| Post/Author/DateTime | Post |
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| #1NovacatAug 08, 2011 23:57:03 | In my campaign, one of the PCs (the rogue) managed to acquire a throwing sword from a neighboring nation. It's one of those "long-lost arts," so I want it to be kind of exotic in nature. Here are the stats I've come up with. I'm wondering if it's too powerful, or not powerful enough to be worth the Superior Weapon Proficiency feat. Lodaeran Throwing Sword - Superior One-Handed Weapon Groups: Light Blade, Heavy Blade Proficiency: +3 Damage Die: 1d8 Range: 5/10 Properties: Light Thrown, Heavy Thrown I'm in the privilaged position of DMing for a group that doesn't try to power-game. His character wants to use this weapon because it's cool, so I feel a responsability to make sure that doing so is not a sub-optimal choice. At the same time, I don't want to accidentally overpower him by misjudging the strength of combining all of these individually-innocuous features. Basically, is this on-par with other superior weapon choices for a rogue who likes to fight at range? |
| #2slobo777aAug 09, 2011 6:54:06 | This would be the only weapon that was both a Heavy Blade and a Light Blade. Once it was magical, it allows free choice between short ranged and melee attacks (at least against single targets). That flexibility alone is worth something. So I think you need to drop damage to 1d6 or proficiency to +2, to put this on par with other superior weapons. |
| #3QubeAug 09, 2011 7:10:35 | Lodaeran Throwing Sword - Superior One-Handed Weapon basically, it's an throwing rapier? I'dd remove the heavy stuff. Then it seems balanced (from dagger: +4/1d4 ; -attack/+damage would make +3/1d6; feat for +3/18) ... unless of course the heavy is needed for the PC |
| #4Arkon262Aug 09, 2011 14:36:14 | Drow Long Knives are Heavy Blade, +3 proficiency, 1d6 damage, 5/10, heavy thrown, off-hand. I would suggest just refluffing that weapon to a new name. |
| #5belisarius19Aug 09, 2011 16:46:52 | There is a magic weapon, the Psychokinetic Weapon. The granted power of this weapon allows the wielder to treat it as a thrown weapon once per encounter. That would limit the use of the weapon as a thrown weapon, which may not be what you're after. The weapon your describing is basically the Shadowblade from the assassin paragon path of the same name. I don't know what level you're at but you might look into that and see if it could be of use. Honestly I don't think 1d8 is game breaking. If you wanted to limit the weapon in some way, make it a magic weapon and the only thing magic about it is that it also has the thrown property. That way your player has the enhancement of a magic weapon, but gives up an item power in order to be able to throw the sword. That would at least provide some trade off to the weapon. My two cents anyway. |
| #6NovacatAug 10, 2011 1:39:38 | Lodaeran Throwing Sword - Superior One-Handed Weapon Don't rapiers have High Crit? Don't have the books in front of me, so I could be misremembering. And are rapiers Military? If so, I think giving it 5/10 range is a fair trade-off for the proficiency feat. |
| #7Neutronium_DragonAug 10, 2011 3:43:30 | It should be Light Blade/Light Thrown OR Heavy Blade/Heavy Thrown, but not both. Either way, it's better than the existing superior thrown weapon option (Drow Long Knife), which points to it being a problem. |
| #8slobo777aAug 10, 2011 6:57:53 | It should be Light Blade/Light Thrown OR Heavy Blade/Heavy Thrown, but not both. Either way, it's better than the existing superior thrown weapon option (Drow Long Knife), which points to it being a problem. Actually if you restrict in the way you suggest, then don't give it Off Hand property, (so it would be Heavy Blade, Heavy Thrown) then +3/1d8 is about right IMO. Off Hand is a worthwhile property. If it was Light Blade, Light Thrown and Off Hand then yes I agree it should be either +3/1d6 or +2/1d8 for proficiency/damage . . . if you want to differentiate in the campaign from the Drow weapon then it should be the latter. I am not too sure about the mix of light/heavy on same weapon, it may lead to odd things happening, and probably not necessary if it is being developed to go with just one PC. |
| #9QubeAug 11, 2011 4:07:18 | Don't rapiers have High Crit? Don't have the books in front of me, so I could be misremembering. And are rapiers Military? If so, I think giving it 5/10 range is a fair trade-off for the proficiency feat. IIRC superior & high crit. (melee) rogues usually take rapier proficiency to exchance the +4/d4 dagger for a +3/d8 weapon. (option for throwing the dagger changes high crit) so superiour +3/d8 light blade throwing weapon is completely balanced. Adding heavy blade to it would make it eligable for both light blade & heavy blade feats; and for heavy blade enchantments ... dunno how much that would unbalance stuff ... (perhaps give it a -4 penalty when used for melee: just like rapiers lose versitility (melee only) for high crit, this ranged weapon could lose versitility (ranged only) for heavy blade) -- now that I think through, I think I just statted the windmill shuriken ... |
| #10Neutronium_DragonAug 11, 2011 4:46:53 | > dunno how much that would unbalance stuff ... It has the potential to be very unbalancing, which is why the last example of a LB/HB weapon was changed in errata to just LB. |
| #11QubeAug 11, 2011 7:12:34 | It has the potential to be very unbalancing, which is why the last example of a LB/HB weapon was changed in errata to just LB. how so? I mean,
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| #12pluisjenAug 11, 2011 7:21:05 | The big difference between Blade/Axe and H blade/L blade is that the second opens up a wealth of new feat options to Rogues, and the first does not. That might be the issue. Light Blade is weirdly balanced because of how the Rogue works. |
| #13kronoshifterAug 11, 2011 19:30:34 | IIRC superior & high crit. I'm just wondering, what exactly are you saying here? The I'm interpreting what you're saying is the dagger is a +4 proficiency bonus weapon with a d4 damage die, and that the rapier is a +3 proficiency bonus weapon with a d8 damage die and high crit. Maybe this isn't 4th edition that you're talking about, but it sure looks that way, and if rapiers are high crit, I'd really like to know. |
| #14QubeAug 12, 2011 1:16:35 | I'm just wondering, what exactly are you saying here? The I'm interpreting what you're saying is the dagger is a +4 proficiency bonus weapon with a d4 damage die, For a rogue, a dagger is a +4/d4 weapon: it has a +3 proficiency, but rogues get a free +1 with daggers. When rogues want to check out other weapons, this is important, because if they take an other weapon, they lose that +1. If a rogue takes a feat for rapier, he's not going from +3/d4 to +3/d8, but he's going from +(3+1)/d4 to +3/d8. and that the rapier is a +3 proficiency bonus weapon with a d8 damage die and high crit. I don't have my PHB here, so I'm not sure if rapiers have high crit. I do recall they are superiour light blades with a +3 attack and d8 damage. |
| #15kronoshifterAug 12, 2011 1:24:15 | Right! I completely forgot about the Rogue weapon talent. And, I looked it up, no rapiers don't have high crit, which is why I'm guessing they got bumped down to military. |
| #16QubeAug 12, 2011 2:11:16 | which is why I'm guessing they got bumped down to military. didn't know that. Either way, for the rogue that's still a feat IIRC |