Elder-Basilisk
First Post
A character proficient in Shuriken (for instance, a fighter/monk) can make a full attack with shuriken without giving up the use of a two handed weapon and without quickdraw.
For instance: Fighter/Monk/Cleric with a greatsword (or longsword and a buckler). Let's speculate that the character has a full attack with a +11 BAB. The character activates Divine Might and makes her first attack with her greatsword. Wow, a crit! That hurt the foe a lot. She makes her second attack and drops the foe. Hmm. What to do with the third attack now that there's no adjacent foe? If she has shuriken, she can quickly drop one hand from the greatsword, draw and throw the shuriken and put that hand back on the greatsword.
Or, lets say she's lower level. Facing some orcs in melee and she sees that their shaman is trying to cast a one round spell. That's never good. He's probably going to put her to sleep or enlarge one of the orcs or summon fiendish assistance for her foes. So she takes a five foot step back from the orcs, moves a hand off the greatsword, throws her shuriken and puts her hand back on the greatsword.
Now she could do either of these scenarios with a javalin, dagger, or throwing axe but that would require Quickdraw and she doesn't have a feat available for that. She could do the latter with a javalin, dagger, etc, even without Quickdraw, but she wouldn't be able to make a full attack (a useful ability if she is unarmored (and can therefore flurry) or has a high BAB).
I guess the character needn't even be a multiclassed monk. Any monk who is flurrying or otherwise making multiple attacks and runs out of adjacent foes to attack might as well throw shuriken rather than see his remaining attacks go to waste.
That makes it worthwhile for anyone with monk levels and without quickdraw to carry a few shuriken just in case.
One last thing--it's probably a good deal easier to get enough magical shuriken to be a good ranged combatant at mid-high levels than it is to get a sufficient number of other thrown weapons.
50 Shuriken can be enchanted at any given time with Greater Magic Weapon and/or Flame Arrow. Using GMW on javalins, daggers, etc. is not practical. Also, consider that a ranged combatant can probably expect to make through three to five attacks per round (depending upon BAB, rapid shot, and haste). Assuming that a character would want to be equiped for 4 rounds of combat, that's at least twelve weapons for the serious specialist in thrown weapons. The javalin or dagger thrower will need upwards of 24,000 gp just to have +1 javalins available. At that price, the shuriken user can buy a clvl 8 wand of GMW and get himself 2,500 uses--enough for 208 battles (or 100 if he only uses half of them with each casting). Or, if he's smart, he can get both a third level and a fourth level pearl of power and get all his shuriken GMWed and Flame Arrowed. It is much much much cheaper to use Shuriken. (It's also easier to keep a variety of different material shuriken on hand to deal with 3.5 DR).
For instance: Fighter/Monk/Cleric with a greatsword (or longsword and a buckler). Let's speculate that the character has a full attack with a +11 BAB. The character activates Divine Might and makes her first attack with her greatsword. Wow, a crit! That hurt the foe a lot. She makes her second attack and drops the foe. Hmm. What to do with the third attack now that there's no adjacent foe? If she has shuriken, she can quickly drop one hand from the greatsword, draw and throw the shuriken and put that hand back on the greatsword.
Or, lets say she's lower level. Facing some orcs in melee and she sees that their shaman is trying to cast a one round spell. That's never good. He's probably going to put her to sleep or enlarge one of the orcs or summon fiendish assistance for her foes. So she takes a five foot step back from the orcs, moves a hand off the greatsword, throws her shuriken and puts her hand back on the greatsword.
Now she could do either of these scenarios with a javalin, dagger, or throwing axe but that would require Quickdraw and she doesn't have a feat available for that. She could do the latter with a javalin, dagger, etc, even without Quickdraw, but she wouldn't be able to make a full attack (a useful ability if she is unarmored (and can therefore flurry) or has a high BAB).
I guess the character needn't even be a multiclassed monk. Any monk who is flurrying or otherwise making multiple attacks and runs out of adjacent foes to attack might as well throw shuriken rather than see his remaining attacks go to waste.
That makes it worthwhile for anyone with monk levels and without quickdraw to carry a few shuriken just in case.
One last thing--it's probably a good deal easier to get enough magical shuriken to be a good ranged combatant at mid-high levels than it is to get a sufficient number of other thrown weapons.
50 Shuriken can be enchanted at any given time with Greater Magic Weapon and/or Flame Arrow. Using GMW on javalins, daggers, etc. is not practical. Also, consider that a ranged combatant can probably expect to make through three to five attacks per round (depending upon BAB, rapid shot, and haste). Assuming that a character would want to be equiped for 4 rounds of combat, that's at least twelve weapons for the serious specialist in thrown weapons. The javalin or dagger thrower will need upwards of 24,000 gp just to have +1 javalins available. At that price, the shuriken user can buy a clvl 8 wand of GMW and get himself 2,500 uses--enough for 208 battles (or 100 if he only uses half of them with each casting). Or, if he's smart, he can get both a third level and a fourth level pearl of power and get all his shuriken GMWed and Flame Arrowed. It is much much much cheaper to use Shuriken. (It's also easier to keep a variety of different material shuriken on hand to deal with 3.5 DR).
I was hoping for Flaming Shocking Frost shuriken using the SS spell, but it won't work.
? The spell description or what?
