Thrown weapon combat

This information is reliable as of patch 2.0.201.49.

This article has information that is missing or not up to par.
Reason: Are the claims that thrown weapons always show their "maximum possible penetration" and that "thrown weapon penetration will always equal 5 at minimum" still accurate? Seems like this might have changed with the introduction of throwing daggers to the game, and should be reviewed for accuracy. In addition, throwing daggers now break the previous rule of throwing weapons dealing minimal damage when used as melee weapons. Tonics also always penetrate?

Any item in Caves of Qud can be equipped to a creature's thrown weapon equipment slot and thrown using the (T)hrow command.

Certain items are specifically designed for throwing. These thrown weapons will often have higher penetration and deal more damage or cause special effects when thrown. See the List of Thrown Weapons section below for a full list of thrown weapons.

Some items, like grenades and tonics, are designed as thrown weapons, but most of their damage is caused by scripted effects. The actual thrown combat hit itself will do little damage compared to the other effects that these items cause. Other items, such as the throwing axe or large boulder, are specifically designed to deal high damage when used in thrown weapon combat.

Overview

The following stats are relevant for thrown weapon combat:

• Strength: Strength bonus affects the maximum throwing range, as well as the throwing penetration.
• Agility: Affects aim variance (angular accuracy) of thrown weapons.

Range

Maximum throwing range involves an element of randomness, making it variable for each individual throw.

The base throwing range is 4, plus the player or creature's Strength modifier, plus a random number between 1 and 6.

This maximum throwing range can be further increased by any of the following:

• Deft Throwing: Increases maximum throwing range by 3.
• parabolic muscular subroutine: Increases maximum throwing range by 2.
• Airfoil mod: Increases a specific item's throwing range by 4.
• precision force lathe: Increases the throw range for fabricated force knives by 6.

Accuracy (Aim Variance)

Distance Variance

If both of the following are true, the throw will always go the intended distance:

• The targeted location is less than or equal to the maximum throwing range as calculated above.
• The thrower has the parabolic muscular subroutine installed, or the Deft Throwing skill.

Otherwise, the throw distance will be adjusted by 1d3-2-1-1 (Avg: 0) cells. This means that, there is only a 1 in 3 chance for the thrown object to land in tile aimed for and it will otherwise land behind or in front of the tile.

Angular Variance

Angular variance is calculated by:

1. Taking a random number from -10° to 10°
2. Adjusting that number toward zero based on the thrower's agility modifier.
   • If the number is positive, the thrower's agility modifier is subtracted from the result, to a minimum of 0
   • If the number is negative, the thrower's agility modifier is added to the result, to a maximum of 0

If the targeted location is less than or equal to the maximum throwing range as calculated above, and the thrower has the parabolic muscular subroutine installed, or the Deft Throwing skill, the angular variance will then be further reduced:

• If the thrower has a parabolic muscular subroutine installed, angular variance is always set to 0° (ensuring that the throw will be 100% accurate)
• If the thrower has the Deft Throwing skill, the angular variance is divided by 2.

Hit Mechanics

Unlike melee weapon attacks and ranged weapon attacks, thrown objects cannot be dodged. The analogue to dodging in thrown weapon combat is simply the variability with regard to range and accuracy. Since most creatures do not have a method of ensuring 100% throw accuracy (such as a parabolic muscular subroutine), there is a reasonable chance for most throw attempts to miss. Players with high throw accuracy can use the fact that throwing ignores DV to their advantage to hit enemies that otherwise have extremely high dodge values, such as crypt ferrets.

If a thrown weapon ultimately lands in the same cell as a creature, it will have a high chance of hitting it. However, there is still a small chance of missing the target, dependent on the thrower's Agility. The base probability for this is determined by the game rolling 1dA, where A is the thrower's full Agility stat value. If the game rolls the maximum value, it rolls again and continues adding to that value. If the final result is 3 or greater, the thrown weapon hits the target. This roughly translates to the following approximate agility-based hit chances, though these values can be modified by other factors in game:

• Thrower Agility 10: 80%
• Thrower Agility 12: 84%
• Thrower Agility 14: 86%
• Thrower Agility 17: 88%
• Thrower Agility 20: 90%
• Thrower Agility 25: 92%
• Thrower Agility 34: 94%

Penetration and Damage

This section describes how thrown weapon penetration (PV) and damage are determined. For details about how those values are actually used to calculate penetrations and total damage, refer to the Penetration page. Penetration rolls for thrown weapons are identical to penetration rolls for melee weapons.

Penetration

Main article: PV

Dedicated thrown weapons show a penetration value in their displayname (such as the large boulder's →16). This value is the weapon's maximum possible penetration, or throwing penetration cap. However, the actual throwing penetration of the weapon will depend upon the thrower's strength. From the perspective of how penetration is displayed in game, thrown weapon penetration will always equal 5 at minimum, and will be increased by the thrower's Strength modifier up to, but not exceeding, the weapon's throwing penetration cap.

Any object that is not a dedicated thrown weapon will have the equivalent of a →6 throwing penetration cap. For example, if you throw fish jerky at your target, it has a default throwing penetration of 5 and can be increased to 6 if you have a Strength modifier of +1 or greater.

Important Note: Similar to melee weapons, for purposes of internal penetration calculations in the game engine, the penetration value displayed in the UI is reduced by 4 (so, in the case of the large boulder, it's internal penetration actually varies from 1 up to 12 if the thrower has a Strength modifier of +11). This internal penetration value is rolled against the target's AV, as the AV appears in game, for the purposes of calculating penetrations and then applying damage.

Damage

Dedicated thrown weapons show their thrown weapon damage as part of their display name. For example, the medium boulder deals 2d10+24-22 (Avg: 13) when it is thrown.

Any object that is not a dedicated thrown weapon will deal 1d21-2 (Avg: 1.5) damage when thrown.

Thrown Weapon Interactions with Melee Skills and Combat

If a player or creature equips a thrown weapon in a weapon hand and uses it as a melee weapon, the item will act only as a →4/4 1d2 cudgel weapon, and it will follow all the rules of melee weapon combat. It will not retain its original thrown weapon PV or damage.

Thrown weapons do not benefit from any of the effects of melee weapon skills. For example, the throwing axe cannot cleave or dismember targets, and will gain no benefit from other axe skills. If a thrown weapon is wielded in melee, it will benefit only from cudgel skills, as described above (this includes the throwing axe).

Automatic Reload

After throwing an object, the game will automatically reload the thrown weapon equipment slot with another item of the same type, if one is available. For the player, this only works if you have more of the same exact item in your inventory. For NPCs that threw a grenade, the game uses more generous logic to automatically reload the thrown weapon slot with any other available grenade.

List of Thrown Weapons

Thrown Blades

Item	Max PV	Damage
zetachrome dagger	→22	1d12+23-14 (Avg: 8.5)
flawless crysteel dagger	→20	1d12+12-13 (Avg: 7.5)
crysteel dagger	→18	1d121-12 (Avg: 6.5)
fullerite dagger	→16	1d101-10 (Avg: 5.5)
folded carbide dagger	→14	1d81-8 (Avg: 4.5)
♂ etched cleaver	→14	1d81-8 (Avg: 4.5)
carbide dagger	→12	1d61-6 (Avg: 3.5)
steel dagger	→10	1d41-4 (Avg: 2.5)
iron dagger	→8	1d31-3 (Avg: 2)
bronze dagger	→6	1d21-2 (Avg: 1.5)
force knife	→5	1d81-8 (Avg: 4.5)
gaslight kris	→4	1d41-4 (Avg: 2.5)
vibro dagger	→4	1d41-4 (Avg: 2.5)

Miscellaneous Thrown Items

Item	Max PV	Damage
large boulder	→16	3d10+36-33 (Avg: 19.5)
throwing axe	→13	2d122-24 (Avg: 13)
medium boulder	→13	2d10+24-22 (Avg: 13)
small boulder	→13	1d31-3 (Avg: 2)
molting basilisk husk	→10	1d41-4 (Avg: 2.5)
large stone	→10	1d21-2 (Avg: 1.5)
geomagnetic disc	→5	2d62-12 (Avg: 7)
poison-tipped spear	→5	1d21-2 (Avg: 1.5)
small stone	→5	1d21-2 (Avg: 1.5)
small wax nodule	→5	1d21-2 (Avg: 1.5)
sower's seed	→5	11
cast net	→5	00

Tonics

Item	Max PV	Damage
blaze injector	→7	11
Eaters' nectar injector	→7	11
empty injector	→7	11
hulk honey injector	→7	11
love injector	→7	11
rubbergum injector	→7	11
salve injector	→7	11
shade oil injector	→7	11
skulk injector	→7	11
sphynx salt injector	→7	11
ubernostrum injector	→7	11
used injector	→7	11

Grenades

Item	Max PV	Damage
acid gas grenade mk I	→5	11
acid gas grenade mk II	→5	11
acid gas grenade mk III	→5	11
defoliant grenade mk I	→5	11
defoliant grenade mk II	→5	11
defoliant grenade mk III	→5	11
EMP grenade mk I	→5	11
EMP grenade mk II	→5	11
EMP grenade mk III	→5	11
flashbang grenade mk I	→5	11
flashbang grenade mk II	→5	11
flashbang grenade mk III	→5	11
freeze grenade mk I	→5	11
freeze grenade mk II	→5	11
freeze grenade mk III	→5	11
fungicide grenade mk I	→5	11
fungicide grenade mk II	→5	11
fungicide grenade mk III	→5	11
glitter grenade mk I	→5	11
glitter grenade mk II	→5	11
glitter grenade mk III	→5	11
gravity grenade mk I	→5	11
gravity grenade mk II	→5	11
gravity grenade mk III	→5	11
Hand-E-Nuke	→5	11
high explosive grenade mk I	→5	11
high explosive grenade mk II	→5	11
high explosive grenade mk III	→5	11
normality gas grenade mk I	→5	11
normality gas grenade mk II	→5	11
normality gas grenade mk III	→5	11
phase shift grenade mk I	→5	11
plasma grenade mk I	→5	11
plasma grenade mk II	→5	11
plasma grenade mk III	→5	11
poison gas grenade mk I	→5	11
poison gas grenade mk II	→5	11
poison gas grenade mk III	→5	11
resonance grenade mk I	→5	11
resonance grenade mk II	→5	11
resonance grenade mk III	→5	11
sleep gas grenade mk I	→5	11
sleep gas grenade mk II	→5	11
sleep gas grenade mk III	→5	11
spring-turret grenade mk I	→5	11
spring-turret grenade mk II	→5	11
spring-turret grenade mk III	→5	11
stasis grenade mk I	→5	11
stasis grenade mk II	→5	11
stasis grenade mk III	→5	11
stun gas grenade mk I	→5	11
stun gas grenade mk II	→5	11
stun gas grenade mk III	→5	11
thermal grenade mk I	→5	11
thermal grenade mk II	→5	11
thermal grenade mk III	→5	11
time dilation grenade mk I	→5	11
time dilation grenade mk II	→5	11
time dilation grenade mk III	→5	11