Knife-thrower concept feasibility

[1500run]

i'm so glad that you responded. your imput was appreciated, and next time one of my PCs asks for something, i'll know just what to tell him...

Bah.

 

[hong]

Note: you have to say it three times for full effect!

 

[1500run]

humor: i understand this emotion...


no, seriously, i lurk on these boards a lot, and hong, often i agree with you. i try to make my games fun for my players, but it also has to be fun for me too. giving the PCs too much power takes away the one advantage i have, and tends to make the balance of the game trend to the absurd.

tBoNS is broken, and there's no two ways about it.

 

[hong]

tBoNS is broken, and there's no two ways about it.

Bah.

 

[1500run]

Bah.

Bah.

 

[hong]

Bah.

Bah.

Third time's the charm!

 

[two]

I am having trouble seeing when this knife thrower, even if you allow the ability for the daggers to return immediately, will ever challenge a simple bow-specialist in power.

The bow guy has a bigger damage die, more range by a billion, more prestige classes, more cool arrows, easily enchantable ammo, etc. etc.

Can you actually present a build of a dagger-thrower that can do as much damage as a vanilla optimized archer? (even with the insta-return dagger ability)?

 

[DJCupboard]

In terms of "No Way..." and physics, there's also no way I can start out holding bat poop and end up with a swath of exploded enemies. There's no reason flavor-wise to stick to physics in this case, considering that what you are saying no to is 1d4 damage at a 10 foot range increment to a maximum of four times a round.

We suspended disbelief when we started adventuring allongside half-orcs, so I'd let the guy throw his knives.

~DJC

 

[satori01]

but there has to be a line drawn when it comes to PCs wanting to do everything possible and things that are just simply *not* possible. this crosses that line.

Yes because casting Fireballs, avoiding 20' pit traps, and running Yuan Ti through with your Magical Thundering Greatsword are everyday occurrences...

Not to pick on you, but I find it very frustrating when people object to solutions for under supported archetype because it offends their delicate sensibilities of what is possible in an artificially created rule set based in the genre of fantasy!

Only issue with being a thrown weapon person is it is very feat intensive for little payoff. If you lay claim to every magic dagger you find...you probably will have quite a collection. Barring that a Wand or item of GMW.. Magic Oil, or a custom magic item...say gloves that add a magic enhancement bonuses to every weapon you throw...similar to a magic bow firing non magical arrows is possibility.

The Kensai PrC or other PrCs that allow you to 'naturally' enchant weapons will help. As a DM I could see allowing a Kensai character to have a suite of throwing daggers as their signature weapon...with each weapon coming from the same pool. The Soul Knife class would work well, and frankly the class is not particularly Psionic, so even anti Psionic DMs might consider allowing it.

Definitely check out Complete Scoundrel. While they are not feats directly related to throwing, the feats that allow class levels to stack for specific class features are probably a must have.

Monk,Ninja,Fighter would be an interesting build, or Ninja,Scout,Fighter. Especially with the feat that allows Ninja and Fighter levels to stack for purpose of qualifying for Fighter feats...being able to get Ranged Weapon Mastery is very nifty.

As a thought experiment I tried re-creating a 1e Bard character I played as a kid that was specialized in daggers, (3/1 attacks baby!).
I used the Evasion class feature from the Master Thrower to qualify for the Fochlucan Lyrist. It seemed a promising way to recapture the flavor...and the Druidic Avenger option from UA was a nice add.

 

[DJCupboard]

If I was putting this together, I wouldn't look for a way to enchant a lot of magical/returning daggers, I'd look for a way to spontaniously (lord my spelling is bad this morning) create magical daggers, like an ever-full bandolier or something. Of course, the last time I played a thrown weapon specialist (handaxe throwing dwarf fighter in 2e) I wasn't that clever, instead just having A LOT of axes on me and tediously picking them all up again at the end of a combat.

~DJC~