[RPG] With Throw Anything, is there any reason to take thrown weapon proficiencies

pathfinder-1e

If you have the Throw Anything feat, is there any reason to take shuriken proficiency? Are you effectively proficient with all thrown weapons upon taking this feat?

Best Answer

Throw anything in Pathfinder reads:

Benefit: You do not suffer any penalties for using an improvised ranged weapon. You receive a +1 circumstance bonus on attack rolls made with thrown splash weapons.

Normal: You take a –4 penalty on attack rolls made with an improvised weapon.

So, a character with this feat can throw improvised weapons (things that are not intended as weapons) e.g. a purse, a rock, a stuffed moose head, a water melon and so on, without taking -4 on attack rolls.

This feat does not bestow upon a character the proficiency to throw actual weapons (ranged or melee), e.g. a shuriken, a javelin, a longsword, a mace and so on. Thus, a character with the Throw Anything feat will still get the regular -4 non-proficiency penalty when throwing a shuriken. Unless that character has the Exotic Weapon (Shuriken) feat, or is a monk.

As a side note, the only type of character who usually jumps at this feat is the alchemist, because of the +1 bonus to thrown splash. But a barkeeper with this feat and a +2 Seeking Corrosive Moose Head of Returning (corrosive because of the bad breath, you see) would sure be material for a memorable character!

The are rules for throwing melee weapons read as follows:

It is possible to throw a weapon that isn't designed to be thrown (that is, a melee weapon that doesn't have a numeric entry in the Range column on Table: Weapons), and a character who does so takes a –4 penalty on the attack roll. Throwing a light or one-handed weapon is a standard action, while throwing a two-handed weapon is a full-round action. Regardless of the type of weapon, such an attack scores a threat only on a natural 20 and deals double damage on a critical hit. Such a weapon has a range increment of 10 feet.

This is pretty severe, and with the RAW going against, I'd be extremely reluctant to let a medium creature with the Throw Anything feat toss scimitars with the scimitar damage and crit threat and without the -4 non-proficient penalty.

Based on the above, I'd reason as follows: Since Hill Giants, who are both Large and accomplished rock throwers do 1d8 with their rocks, an improvised medium thrown item should do 1d4 points of damage. If the character had the Throw Anything feat, I'd let the -4 penalty go, but still say that throwing a scimitar was a standard action and the crit range was 20x2 (instead of 1d6 and 18-20x2).

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