Maybe some weapons actually tied to throwing and gain more benifit from being thrown, but still work about 50% as effective in melee.
Throwing spears, daggers, stars, axes, hammers, hell even throwing rocks if you're strapped for weaponry, but they're not as effective in melee.
Each one having their own benifit...
Spears, still have the nasty crit damage boost and decent damage, and have pretty far range. Takes longer to throw and has a slower "reload" time.
Daggers being decent all around, carrying their crit bonus and extra damage.
Stars are sort of similiar to daggers, and also have an equivalent crit bonus and some damage. Their bonus is they can be thrown faster with a shorter "reload"
time, and have slightly improved range.
Axes are a fairly rounded weapon. Most effective at severing limbs or causing nasty stuck-ins. Average damage otherwise, and average range.
And hammers have a pretty short range but in exchange they are good at shattering bones and leaving targets in pain or unconscious.
And rocks, heh. Basically good for training or if you cannot make any of the good weapons. Basically they're like hammers, only they do less damage and have a fairly long throwing and "reload" time.
Upsides
-100% recover rate unless the weapon wears out.
-Training uses a special training dummy, probably one made of several bags filled with sand or some soft material. Dummy gets worn out pretty quickly though and has to be replaced.
-With training and better quality weapons, they can become quite accurate and do some pretty big damage.
-Can be thrown through fortifications, though rocks may take a small hit to encourage player to make better weapons.
Downsides
-Enemy monsters may pick up a throwing weapon and throw it back. Perhaps not as effectively but if it's a really good quality weapon this can be dangerous, especially if they get a lucky shot. Fortifications should also affect them throwing it back, but be wary if the opposing monster is a Elite Thrower.
-Weapons take normal wear when they hit, but misses cause much, much more wear. A throwing weapon cannot survive too many misses. This even applies to training, since novices will likely miss a target that isn't moving many, many times.
-Weapons are smaller than their normal melee counterparts and have a different, balanced, possibly lighter design. This makes them less effective in melee. This may also make their ranged weapon damage 1.5x-2x that of crossbows, basically as a balance so as not to make them terribly overpowered.
-Slightly longer "reload" time than a crossbow. Also for balancing.
-Ammo tends to be pretty finite and not very disposable. Once they have thrown their last one, they will likely go into melee range to wrestle, or grab the nearest weapon of whatever skill is highest and charge in, including their own throwing weapons. If they are able, they'll recover a throwing weapon or two and either use them for melee, or sprint to range and start chucking again.
Obsidian could be used for spears, daggers, and throwing stars, though much like what was intended for short swords, they wear out faster. Quality also has heavy bearing on a throwing weapon, affecting the balance, weight, and damage. Don't expect to hit too many things with a poor quality throwing weapon and a novice wielding it.
And of course, this carries over to adventure mode as well.
[ August 14, 2007: Message edited by: Lightning4 ]
[ August 14, 2007: Message edited by: Lightning4 ]
[ August 14, 2007: Message edited by: Lightning4 ]