I just don't want to lose this in the ether:
Throwing Master [20]
I'm curious if it would be effective in DF. Possibly, depending on the way you put the character together and just how many effective throwables you could carry. Cornucopia Shuriken would be interesting - I'd be tempted to make it a bandoleer, which always shows three of them but never seems to run out. That fits basically every comic book ninja ever!
By the way, GURPS Martial Arts has two different rules on throwing lots of stuff.
One is based on Rapid Fire. This was heavily inspired by Ogun, the ninja master in Kitty Pryde vs. Wolverine - especially the amazing panel where he bursts into the scene in a seeming cloud of shuriken. This is the "hurl a big handful of things, and see who gets hit" approach. It's very useful when using very small, very low damage weapons, where quantity is the quality.
The other is based, more realistically, on actual shurikenjutsu techniques. The sources I read on shurikenjutsu emphasized rapid throwing - one after another, with a quickened rhythm as you went. So each successive shuriken would come with just a slightly lower delay between throws than the last one. This was designed to catch people off-guard. One source - a (former) samurai in the Meiji era - mentioned using shuriken in this way, aiming to catch a troublemaker recidivist samurai type off-guard with a shuriken toss. Dodge one, eat the next one as you get into a rhythm and the thrower does not, and now you're trying to swordfight with a shuriken sticking out of your leg. Concealing shuriken and throwing them as part of a standing katana drawing motion was another - a Deceptive Attack for sure. Fun stuff - and a good tonic to the "ninja use shuriken, samurai don't" meme that doesn't reflect any actual sources that I could find.
This sounds awesome! Maybe instead of that grappler I was dreaming up for when Galoob meets his inevitable end I would make an... assassin that throws things? Unless there's a different template that would fit better, will have to investigate.
ReplyDeleteThe damage on throwing weapons, especially light and portable ones, tends to be very low. So a Throwing Master would basically be a Scout who has less range and less damage. You can make up for it, a bit, but the "possibly" I have up in the post is there for a reason - I just don't know if it would. I'd want to combine this with Retroactive Poisoner, just so the couple of shots that land are the ones I spend my poison doses on.
Deletegato: make a grappler that throws lots of people at people. Double win.
DeleteThat's Chuck Morris's schtick!
Deleteput two schticks together with a cleric! You get Nun Chucks!
DeleteYou need sleep.
DeleteNot wrong. Now I'm laughing so hard I can't breathe. Which will lead to sleep of a sort. :-D
DeleteI am so very glad that this thread happened.
DeleteI posted here eariler...but it didn't accept my comment. That said, what you need here is some...FLYING...Nun...chucks.
DeleteDunno. That seems a bit far a Fields.
DeleteNah, you can just Sally forth.
DeleteIf I were to join your game, I would ask to make some sort of a Scout or Swashbuckler variant centered around this advantage, Weapon Master(Boomerang)[20] and the use of a boomerang (or maybe starting from one of the Henchman templates and building the true "core" of my character out of that Advantage combination and a bunch of points in Throwing Art?).
ReplyDeleteThe only RAW template to have both Shortsword and Thrown Weapon(Stick) on it is the Druid, but since this Advantage unlocks Throwing Art that wouldn't be as much of an issue and would open up better damage, better range, and a better selection of potential imrpovised/emergency weapons at -2 to skill.
Because boomerangs are my favorite weapon.
Why is it so critical to have Shortsword?
DeleteFor my DF game, I'd have to weigh allowing Throwing Art as a non-Chi skill. Right now, although some RAW advantages allow access to certain cinematic skills, by the DF breakdown, those are generally Chi skills and not allowed. It's the reason why, say, the Knight-Martial Artist lens calls out the access to Power Blow to the Knight, which by Basic Set he'd have access to already via Weapon Master. Throwing Art is one of those, so this might be a Martial Artist-only advantage by unmodified DF. Or, only Martial Artists would get Throwing Art. It's something I'd have to think about.
Shortsword is the skill you use to hit things with a boomerang in melee, unless allowing that on the Broadsword skill for halflings and/or Gnomes with the Giant Weapons perk.
DeleteHatchets would probably be a better choice overall, but boomerangs are just so cool.
Stumbled across this today while already thinking about a Barbarian-Ninja who throws oversized shuriken. Can you buy cornucopia quivers for SM+2 or SM+3 shuriken?
ReplyDeleteOversized ammunition would just have Cornucopia cast at their oversized cost, so they'd be expensive.
DeleteQuivers? Shuriken don't come from quivers, so stylistically, that woudn't work. You'd need a bandoleer or a pouch, in my opinion.