Quote:
Originally Posted by hcobb
Whataboutism a Halfling wizard who knows Spear Thrower (for his staff) but doesn't know pole weapons at all?
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A good point, but still, I would say it is a ranged weapon and you can't have expertise with a ranged weapon, only hand weapons and hand weapons that can be thrown. And since the Spearthrower can be used as a club, it doesn't require a talent to bash someone with it. So I would say that a Spearthrower isn't a weapon at all, just a helping to throw Pole Weapons.
And if you use a Spear Thrower without Pole Weapons I would probably let it slide as a GM, but you could argue that you get a -4DX or have to roll 4vs/DX to hit with it, but you do get the +2DX from the Thrown Weapon talent. And you get the missile range (which is normally worth more than 2 DX and the extra damage to boot, so it is a viable option even without the Pole Weapon talent for a flinger that doesn't have the ST for a boomerang or don't want to use spears in melee).
If we argue that you can have weapon Expertise with a Spearthrower, next, we will have Gun Expertise because you can bash someone's head in with an Arquebus and you probably can throw it at someone too if you are really dedicated and like pole throwing. :-)
In my own house rules, I have increased the basic damage of Thrown Pole Weapons by 1, since they have lower damage because of their melee potential, but that shouldn't impact their throwing potential. As compensation, I have lowered the damage bonus from the Spearthrower to +1 damage and made it into a 2H "weapon/help". A small change, but it means that a thrown javelin or spear is more dangerous than a club, and it should be. And it means that you can't use a Spearthrower with your shield in an easy way, so it will be something you pick for the range bonus and as a specialized skirmisher.