Rogue: Wielding dagger, offhanding shuriken? No penalties?

[TheGlow]

I would hope you needed 1 shuriken per target. Unless your talking about the Predators shoulder cannon then...

Nice to off hand the beer though.
I wonder if it'd count as a minor or free action to break it off into a weapon...

 

[Xect]

Only as part of a power; normal throwing is one shot (jut like bows).

That's just the thing though. Fetching an arrow is a free action.

I guess, by the RAW, you have to spend a minor action each round to fight with nonmagical shuriken. Seems like an oversight though.

 

[Cadfan]

I don't know, it doesn't seem like an oversight to me. For every class, its the same. If you're fighting with regular weapons, and you want to draw a thrown weapon, you spend a minor action to do it. If you want to keep throwing ranged weapons, you'll keep needing minor actions to draw new ones. But once you get magical thrown weapons, you'll negate part of this penalty. And with Quickdraw, you eliminate it entirely.

Incidentally, you'll need more than one magical shuriken because many of your powers involve throwing multiple shuriken at one time.

 

[Branduil]

I don't know, it doesn't seem like an oversight to me. For every class, its the same. If you're fighting with regular weapons, and you want to draw a thrown weapon, you spend a minor action to do it. If you want to keep throwing ranged weapons, you'll keep needing minor actions to draw new ones. But once you get magical thrown weapons, you'll negate part of this penalty. And with Quickdraw, you eliminate it entirely.

Incidentally, you'll need more than one magical shuriken because many of your powers involve throwing multiple shuriken at one time.

Unless it works like a boomerang.

 

[Cadfan]

Hmm. I suppose... My assumption is that when the rules say that you throw one shuriken per target, you can't get a magical returning shuriken and throw it one time per target.

I need to double check some of the shuriken rules when I get home. You purchase them in sets of 5. Does that mean that magical shuriken also come priced in terms of sets of 5? If so, that kind of moots the issue.

My mental image here is a bandoleer of 5 shuriken that endlessly replenishes itself as you draw and throw. You know, like the returning javelin in the Goblins comic, rather than a Thor style hammer that you throw and then catch like a boomerang.

 

[Xect]

I don't know, it doesn't seem like an oversight to me. For every class, its the same. If you're fighting with regular weapons, and you want to draw a thrown weapon, you spend a minor action to do it.

It just seems like a needless handicap compared to bows or slings, particularly considering that it's a superior weapon.

I don't object to having to spend a minor action when you want to switch from your regular weapon to shuriken. But it seems pointless to punish someone this harshly for choosing shuriken as their regular weapon.

 

[Family]

Well in the small oversight department if you're bound by that one then this one should be legal:

rogue weapon talent:
-when you wield a shuriken, your weapon damage die increases by one size.
-when you wield a dagger, you gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls.

As I read it if you have one in each hand the 2nd benefit applies to attacks with the shuriken as well as with the dagger.

 

[SlagMortar]

rogue weapon talent:
-when you wield a shuriken, your weapon damage die increases by one size.
-when you wield a dagger, you gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls.

Hello, Mr. Ambiguously Defined Wield. We meet again.

tongue-in-cheek reference to the many threads of multiple pages debating what wield meant in the two-weapon fighting description in 3.5

 

[Family]

Hi.



And if you think that's bad take note that: "when you wield a shuriken, your weapon damage die increases by one size."

d6 daggers anyone? d8 short swords?

 

[Cadfan]

It just seems like a needless handicap compared to bows or slings, particularly considering that it's a superior weapon.

I don't object to having to spend a minor action when you want to switch from your regular weapon to shuriken. But it seems pointless to punish someone this harshly for choosing shuriken as their regular weapon.

Ah, from the perspective of someone who focuses in shuriken and uses melee as a backup, I can see why this might hurt them slightly (as in, cost them their minor action until they get Quickdraw). But from the perspective of someone who uses melee as their primary attack method, and who uses shuriken as a ranged backup, it works very well. From that perspective shuriken win out over bows and slings, which both require putting away or dropping your regular melee weapon, and which must be put away or dropped when you're done wielding them.

I have to say that I think its best that shuriken be designed for players who intend to fight with a melee weapon in one hand and the occasional shuriken in the other, rather than for dedicated shuriken wielders, because the class most likely to use shuriken is the rogue, and the rogue's powers tend towards melee with a smattering of ranged mixed in. Although I wouldn't mind a shuriken feat or two showing up in a later book. I loves me some shuriken.