My go to is binding salune/shars spear for no aoe, nyrulna when I want aoe, and the returning pike for when the game inevitably fucks up and doesn’t return my first weapon back to me
Worse than tickling your high level companions is hitting civilians. There are several spots in the city where it's not hard to do. I keep the returning pike on me and a few daggers. Daggers have a nice flat trajectory too so you can zing them in tight spots where you can't get a line with heavier weapons.
Spears and javelins have a different arc as well. I found that out by accident while trying to hit someone through a doorway. Don't remember now which one was which, but one of the two kept giving me "path interrupted". Since there was clearly nothing besides the top of the door that could have been interrupting the throw, I tried switching which one I was using and it was perfectly happy with the second option.
Absolutely. And then the crushing damage from
Heights. Makes positing super important which adds a tactical element that is missing in the similar OH Monk.
It depends on your party set up really. Like if you had a full on tank, not so much, but like a pseudo tank then yes. Also if there are any spell casters in range, it might break concentration
Yeah, I think I’m also too used to playing on explorer at this point where the healths are inflated. I have two playthroughs with other people and they both want to play on explorer since they way prefer the story over combat and aren’t huge into games. One just finished and the other is half way through act 3.
Blasting all your allies for 1-12 DMG at least 3× in a row can start taking chunks of health fast.
I guess you could use thunder resist potions on your party.
There can be issues.
In the cazador fight, he had that buff up where he does a bunch of extra damage to people he targets.
I hit him with the attack, not only did the aoe hit me and my companion, it counted as coming from him, the target of Nythura. Rather than the trident itself.
So it procs this ability and crushes me with necrotic damage or something.
Worst part I didn’t notice and did it again.
On the second attack I notice I have taken a hell of a lot of damage, more than expected from catching myself in the blast area. Check the notes, and yep. He is draining my life like I have put a brick through the side of my bath.
Plus being able to rage and enraged throw first turn is so handy, means if you have something you really need to prone… you can. Like it has a legendary reaction when hit, that doesn’t go of if it’s prone. Where as before you had to rage this turn, to use that next turn.
Disagree. Every time I try this, he ends up hurtling into a “chasm,” erased from existence for all time.
I know that happens because that’s where I’m aiming my throw, but still.
You can 100% carry Nayrula on a thrower and throw it at groups of enemies when your team is clear. It will automatically swap weapons without wasting an action. I use Nayrula whenever possible unless I can’t risk the explosion, then I use dwarven thrower or a bound weapon from EK dip. I prefer spears for piercing damage as my swords barb is wearing bhaalist armor anyway.
TL:DR carry an arsenal of throwing weapons for use in different situations.
Exactly. Swap out Nyrulna when any allies are in blast radius (my front line can take the blast, but allies could aggro, don't want that esp in HM), drawven thrower or any EK bound weapon is good
Im surprised no one has mentioned Shar’s Spear of Evening or even Selune’s Spear
I stopped using any Nyrulna because the AOE friendly fire was annoying
Shar’s spear has a passive that adds an additional 1d6 piercing when enemy is obscured. It seems like it should be more, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this isn’t applied when thrown
[[Lightning Jabber]] is a pretty good all-rounder, as are both of the Shart spears. If you take an EK dip, those are what I’d use if the AoE of Nyrulna was dangerous.
[Lightning Jabber](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Lightning_Jabber) is an uncommon +1 Spear that deals extra Lightning damage when thrown, and also has a chance to Shock a target on hit.
^This ^action ^was ^performed ^by ^a ^bot. [^(Learn more)](https://www.reddit.com/user/BG3WikiFetcher/comments/1bk01df)
I had a lot better time with the enchanted light hammer on an EK than any other throw build. The aoe on Nyrulna is annoying at best and in most act 3 fights a negative. Also it could just be just my imagination but it seems to have a smaller hitbox that doesn't get screwed by lanterns and ceilings.
I've tried other things but dang nyrulna rocks my world. I just finished a game and barbarian rage + bloodlust potion + haste was how about 80% of the baddies died in the final push to the brain.
Nyrula kinda suffers in act 3 if the fight isn’t a wide area cause of the aoe damage I say keep returning pike or dwarven thrower as back up for situations where you’ll damage allies or yourself
I always keep those three on my thrower for those reasons and 2 more. 1. Sometimes for some reason your weapon will not return, so always keep a couple javelins on hand until you get a second returning weapon. 2. The dwarven hammer is a great melee alternative to both the pike and Nyrula. If you know an enemy is going to engage you in melee next turn but you need to prioritize another target this turn, throw the hammer then it will equip for your next turn to use a concussion strike next turn.
I would say the fact you can throw from equipment rescues this weapon from what would be a fatal flaw there. Because you can swap weapons as a thrower easy as pie.
If there isn’t space throw something else. If there is. Use the trident . within the same fight, or even the same round
I'm planning on a build that uses the shining staver-of-skulls with the radiant armor, with the giant hill st club on the offhand with the staver as ek bound weapon (or warlock cheated bound weapon)
I'll try to get the going and write a post.
Unfortunately in my experience weapons don't deal the elemental damage when thrown, unless it says so specifically like lightning jabber. I had a similar idea and was very disappointed. But I'd love to be wrong about this so let me know if it works.
It does not. Elemental damage and poisons/dips don't work when thrown. Only weapons that specifically mention thrown effects and some items (like Helldusk gloves) work when thrown.
The shining shaver is still good for one thing, cheesing the grym fight, you can park yourself up the top and have someone else initiate the fight and just lob hammers from the top ropes and deal like 40 damage per toss (you need to be eldritch knight to bind it) because it’s one of the only throwing weapons that deals bludgeoning damage
I wish throwing weapons were a class of weapon all their own, I want javelin and throwing axes that stick on impact. While weapons like Nyrulna are fun they feel like throwing blunt objects instead of ranged weapons.
In all honesty I see Nyrulna's AoE damage to be more of a nuisance than a boon. I keep it in my inventory but the vast majority of the time I'm just throwing the hammer. In my opinion Dwarven Thrower has always been the go-to thrower.
Just mix and match with dwarven thrower.
The only reason to go for EK is disguise self so you can get the boosts from dwarven thrower. Which honestly aren’t really worth it or necessary.
Btw hellrider bow is a great stat stick for a thrower. +3 initiative is excellent.
I don’t know how people are hitting Allie’s with nyrulna. It’s a big aoe but it’s predictable and ranged damage is superior in this game anyway.
I went 8barb-4thief with asi, brawler, and alert feat. If she’s always going first there shouldn’t be too many instances where your team is in the way.
Depending on your tolerance for exploits, you can still do a throwbarian build and use lightning jabber...
You can bind the weapon on an EK hireling and send it back to your barb every morning. You only need 3 levels to get bind weapon so you can multiclass the rest of the hireling with transmutation wiz for potion crafting.
[FAKE NEWS!] ~~Also, Trident of the waves may have good synergy with your lightning/ice casters as you can keep everything on the field wet while not having to take an action and spell slot to create water with your mages.~~
If you put it in your camp chest before resting, it doesn't lose the Bound property. Saves you having to recast.
Note, this also works with the Drakethroat Glaive buffs so you can exploit it to have the buff on all of your weapons, not just one or two (with sorc twinning)
I thought it did, but i could definitly be wrong. I just use lightning jabber... im not in act 3 yet on my current run so i cant check. Thats why i said "may help" because i wasnt entirely sure lol.
No, you're right, it still apparently doesnt work. But the description makes it seem like it should. Shame. Editing original comment. Thanks for the heads up.
most of the throwing weapons worth using have the returning effect built in. the only major exception i can think of is the lightning jabber from act 2. fighter is still great to pick up, bc action surge is nuts, but the third fighter level doesnt add a whole lot to the build
Shars spear of evening is really good.
Even if using Nyrulna, it’s still good to keep the returning pike on hand, so you have a non-AOE weapon to avoid hurting your melee characters.
There is exactly one weapon *on par* with Nyrulna:
The Dwarven Thrower can also be found in Rivington. It deals an extra d8 per throw if you're a dwarf and an extra 2d8 damage against any creature that is at least *Large* sized.
Nyrulna deals: 1d8+1d6+3+3d4 (AoE) = 18.5 on average
Dwarven Thrower (Dwarf + Large Foe): 4d8+2 = 20 on average
I think Nyrulna outclasses the Dwarven Thrower, even though the damage is slightly lower. This is because Nyrulna has an added blast, and its continued explosions will really help you clear out groups of enemies. If you hit the samge group of enemies with Nyrulna's blast 3 times, that's *about* the same amount of damage I would expect a *Fireball* to deal. That being said, you should absolutely keep **both** on you at all times because:
- Certain enemies and objects take more bludgeoning damage than piercing
- You do not want Nyrulna's AoE to hit more friendlies than it would hit enemies
- You will not always be fighting large enemies with the Dwarven Thrower.
If you want the best throwing Barbarian build, the meta build is Berserker 8/Thief 4; it's an absolute house. It's highly durable. It's highly mobile. It's extremely damaging.
I use the Orphic Hammer as a bound weapon from Eldritch Knight and choose Nyrulna when the party is out of the way. Spell resistance is a pretty nice buff and the hammer just looks so cool
I had Karlach as a 5 berserker, 4 ek, 3 thief with tavern brawler and dual wielding. I had her dual wielding Nyrulna and bloodthirst because both are bound weapons. Then she also would bind selunes spear. So she could throw Nyrulna for devastating damage and AOE, she could throw selunes spear for high damage with no AOE, and she could throw bloodlust when there was something blocking Nyrulna or Selunes spear. She had 2 main attacks, and had 2 enraged throws with the 2 bonus actions from thief with no potions or elixirs. I also had her in the mighty cloth so she could get the bonus to strength.
But if you want the extra feature of berserker at level 6, just do 3 ek and 3 thief. You lose the bonus to AC for dual wielding but because the weapons are bound and you can throw anything from your inventory and it's just replaced it's a toss up.
Also, I didn't start her on that path. I respecced her later on to add in ek. It makes the most sense to get to level 5 as berserker for extra attack, then add thief, then ek. Those extra bonus actions are really helpful.
Honestly the saddest thing about throw builds is that most weapons with bonus elemental damage don’t get the bonus when thrown, the only reason it doesn’t bother me is that throw builds are like top 5 best builds in the game
Dwarves thrower is also pretty good. The only problem I have with nyrulna is its AoE. It can hit teammates too. Have you tried adding on thief rogue?
Yup. I switch it out for the returning pike if my mates are close. Wish it had a togglable option for the aoe
That’s what I do, too. I keep both handy.
My go to is binding salune/shars spear for no aoe, nyrulna when I want aoe, and the returning pike for when the game inevitably fucks up and doesn’t return my first weapon back to me
The other day, I went to throw and Nyrula wasn’t there. I had to backtrack to the previous fight area to find it.
Dwarvern thrower is better even for non dwarves
This is my only issue with it as well. I generally only use it on a team with exclusively ranged actions, so I don't hurt my own people.
Is it that bad though? By the time I get Nyrulna, I find my party, aside from casters, to be more than tanky enough to take some aoe damage.
Worse than tickling your high level companions is hitting civilians. There are several spots in the city where it's not hard to do. I keep the returning pike on me and a few daggers. Daggers have a nice flat trajectory too so you can zing them in tight spots where you can't get a line with heavier weapons.
Interesting. I hadn’t noticed the difference in trajectory. Kinda cool. I’m often amazed at the small things like this they thought of.
Spears and javelins have a different arc as well. I found that out by accident while trying to hit someone through a doorway. Don't remember now which one was which, but one of the two kept giving me "path interrupted". Since there was clearly nothing besides the top of the door that could have been interrupting the throw, I tried switching which one I was using and it was perfectly happy with the second option.
Honestly, that knife trajectory thing seems cool as shit. I’ve never actually made a full throwzerker build but I should try it some time
Absolutely. And then the crushing damage from Heights. Makes positing super important which adds a tactical element that is missing in the similar OH Monk.
It depends on your party set up really. Like if you had a full on tank, not so much, but like a pseudo tank then yes. Also if there are any spell casters in range, it might break concentration
Yeah, I think I’m also too used to playing on explorer at this point where the healths are inflated. I have two playthroughs with other people and they both want to play on explorer since they way prefer the story over combat and aren’t huge into games. One just finished and the other is half way through act 3.
Blasting all your allies for 1-12 DMG at least 3× in a row can start taking chunks of health fast. I guess you could use thunder resist potions on your party.
Same - bombs away
There can be issues. In the cazador fight, he had that buff up where he does a bunch of extra damage to people he targets. I hit him with the attack, not only did the aoe hit me and my companion, it counted as coming from him, the target of Nythura. Rather than the trident itself. So it procs this ability and crushes me with necrotic damage or something. Worst part I didn’t notice and did it again. On the second attack I notice I have taken a hell of a lot of damage, more than expected from catching myself in the blast area. Check the notes, and yep. He is draining my life like I have put a brick through the side of my bath.
If you're not a dwarf, just get yourself a dwarf hireling, have him equip the hammer, and have your barb throw the dwarf.
Thanks for the advice! I just got to level 3 rogue to get thief, and having a second bonus action every turn is so nice for this build.
Plus being able to rage and enraged throw first turn is so handy, means if you have something you really need to prone… you can. Like it has a legendary reaction when hit, that doesn’t go of if it’s prone. Where as before you had to rage this turn, to use that next turn.
Wulbren Bongle's body
Stuffed with some runpowder, for good measure. Fuck that guy.
I always hear Wulbren hate but never Barcus love. Yeah. Fuck Wulbren.
I can probably direct you to some “art” if you are interested in Barcus love
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClezDg8n6uw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClezDg8n6uw)
Song is so epic 🤣
Marties comment reminded me of it lol
Shove that runepowder bomb he gives you up his ass and feed him to a dragon.
Disagree. Every time I try this, he ends up hurtling into a “chasm,” erased from existence for all time. I know that happens because that’s where I’m aiming my throw, but still.
“My only regret is that I can’t throw him off a cliff twice”
F5 throw F8
You can 100% carry Nayrula on a thrower and throw it at groups of enemies when your team is clear. It will automatically swap weapons without wasting an action. I use Nayrula whenever possible unless I can’t risk the explosion, then I use dwarven thrower or a bound weapon from EK dip. I prefer spears for piercing damage as my swords barb is wearing bhaalist armor anyway. TL:DR carry an arsenal of throwing weapons for use in different situations.
Exactly. Swap out Nyrulna when any allies are in blast radius (my front line can take the blast, but allies could aggro, don't want that esp in HM), drawven thrower or any EK bound weapon is good
You don’t need to dip into EK if you can spare a hireling dipping into EK.
I know you know, but others might not. You don’t need to equip them to throw them either
Im surprised no one has mentioned Shar’s Spear of Evening or even Selune’s Spear I stopped using any Nyrulna because the AOE friendly fire was annoying
What’s makes sharts spears effective?
More piercing damage than Nyrulna, so more damage when combined with Bhaalist armor for piercing vulnerability.
Shar's spears dont do more piercing damage than Nyrula, they all do 1d6+3 base when thrown.
Shar’s spear has a passive that adds an additional 1d6 piercing when enemy is obscured. It seems like it should be more, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this isn’t applied when thrown
Yeah I was wrong. The main benefit for a thrower build then is to avoid friendly damage.
Ah I see thank you.
[[Lightning Jabber]] is a pretty good all-rounder, as are both of the Shart spears. If you take an EK dip, those are what I’d use if the AoE of Nyrulna was dangerous.
[Lightning Jabber](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Lightning_Jabber) is an uncommon +1 Spear that deals extra Lightning damage when thrown, and also has a chance to Shock a target on hit. ^This ^action ^was ^performed ^by ^a ^bot. [^(Learn more)](https://www.reddit.com/user/BG3WikiFetcher/comments/1bk01df)
Good bot
I had a lot better time with the enchanted light hammer on an EK than any other throw build. The aoe on Nyrulna is annoying at best and in most act 3 fights a negative. Also it could just be just my imagination but it seems to have a smaller hitbox that doesn't get screwed by lanterns and ceilings.
You're right certain weapons have different flight arcs.
Absolutely. Imperative to keep some knives in case you need a slightly janky path
I used Nyrulna when my party members were out of range, but for certain fights, the slinging shoes worked really well for me!
I've tried other things but dang nyrulna rocks my world. I just finished a game and barbarian rage + bloodlust potion + haste was how about 80% of the baddies died in the final push to the brain.
Nyrula kinda suffers in act 3 if the fight isn’t a wide area cause of the aoe damage I say keep returning pike or dwarven thrower as back up for situations where you’ll damage allies or yourself
I always keep those three on my thrower for those reasons and 2 more. 1. Sometimes for some reason your weapon will not return, so always keep a couple javelins on hand until you get a second returning weapon. 2. The dwarven hammer is a great melee alternative to both the pike and Nyrula. If you know an enemy is going to engage you in melee next turn but you need to prioritize another target this turn, throw the hammer then it will equip for your next turn to use a concussion strike next turn.
Nyrula is only in act 3
Really?
Yeah you get it from the carnival near the start of act 3
I would say the fact you can throw from equipment rescues this weapon from what would be a fatal flaw there. Because you can swap weapons as a thrower easy as pie. If there isn’t space throw something else. If there is. Use the trident . within the same fight, or even the same round
No
Your enemy.
If you can get to the high ground, returning pike outdamages everything.
I'm planning on a build that uses the shining staver-of-skulls with the radiant armor, with the giant hill st club on the offhand with the staver as ek bound weapon (or warlock cheated bound weapon) I'll try to get the going and write a post.
Unfortunately in my experience weapons don't deal the elemental damage when thrown, unless it says so specifically like lightning jabber. I had a similar idea and was very disappointed. But I'd love to be wrong about this so let me know if it works.
It does not. Elemental damage and poisons/dips don't work when thrown. Only weapons that specifically mention thrown effects and some items (like Helldusk gloves) work when thrown.
The shining shaver is still good for one thing, cheesing the grym fight, you can park yourself up the top and have someone else initiate the fight and just lob hammers from the top ropes and deal like 40 damage per toss (you need to be eldritch knight to bind it) because it’s one of the only throwing weapons that deals bludgeoning damage
Callous Glow on Nyrulna with Radiant is great.
Lightning jabber is just as strong if you're EK.
I wish throwing weapons were a class of weapon all their own, I want javelin and throwing axes that stick on impact. While weapons like Nyrulna are fun they feel like throwing blunt objects instead of ranged weapons.
In all honesty I see Nyrulna's AoE damage to be more of a nuisance than a boon. I keep it in my inventory but the vast majority of the time I'm just throwing the hammer. In my opinion Dwarven Thrower has always been the go-to thrower.
Same, it’s great if melee aren’t in the way but the aoe damage has a surprising range
Just mix and match with dwarven thrower. The only reason to go for EK is disguise self so you can get the boosts from dwarven thrower. Which honestly aren’t really worth it or necessary. Btw hellrider bow is a great stat stick for a thrower. +3 initiative is excellent. I don’t know how people are hitting Allie’s with nyrulna. It’s a big aoe but it’s predictable and ranged damage is superior in this game anyway.
I went 8barb-4thief with asi, brawler, and alert feat. If she’s always going first there shouldn’t be too many instances where your team is in the way.
Depending on your tolerance for exploits, you can still do a throwbarian build and use lightning jabber... You can bind the weapon on an EK hireling and send it back to your barb every morning. You only need 3 levels to get bind weapon so you can multiclass the rest of the hireling with transmutation wiz for potion crafting. [FAKE NEWS!] ~~Also, Trident of the waves may have good synergy with your lightning/ice casters as you can keep everything on the field wet while not having to take an action and spell slot to create water with your mages.~~
If you put it in your camp chest before resting, it doesn't lose the Bound property. Saves you having to recast. Note, this also works with the Drakethroat Glaive buffs so you can exploit it to have the buff on all of your weapons, not just one or two (with sorc twinning)
Oh wow. That is amazing! Thank you, you saved me so much time haha
Does Trident of the waves work with throw now?
I thought it did, but i could definitly be wrong. I just use lightning jabber... im not in act 3 yet on my current run so i cant check. Thats why i said "may help" because i wasnt entirely sure lol.
I haven't tried in patch 5/6 but it didn't work before
No, you're right, it still apparently doesnt work. But the description makes it seem like it should. Shame. Editing original comment. Thanks for the heads up.
most of the throwing weapons worth using have the returning effect built in. the only major exception i can think of is the lightning jabber from act 2. fighter is still great to pick up, bc action surge is nuts, but the third fighter level doesnt add a whole lot to the build
You can have another party member EK fighter and bond the weapon and give it to your thrower to save levels for your build
Shars spear of evening is really good. Even if using Nyrulna, it’s still good to keep the returning pike on hand, so you have a non-AOE weapon to avoid hurting your melee characters.
There is exactly one weapon *on par* with Nyrulna: The Dwarven Thrower can also be found in Rivington. It deals an extra d8 per throw if you're a dwarf and an extra 2d8 damage against any creature that is at least *Large* sized. Nyrulna deals: 1d8+1d6+3+3d4 (AoE) = 18.5 on average Dwarven Thrower (Dwarf + Large Foe): 4d8+2 = 20 on average I think Nyrulna outclasses the Dwarven Thrower, even though the damage is slightly lower. This is because Nyrulna has an added blast, and its continued explosions will really help you clear out groups of enemies. If you hit the samge group of enemies with Nyrulna's blast 3 times, that's *about* the same amount of damage I would expect a *Fireball* to deal. That being said, you should absolutely keep **both** on you at all times because: - Certain enemies and objects take more bludgeoning damage than piercing - You do not want Nyrulna's AoE to hit more friendlies than it would hit enemies - You will not always be fighting large enemies with the Dwarven Thrower. If you want the best throwing Barbarian build, the meta build is Berserker 8/Thief 4; it's an absolute house. It's highly durable. It's highly mobile. It's extremely damaging.
I use the Orphic Hammer as a bound weapon from Eldritch Knight and choose Nyrulna when the party is out of the way. Spell resistance is a pretty nice buff and the hammer just looks so cool
I had Karlach as a 5 berserker, 4 ek, 3 thief with tavern brawler and dual wielding. I had her dual wielding Nyrulna and bloodthirst because both are bound weapons. Then she also would bind selunes spear. So she could throw Nyrulna for devastating damage and AOE, she could throw selunes spear for high damage with no AOE, and she could throw bloodlust when there was something blocking Nyrulna or Selunes spear. She had 2 main attacks, and had 2 enraged throws with the 2 bonus actions from thief with no potions or elixirs. I also had her in the mighty cloth so she could get the bonus to strength. But if you want the extra feature of berserker at level 6, just do 3 ek and 3 thief. You lose the bonus to AC for dual wielding but because the weapons are bound and you can throw anything from your inventory and it's just replaced it's a toss up.
Also, I didn't start her on that path. I respecced her later on to add in ek. It makes the most sense to get to level 5 as berserker for extra attack, then add thief, then ek. Those extra bonus actions are really helpful.
Eldritch Knight with Lightning Jabber. Dual Wield feat then choose Dueling fighting style.
i think i prefer the lightning jabber because it doesn't have aoe that could hit teammates
Charge bound hammer is pretty good adds 1-6 lighting damage when bond plus the hammer damage
But it's not good for throwing, right? Iirc it doesn't have the thrown property.
Honestly the saddest thing about throw builds is that most weapons with bonus elemental damage don’t get the bonus when thrown, the only reason it doesn’t bother me is that throw builds are like top 5 best builds in the game
Correct