded the idea, so I don't exactly need to work out the answer, but I'm still curious what people's thoughts are:

How does the Throwing enchantment affect a Double weapon, like say a quarterstaff? If only one end has the enchantment, can you only throw that end at people? (Meaning you throw the whole weapon, and it always hits with that end first, so you can't use the other end's enchantments) Or do you need to put Throwing on both ends for it to work - if so, does the same apply to the Returning property?

[Quixote]

Only one end needs to be enchanted to be thrown, and only that end can be used as a ranged attack.

The fact that the other half of the weapon can't be thrown is funny, but there's nothing in the rules that would make the non-throwing half prevent the throwing half from functioning.

Returning is even weirder, but the same thing happens. One of your weapons returns to you. It happens to be attached to another weapon that doesn't magically return to you, but that doesn't negate the effects of the first. You just get a little bonus effect on top of the assumed one.

Except...it's not a bonus at all. You can only use one end of your weapon per round this way, so the actual, mathematical effect of throwing a double weapon and have it return to you is exactly the same as throwing a normal weapon with returning.

Also, throwing and returning are just awful enchantments. I increase the market price of an item with either of these abilities by 1,000gp, rather than the cost of an additional +1 enhancement.

[MrCharisma]

I thought of this for the Called enchantment.

8000gp for a called weapon for a Monk/Staff Magus (who only need 1 end for regular combat enchantments).

[Scott Wilhelm]

I think the way to achieve this effect is the Blinkback Belt.

[Scott Wilhelm]

Still, this is a funny idea: one head of the Dire Flail is Throwing, one end is Returning. This magic item should totes be an Intelligent magic item. The 2 heads of the 'Flail should be a bickering, old married couple constantly arguing about directions.

"Let's look at the map."
"For Grummsh's sake, woman, we don't need to look at the Map!"
"Here's a nice-looking family, let's ask them for directions."
"If you roll that window down, I will smash their heads in!"
"You never take me anywhere nice."
"You'd never find your way home without me."

[RAWmonger]

Scott Wilhelm wrote:

Still, this is a funny idea: one head of the Dire Flail is Throwing, one end is Returning. This magic item should totes be an Intelligent magic item. The 2 heads of the 'Flail should be a bickering, old married couple constantly arguing about directions.

"Let's look at the map."
"For Grummsh's sake, woman, we don't need to look at the Map!"
"Here's a nice-looking family, let's ask them for directions."
"If you roll that window down, I will smash their heads in!"
"You never take me anywhere nice."
"You'd never find your way home without me."

And obviously the name of the weapon would be an ancient-tongue transliteration of “Ball-and-Chain”

[Scott Wilhelm]

RAWmonger wrote:

Scott Wilhelm wrote:

Still, this is a funny idea: one head of the Dire Flail is Throwing, one end is Returning. This magic item should totes be an Intelligent magic item. The 2 heads of the 'Flail should be a bickering, old married couple constantly arguing about directions.

"Let's look at the map."
"For Grummsh's sake, woman, we don't need to look at the Map!"
"Here's a nice-looking family, let's ask them for directions."
"If you roll that window down, I will smash their heads in!"
"You never take me anywhere nice."
"You'd never find your way home without me."

And obviously the name of the weapon would be an ancient-tongue transliteration of “Ball-and-Chain”

Ball and Chain