Question of the day for you fellow DMs.

Scenario : The FIGHTER at my table who is proficient with a greataxe wants to throw the weapon at a running enemy . Being proficient in the weapon I allowed it. Did I make the right call? State your opinions (and any facts / clarity) on this.

My personal opinion was it's very natural way to go and I can't understand why they weren't listed as a thrown weapon. We have REAL WORLD competitions for throwing these weapons. So is this just an oversight ? 

People throw GREATaxes? You mean the two-handed and heavy versions? Throwing a normal handaxe sure - it has the thrown property but not the Greataxes. I can't see them being too effective and I would use the Improvised Weapons rules.

If a character uses a ranged weapon to make a melee attack, or throws a melee weapon that does not have the thrown property, it also deals 1d4 damage. An improvised thrown weapon has a normal range of 20 feet and a long range of 60 feet.

According to the International Axe Throwing Federation, even their "Big Axe" specifications only have a weight of about 2.75 pounds.

This is in line with the PHB and a Handaxe. A weapon with the Light and Thrown properties.

A Greataxe, otoh, weighs 7 (SEVEN) pounds. It also has the Heavy property.

To me, this means it is too big, too heavy, too awkward to throw accurately.

Since I try to DM with the Brennan Lee Mulligan "Yes, and..." philosophy, I wouldn't say "No, you can't throw your Greataxe".

But I WOULD say "Sure, you can throw it. Make a ranged attack with Disadvantage."

EDIT: Or I'd use the rules Emmber helpfully provided above.

For future reference, they can use their proficiency bonus at your discretion, but it scales off DEX and does 1d4 damage.

Unless you homebrew/house rule otherwise.

Greataxes, in real life and in game, are BIG. From blade-tips to pommel, they're probably five feet long at the least. So, no, I wouldn't allow it. There is a handaxe weapon which can be thrown—that's probably more what you're thinking of.

I think I'd allow them to attempt to throw it and have the damage be 1d6 bludgeoning unless they got a crit and then I'd give it the full (slashing?) damage and +4 bludgeoning.  I would lean toward the rule of cool.

Quote from UltimateDevil>>

Question of the day for you fellow DMs.

Scenario : The FIGHTER at my table who is proficient with a greataxe wants to throw the weapon at a running enemy . Being proficient in the weapon I allowed it. Did I make the right call? State your opinions (and any facts / clarity) on this.

RAW - no. Greataxes do not have the "thrown" property. If thrown, it would be an improvised weapon and do 1d4.

My personal opinion was it's very natural way to go and I can't understand why they weren't listed as a thrown weapon. We have REAL WORLD competitions for throwing these weapons. So is this just an oversight ? 

You're thinking of handaxes, not greataxes. Handaxes are small and are thrown. Greataxes are the size of your upper body and are emphatically not thrown. (They're not even listed as versatile - you HAVE to use them with two hands, even in melee they're not small enough to be used one-handed!)

A greataxe is like this size:

A handaxe is like this size:

I would have obviously let the fighter pull out his trusty handaxe and throw that instead. Once he's past level 2 or 3, I'd be fine fudging it and saying that he had a spare handaxe or whatever even if he hadn't told me in advance about it (because I don't really care to make my players track ammo once they're not particularly limited by its cost).

Rule of cool says yes... you can try.  Don't get bogged down with rules do whatever is the most fun for your group.  In situations like this I just have players roll a d20 and set a DC between 10-20 or lower depending on how cool/fun the description of what they are doing is.  

Remember the whole point of DND is to have fun always ere on the side of the cool factor.

Quote from 1stsonofkrynn >>

Rule of cool says yes... you can try.  Don't get bogged down with rules do whatever is the most fun for your group.  In situations like this I just have players roll a d20 and set a DC between 10-20 or lower depending on how cool/fun the description of what they are doing is.  

Remember the whole point of DND is to have fun always ere on the side of the cool factor.

 My personal ethos with Rule of Cool is that it should be for one-off, circumstantial actions, not repeatable ones. Pushing a necromancer under falling debris as their citadel crumbles, even though there are no rules for that, is cool. 

Toss a greataxe once is cool, tossing it repeatedly is cheesy. If there's no way to justify it being a one time thing (and thus cool because it's unique and special), I don't think rule of cool should justify it.

I would allow this in ultra-heroic circumstances as a one-off. I would be clear that this cannot be done as a regular thing... but maybe the adrenaline of the moment trying to stop the BBEG from getting away, would permit it. Otherwise it’d follow the rule for throwing any improvised weapon as others have stated above.

EDIT: I might allow the spending of the inspiration point to allow it. So the player has in the past done something like good RP or heroic behavior that I have given inspiration for. As a reward, by spending that point, he can thrown the great axe as a normal weapon. This would ensure that it doesn’t happen all the time, but it can happen in special circumstances, which seems appropriately heroic to me.

Thanks for the input all. I went and investigated weights after the session & my posting here . I was thinking thee old lumberjack style axe was equivalent to the great axe. However, the lumberjacks at best are using a four pounder (i.e. a battle axe) to toss at targets in their competitions. Have a great one all and thanks for your time ! Adventure on and awesome travels !