Thrown weapon combat

This information is reliable as of patch 2.0.201.49. If this is no longer the current patch, you can help by updating it.

This information is reliable as of patch 2.0.201.49.

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.

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 a 1 in 3 chance for the thrown object to stop one tile short of the target. For this reason, for players without the parabolic muscular subroutine or Deft Throwing, it is preferable to aim one cell beyond the target to improve the chance of hitting it. NPCs will not be smart enough to overcome this limitation.

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

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)
small wax nodule	→5	1d21-2 (Avg: 1.5)
small stone	→5	1d21-2 (Avg: 1.5)
poison-tipped spear	→5	1d21-2 (Avg: 1.5)
sower's seed	→5	11
cast net	→5	00

Tonics

Item	Max PV	Damage
blaze injector	→7	1
Eaters' nectar injector	→7	1
empty injector	→7	1
hulk honey injector	→7	1
love injector	→7	1
rubbergum injector	→7	1
salve injector	→7	1
shade oil injector	→7	1
skulk injector	→7	1
sphynx salt injector	→7	1
ubernostrum injector	→7	1
used injector	→7	1

Grenades

Item	PV	Damage
Data:Acid gas grenade mk III(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Acid gas grenade mk II(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Acid gas grenade mk I(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Defoliant grenade mk III(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Defoliant grenade mk II(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Defoliant grenade mk I(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:EMP grenade mk III(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:EMP grenade mk II(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:EMP grenade mk I(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Flashbang grenade mk III(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Flashbang grenade mk II(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Flashbang grenade mk I(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Freeze grenade mk III(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Freeze grenade mk II(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Freeze grenade mk I(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Fungicide grenade mk III(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Fungicide grenade mk II(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Fungicide grenade mk I(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Glitter grenade mk III(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Glitter grenade mk II(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Glitter grenade mk I(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Gravity grenade mk III(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Gravity grenade mk II(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Gravity grenade mk I(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:High explosive grenade mk III(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:High explosive grenade mk II(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:High explosive grenade mk I(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Normality gas grenade mk III(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Normality gas grenade mk II(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Normality gas grenade mk I(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Plasma grenade mk III(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Plasma grenade mk II(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Plasma grenade mk I(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Poison gas grenade mk III(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Poison gas grenade mk II(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Poison gas grenade mk I(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Resonance grenade mk III(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Resonance grenade mk II(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Resonance grenade mk I(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Sleep gas grenade mk III(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Sleep gas grenade mk II(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Sleep gas grenade mk I(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Spring-turret grenade mk III(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Spring-turret grenade mk II(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Spring-turret grenade mk I(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Stasis grenade mk III(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Stasis grenade mk II(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Stasis grenade mk I(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Stun gas grenade mk III(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Stun gas grenade mk II(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Stun gas grenade mk I(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Thermal grenade mk III(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Thermal grenade mk II(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Thermal grenade mk I(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Time dilation grenade mk III(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Time dilation grenade mk II(favilink error!)	→5	1
Data:Time dilation grenade mk I(favilink error!)	→5	1
Hand-E-Nuke	→5	1
phase shift grenade mk I	→5	1