Throwing Weapon Return

[Dausuul]

So, in 4E, all thrown magic weapons automatically have what in 3E was called the "returning" property - you throw them and they come back to your hand.

From a gameplay standpoint, this was pretty much a necessity. My question to you is, how do you prefer to describe the effect? Does the weapon plunge into the target, then leap out and fly back to the wielder's hand? Does it hit, then vanish? Does it turn into a bolt of magical death as it leaves the wielder's hand, while an identical weapon appears in the wielder's belt? Or does it do something else?

(And before you say, "Describe it however you want," the whole point of this thread is to see how people want to describe it.)

 

[Tony Vargas]

I hadn't thought about it, just assumed it was a Thor/Capt America/Xena kinda thing. You throw it, hit one or more enemies, and it boomerangs or bounces back to your hand.

I guess that's harder to picture with a piercing weapon, so you could picture it pulling itself free or teleporting back to the wielder's hand.

 

[Tale]

I've been reading the Drizzt books, so I would describe it like Aegis Fang. It just appears in your hand when you call it (as a free, assumed, action).

 

[Mengu]

Depends on the weapon and the attack. A handaxe or throwing hammer, I can see as boomeranging back, or richocheting between targets, and then flying back. A javelin would be easier to imagine as teleporting back.

Dagger is a tough one. I think I like it best if the dagger never actually leaves your hand, but an image of it is flung, hits the target, and then dissipates. So a Blinding Barrage would look like a flurry of dagger images leaving your hand and connecting with several targets, after which each dagger image flickers and disappears.

 

[Simm]

You could also describe it as a magical quiver, sheath, or bandolier. No matter how many weapons are drawn from it another remains at your fingertips.

 

[MarkB]

I'd like to think of it as like the Glaive from Krull - it flies out, whacks slices or otherwise harms its target(s), then springs back into your grasp.

Okay, now I need to get my rogue a magic shuriken.

 

[JasonZZ]

Wouldn't Krull's "Glaive" essentially be a vorpal shuriken? (I know light blades can't be vorpal, but this would be an artifact after all)

Edit: just to keep this on topic, I would use the Capt. America/Krull assumption for most weapons (you throw it out, it comes back quickly), but reserve the right to modify that for certain weapons based on special effect or concept (it might be appropriate for something like a lightning weapon throw arcs of lightning rather than travel).

 

[yu gnomi]

You could also describe it as a magical quiver, sheath, or bandolier. No matter how many weapons are drawn from it another remains at your fingertips.

There is a snag with this interpretation regarding Close Attack rules on pg 271 in PHB. These rules state that if, for example, a Rogue wants to use Blinding Barrage, he must have 1 piece of ammunition or 1 thrown weapon per target in it's area of effect. So he can't attack every target with a single magical dagger.

Making it a scabbard of infinite magic throwing daggers, which disappear after doing damage, changes that. It is a bit of a nit-picky concern, but this is the rules forum.

 

[inati]

Since the player has the option of "catching" the returning weapon or not, it seems to imply that the weapon flies through the air and returns to you, as opposed to just teleporting back to your hand. Then again, it doesn't explicitly rule out a teleporting back to your hand weapon either. I would think either way would be fine and would just be up to the DM to pick for flavor.


Reading through the rules, yes, blinding barrage would not benefit from a single magic dagger, as the weapon returns "after a ranged attack with the weapon is resolved", and that yes, you need one dagger per target. It would be neat to describe the dagger sailing through the air and blinding everyone though, so if it were up to me, I would houserule it. If anything, just for the awesomeness factor!

 

[Wepwawet]

Reading through the rules, yes, blinding barrage would not benefit from a single magic dagger, as the weapon returns "after a ranged attack with the weapon is resolved", and that yes, you need one dagger per target. (...)

Well, Blinding Barrage can benefit from a single magic dagger if you use the other explanation proposed by some. The dagger never leaves your hand, you just send an "astral" copy of the dagger to hit your foes.