Light Thrown skill

General Information

Historically thrown weapons vary largely in shape and size. Lighter thrown weapons of notoriety include shurikens and kunai (throwing daggers) of the ninja and smaller throwing hatches such as those used by Navajo warriors. Within Dragonrealms, there are two thrown skills: light thrown and heavy thrown. Light thrown skill is used for anything weighing less than forty stones, and heavy thrown skill is used for anything weighing forty stones or more.

Thrown weapons are unusual in that they do not use standard ranged weapon calculations. Rather, they use melee calculations. This sets them apart from standard ranged weapons but also causes some problems, making them more suseptible to shield and armor than standard ranged weapons. However, light thrown is still an extremely powerful weapon class, able to dish out worthy damage. Additionally, some of the loss in standard performance is made up by light thrown's versatility. The skill can be used as a multi-pronged attack (throwing blades), a magical aid (throwing naphtha to severely increase the damage from fire-based attacks), or a standard attack. Eventually (and hopefully soon) bolas will be released, allowing the light thrown skill to be used for status effects (entanglement).

Overall, light thrown is a versatile weapon class. Since they are not as powerful as bows or crossbows, light thrown aficionados are somewhat rare, though they remain to most a powerful weapon choice, and planned future releases (entangling weapons and dual thrown) point to the light thrown skill becoming even more deadly.

Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages

• Arguably the most versatile weapon class (besides target magic)
• Less time between attacks than bows and crossbows
• Lower roundtime than heavy thrown
• Interesting weapons found within the shop system

Disadvantages

• Not as powerful as bows, crossbows, or heavy thrown
• Inability to AIM light thrown means it is more suseptible to shield blocks than bows or crossbows
• Inability to forge light thrown means the most powerful weapons are rare, expensive Festival items

Guild-Specific Abilities

• Warrior Mages have the ability to create a very powerful light thrown weapon via the Fist of Stone spell. At maximum mana (and when strengthened by cantrips) the stone fist has wonderful damage potential for a light thrown weapon.

Recommended Weapons

• throwing blades
• naptha
• light war mallet with a pierced steel head
• large stone fist (Warrior Mages only)

Throwing Blade Feats

The throwing blades sold in the Shard survivalist shop are capable of being throw in multiples, up to five. The number of blades one may throw at once is determined by your guild and ranks in Light Thrown, as illustrated by these charts courtesy of DR-Oolan (source).

For Barbarians, Bards, and Thieves:

LT Ranks	Maximum # of blades thrown
0-74	1
75-149	1-2
150-224	1-3
225-299	2-4
300-374	3-5
375-449	4-5
450+	5

And for all other guilds:

LT Ranks	Maximum # of blades thrown
0-99	1
100-199	1-2
200-299	1-3
300-399	2-4
400-499	3-5
500-599	4-5
600+	5