We decided that we would go with these two stacking granting a total of +4 Damage. It is still less damage than the Ranger with Sharpshooter or Barbarian with Great Weapon Master but it doesn't have the Attack penalty. Makes the character feel more like a deadly knife throwing specialist.
Doesn't the Thrown Fighting Style accomplish that entirely on its own? Consider exactly how much each style offers:
Dueling gives +2 damage when attacking with a singular melee weapon
Archery gives +2 damage when attacking with any ranged weapon
Thrown gives +2 damage when attacking with a Thrown weapon and allows for drawing a thrown weapon without using object interaction
It also works with Two-Weapon Fighting without any shenanigans required
The style is doing a lot of heavy lifting all on its own.
Nope.
Dueling is +2 damage with a single melee weapon.
Thrown is +2 damage with a ranged attack with a thrown weapon and draw as part of attack with a thrown weapon.
Archery is +2 to hit with a ranged weapon.
So, combinations (X is attacks per action, assuming attack stat modifier +5 and proficiency bonus +6:
Archery, Sharpshooter, and Thrown work on Darts. Archery and Sharpshooter work on Longbows, which is the same damage as Darts+thrown and you didn't need to spend a second style. No combo here with twf. Max combo is therefore giving Darts a miss and focusing on Longbows or Hand Crossbows: Xd8 + 15X for Longbows, Xd6+15X+1d6+15 for Hand Crossbows. That's at +8 to hit.
All attacks below are at +11 to hit.
Thrown by itself, assuming you use two-weapon fighting, is Xd6 + 7X + 1d6 + 2. This is ranged only - the only ways to turn off the melee penalty is CBM or Gunner, and neither are worth a feat if you're not using the relevant weapons.
TWF style adds a total of 5 damage to the above, changing the final +2 to +7. That's why it's such a bad style.
Dueling works fine with TWF if you're willing to drop your weapons, and has the same output at Thrown, just in melee typically, since you need to perform your Action attacks, drop your weapon, draw a new one as a free, then attack as a bonus - you can't keep drawing new weapons every time you attack. But the best light weapons in the game are the handaxe and the scimitar, both of which are 1d6 weapons. You can use the Dual Wielder feat to get up to 1d8 weapons, which is basically half as good as adding Thrown.
Dueling + Thrown is Xd6 + 9X + 1d6 + 4 - as soon as X >= 2, Dueling is beating TWF.
My bad on Archery as +2 to attackroll instead of damage, but my point still stands: Thrown style is already doing more than any other style, and carries a direct improvement to action economy. I won't be allowing it to ever stack with Archery or Dueling at my own table, but like I said at the beginning, it's not the end of the world for others. It's not something I would complain about when playing at someone else's table.
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You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
+2 from Thrown Weapon Fighting is nice. +2 from Dueling is nice. Both together is better and still not a op as Sharpshooter or Great Weapon Master. 1d4+9 twice per round vs 1d8+15 or 2d6+18 twice a round.
Sharpshooter/GWM can't really be used until late Tier 2 play at the earliest, if not Tier 3, that -5 to hit malus is so huge. Even then, when you factor in a roughly -25% chance to hit, enabling Sharpshooter is really taking your base damage and multiplying it by .75, then adding 7.5 damage to that, not just slapping +10 damage onto your damage per hit. Its really closer to +5-ish damage per attack, depending on what your base damage was.
Throwing daggers vs darts, if Dueling stacks onto Thrown Fighting Style, the difference comes down to:
Darts can use Sharpshooter (+10ish average damage per round with Extra Attack, but spread across more misses, so not great for multiclass rogues), while Daggers can't.
Daggers can use Dueling+Thrown (+4 damage), while Darts can use Archery+Thrown (+2 damage +2 to hit)
Daggers can be used with Two-Weapon Fighting to make a third attack with a Bonus Action. Doesn't really take off much/any Dueling damage, because you can make your first Attack action throw one-handed (+2 dueling), draw one dagger as a free object interaction, draw a second dagger as part of a second Attack throw (using Thrown Weapon Fighting Style's extra draw mechanic) to throw that one while TWF (no +2 dueling), then throw the third dagger as a Bonus Action one-handed (+2 dueling). It's pure profit, even if you don't have Two Weapon Fighting Style to add ability score to the third dagger.
It's hard to say what the "base" to hit percentage is for damage math, so let's leave that as an undefined variable common to all three builds below, but then apply other bonuses or maluses on top of that as a second percentage modifier (e.g., baseline to hit is 1.0, Archery is 1.1, Sharpshooter is .75).
If Dueling and Thrown Weapon Fighting Stack, then a 20-stat character with Extra Attack, Thrown Weapon Fighting Style, and Fighting Initiate: Dueling does: (some percentage of) (1.0 x (1d4+9, 1d4+7, 1d4+4) ), average 27.5.
If not using Dueling in favor of Archery (darts rather than daggers), then a 20-stat character with Extra Attack, Thrown Weapon Fighting Style, and Fighting Initiate: Archery does: (some percentage of) (1.1 x (1d4+7, 1d4+7)), average 21.
If not using Dueling in favor of Sharpshooter (darts rather than daggers), then a 20-stat character with Extra Attack, Thrown Weapon Fighting Style, and Sharpshooter does: (some percentage of) (.75 x (1d4+17, 1d4+17) ), average 29.
I think this shows that feat-for-feat, Sharpshooter isn't much more damage than spending that Feat on Fighting Initiate: Dueling, and throwing daggers rather than Darts. Its only by stacking more feats to pick up Archery Fighting style as well that Sharpshooter pulls ahead, and again, that means you're more heavily into Tier 3 before that comes together or a variant background/human Fighter with extra feats to throw around, not a baseline assumption for Tier 2-accessible builds.
I don't understand this since the cost is a feat and if you compare it to say Sharpshooter or GWF the damage increase is far from broken. Also the ammo issue with thrown hampers this as well. If people wanna make a thrown char, why can't they? It's not even broken
If thrown weapons weren't wielded, how would you calculate the attack and damage modifiers for it? A weapon is wielded when it's held or used to attack with it.
PHB14: For each weapon your character wields, calculate the modifier you use when you attack with the weapon and the damage you deal when you hit.
If thrown weapons weren't wielded, how would you calculate the attack and damage modifiers for it? A weapon is wielded when it's held or used to attack with it.
PHB14: For each weapon your character wields, calculate the modifier you use when you attack with the weapon and the damage you deal when you hit.
Which two? Sorry I am having trouble keeping up here...
With Darts do you get to add dueling + thrown weapon?
If thrown weapons weren't wielded, how would you calculate the attack and damage modifiers for it? A weapon is wielded when it's held or used to attack with it.
PHB14: For each weapon your character wields, calculate the modifier you use when you attack with the weapon and the damage you deal when you hit.
Which two? Sorry I am having trouble keeping up here...
With Darts do you get to add dueling + thrown weapon?
Dueling and Thrown Weapon Fighting Styles stacks on any ranged attack done with a melee weapon having the thrown property.
Dart don't work with Dueling Fighting Styles as they are not melee weapons.
Darts can be concealed with ease, they are good kensei weapons if you have invested only a few level ins monk class as a ranged choice, and the throwing fighting style works quite good with it. +1d8 dread ambush, +1d6 from hunter's mark, +1d4 from kensei's shot, +2 from style, +x from dex modifier (+sharpshooter if you are into it) coupled with extra attack options and action surge (or haste if you are not using hunters mark, but i prefer haste in melee situations) is while not op quite viable even in later levels, if you are playing multiclassed bladesinger who likes to save spell slots for logistic spells and looking for a range attack option to compliment your cantrips in extra attack feature(though if you are doing right you won't be using damage cantrips often in medium-high levels as those simple darts will overshadow cantrips in most cases, due to lower intelligence compared to dex) level 4 fighter/battle master(in theory brute works too but we do not allow brutes to bladesinging :/), 4 ranger/gloom stalker, 4 monk/kensei, 5 wizard/bladesinger (remaining levels are to any class, i like more feats so i go for fighter, but going for wizard, monk or ranger works as well if not better) with proper feats you get yourself a bladesinger who can outrun almost every living thing while retaining a good ac and decent melee dps.
In short dueling isn't something necessary for throwing, and logic pointed above is solid, the moment you throw the weapon there simply is no weapon in your hand, and wording is clear, when you have a weapon at your hand and no other weapon at your other hand... Besides what kind of "dueling" understanding you have? Let us not try to interpret stuff in our best interest, things are sometimes easy to understand, acting other wise makes us look like people who are looking for bugs to abuse :S
Historically a duel is a fight agreed to by both combatants. Rules are agreed to and held to by honor. Otherwise its just a street fight, simply combat. Its not a fighting style.
Why they even made it a style in the game must have been to simply fill a hole with something before the publishing date.
Archery is the use of bows. The only question is would crossbows be added in or would they get their own rules? I do not consider a gun a form of bow but the crossbow covers both. I count it like a gun. Unless specifically stated a +1 bow would only give a plus to the attack not damage. The arrow causes the damage. A +1 arrow would only be for damage, unless specifically stated.
Thrown weapons is a whole other skill set. You need to train and practice at it. Throwing a two handed weapon is very possible but also very different than a one handed weapon. Throwing a one handed weapon it is a dexterity skill. Throwing a two handed weapon should be a strength skill.
DnD is not based on European history or fantasy. While it certainly draws upon tropes present in that source material, DnD is a pastiche of tropes drawn from all over the world as well as a hefty amount of stuff peculiar to DnD. That’s why Druids, Bards, Barbarians, etc. are not the same as they appear in their original source material. Sometimes that is done out of traditions peculiar to DnD, while other times tropes are represented and labels used in such a way as to simplify the rules. This is one of those instances. DnD is not a simulation of anything.
But does anyone else think that by using standard English dictionary definitions of words we would have less interpretation troubles in the game?
No. I don’t. Lawyers use specialized languages to reduce confusion. Engineers, scientists, medical doctors, etc. all do the same. DnD is making use of the same design pattern - a design pattern proven to work.
It's hard to say what the "base" to hit percentage is for damage math, so let's leave that as an undefined variable common to all three builds below, but then apply other bonuses or maluses on top of that as a second percentage modifier (e.g., baseline to hit is 1.0, Archery is 1.1, Sharpshooter is .75).
If Dueling and Thrown Weapon Fighting Stack, then a 20-stat character with Extra Attack, Thrown Weapon Fighting Style, and Fighting Initiate: Dueling does: (some percentage of) (1.0 x (1d4+9, 1d4+7, 1d4+4) ), average 27.5.
If not using Dueling in favor of Archery (darts rather than daggers), then a 20-stat character with Extra Attack, Thrown Weapon Fighting Style, and Fighting Initiate: Archery does: (some percentage of) (1.1 x (1d4+7, 1d4+7)), average 21.
If not using Dueling in favor of Sharpshooter (darts rather than daggers), then a 20-stat character with Extra Attack, Thrown Weapon Fighting Style, and Sharpshooter does: (some percentage of) (.75 x (1d4+17, 1d4+17) ), average 29.
The correlation between a real base attack % and the percentage you get from Archery or Sharpshooter cannot be calculated that way.
If you need 2 to hit, you have a base percentage of 95% and Archery can never increase that, since 1 is always a failure, and this is true until you reach a base % of 85.
Same for Sharpshooter, as 0.75 x 95% is 0.7125 but your real percentage of hitting is (95-25)= 70% in that case. And this small "fork" in numbers (1,25%) splits really hard when you are no more so close to 100%: if you need an 11 to hit, your base percentage is 50% to hit and Sharpshooter reduce it to 25%, so it's basically halving your chances, which is a multiplier of 0.5, very distant from the 0.75 you considered; if you need a 15 to hit, you are at 30% but with Sharpshooter you only hit with a 20, 5%...this is 0.16666666, which is dramatically far from 0.75.
The average percentage ratio, considering 20 cases from two initial 95% to hit, down to 5% (only hitting on a 20) as base percentage is:
with Archery (+2, +10% to hit): multiplier 1.34673303
with Sharpshooter (-5, -25% to hit): multiplier 0.5375387699
with Archery + Sharpshooter (-3, -15% to hit): multiplier 0.6792425602
This is far from being exhaustive, because there would be other conditions to be considered, such as when you only need "0" or less to hit, which would increase the number of the 95% positions to consider, or, at the other end of the calculations, the fact that you have the 5% chance to hit everything, no matter the AC, with a natural 20...but under "normal" conditions those are the average numbers by which every (some percentage of) has to be multiplied in order to obtain the average damage expected.
One of my players has a female variant human PC dart-throwing concept, with an interesting build:
Gloom Stalker 5th - Battlemaster 4th - Assassin 11th (requiring only to maximize Dex and have a decent 13 on Wis)
ASI / Feats (we use random rolls for abilities and he got an 18 in Dex, that became 19 with one +1 from the VHuman):
VHuman (1st level): Sharpshooter to negate the +2 or +5 AC from cover for her whole adventuring life, as well as removing the range penalties (to stay out of a base 30 feet move + attack from foes)
Gloom Stalker 4th (4th level): Piercer to get 20 on Dex (at 2nd level he took the Thrown Weapon Fighting style, as he wanted the PC to throw darts since the beginning)
Battlemaster 4th (9th level): Lucky, to avoid bad Initiative d20 rolls (her Init already being 1d20 + 5 bonus Dex + 3 bonus Wis thanks to the Gloom Stalker feature) in her subsequent career (at 6th level the Archery style came in)
Assassin 4th (13th level): Alert, to represent the fact that she's a bit paranoid for background flavour and to maximize the chances of going first in every surprise turn (Initiative 1d20 with Lucky reroll if needed + 13) and use Assassinate every time she can (at this level her Stealth is 1d20 with Lucky if needed +15 from the Rogue Expertise and Dex bonus +10 with Pass Without Trace...1d20 rerollable + 25 in Stealth, and she is invisible for anyone using Darkvision to spot her in darkness)
Assassin 8th (17th level): Shadow Touched (+1 Wis, Invisibility 1/day without slots, plus maybe Inflict Wounds) OR Crossbow Expert (to throw in melee without disadvantage and to add a bonus attack with a hand crossbow
Assassin 10th (19th level): Fey Touched or Gift of the Gem Dragon (+1 Wis if paired with Shadow Touched, to reach Wis 18 and Initiative 1d20 + 14; evasive features like Misty Step or Telekinetic Reprisal, plus maybe one free Bane, Bless or even Silvery Barbs to get advantage on her next - surely sneak - attack) OR Martial Adept (2 extra Maneuvers and 1d6 extra Superiority Die)
In a surprise turn, if she manages to go first as she should and uses both Dread Ambusher and Action Surge, she can make six 2+ hitting dart attacks that are all autocrits, plus one 2+ hitting hand crossbow attack as a bonus action which is another autocrit.
1 x [3d6 (bolt/crit/Piercer!) + 15 (Dex/Sharpshooter) +2d6 (extra Superiority Die from Martial Adept)] = 5d6 + 15 = 32.5 avg dmg (45 theoretical max)
Even without the Kensei (one of my fav archetypes in all the game, and I see its contribute in the build hinted above) or the magnificent Bladesinger, it's a pretty decent 275.5 avg dmg in her "nova-turn" if all attacks hit; sure, there are Sharpshooter builds doing even more damage, but it's pretty consistent, not very MAD as a tri-class PC and he's playing all the other stuff regarding the girl so well that all the math madness above is just behind the curtain of the role-playing at the table. Even so, the girl is quite deadly...but she had some bad moments when dealing with a certain "Hadar" spell XD
For anyone trying to argue that you stop wielding a thrown weapon when you attack with it, I would like to point out the wording of artificer's returning weapon infusion:
Returning Weapon
Item: A simple or martial weapon with the thrown property
This magic weapon grants a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with it, and it returns to the wielder’s hand immediately after it is used to make a ranged attack.
If you rule that you are no longer wielding throne weapons for the purposes of dueling, then you are also ruling that returning weapons don't return.
And to answer the question of this thread: yes, fighting styles with different names can stack (but rarely do).
A "wielder" is not necessarily one who is currently "wielding" any given weapon, so much has "wielded" or "will wield" that weapon. Thor is Mjolnir's wielder, doesn't mean the thing never leaves his hand.
That feels hair splitty, but letting a character still be considered a "wielder" on any turn when they have wielded-but-are-no-longer-wielding a weapon in flight does less to make my English-speaking brain wince than letting an unwielded axe flying through the air be considered wielded does.
So a "wielder" is not "a person who wields something"? That is so unsupported by rules and definitions of words that I don't even know how yo argue that. That is like someone claiming the sky isn't blue because to them light with a wavelength between 400 and 525 nm is green.
Firing arrows from bows must really fry your brain then huh? You attack with the bow, hit with the arrow, and the arrow does the damage of the bow. Oh, but the arrow stopped being a part of the bow as soon as it was fired because things have to be touching. I'm just going to stick with RAW, you enjoy your green skys.
You're being uncharacteristically silly. I'm a programmer. That doesn't mean that I'm programming right this moment. Agent nouns like "wielder" don't necessarily mean "at this exact moment." More often than not, they speak to general states of being or to tendencies. Thor and Mjolnir are honestly a really good example. We recognize that Thor is the wielder of Mjolnir, because that's part of his story, not because at this precise moment he's actually wielding it. These are just as much "definitions of words" as anything else; they're not niche, they're extremely common usages.
The bow bit is a non sequitur. Arrows are merely the vehicle by which bows deal their damage. In rules terms, the bow is being wielded and the bow deals the damage. It's not relevant to the conversation about thrown weapons.
I know I'm a good few years late to this but I did want to say my piece. By saying "Arrows are merely the vehicle by which bows deal their damage" one could also say hand axes are merely the vehicle by which bows deal their damage, it goes both ways. An arrow is being released from a bows arms and a hand axe is being released by a persons arms.
Not to mention, if you are throwing a weapon, the power going into that throw (aka. the damage that weapon will deal should it hit its target) is all coming from the moment you are considered to be wielding that weapon. The power is coming from the action of winding that weapon back, flinging it forward, and releasing it (in other words, wielding the weapon.)
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Nope.
So, combinations (X is attacks per action, assuming attack stat modifier +5 and proficiency bonus +6:
My bad on Archery as +2 to attack roll instead of damage, but my point still stands: Thrown style is already doing more than any other style, and carries a direct improvement to action economy. I won't be allowing it to ever stack with Archery or Dueling at my own table, but like I said at the beginning, it's not the end of the world for others. It's not something I would complain about when playing at someone else's table.
You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
Mostly the issue is that the other PHB styles are so bad....
Protection starts OK but creatures have Multi-attack and generally you have a better use for your reaction.
GWF Is like 1 point better damage per swing which is....whelming.
TWF is already bad and the fighting style does not help it much at all.
Sharpshooter/GWM can't really be used until late Tier 2 play at the earliest, if not Tier 3, that -5 to hit malus is so huge. Even then, when you factor in a roughly -25% chance to hit, enabling Sharpshooter is really taking your base damage and multiplying it by .75, then adding 7.5 damage to that, not just slapping +10 damage onto your damage per hit. Its really closer to +5-ish damage per attack, depending on what your base damage was.
Throwing daggers vs darts, if Dueling stacks onto Thrown Fighting Style, the difference comes down to:
It's hard to say what the "base" to hit percentage is for damage math, so let's leave that as an undefined variable common to all three builds below, but then apply other bonuses or maluses on top of that as a second percentage modifier (e.g., baseline to hit is 1.0, Archery is 1.1, Sharpshooter is .75).
I think this shows that feat-for-feat, Sharpshooter isn't much more damage than spending that Feat on Fighting Initiate: Dueling, and throwing daggers rather than Darts. Its only by stacking more feats to pick up Archery Fighting style as well that Sharpshooter pulls ahead, and again, that means you're more heavily into Tier 3 before that comes together or a variant background/human Fighter with extra feats to throw around, not a baseline assumption for Tier 2-accessible builds.
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
I don't understand this since the cost is a feat and if you compare it to say Sharpshooter or GWF the damage increase is far from broken. Also the ammo issue with thrown hampers this as well. If people wanna make a thrown char, why can't they? It's not even broken
The two Fighting Styles stack.
If thrown weapons weren't wielded, how would you calculate the attack and damage modifiers for it? A weapon is wielded when it's held or used to attack with it.
PHB14: For each weapon your character wields, calculate the modifier you use when you attack with the weapon and the damage you deal when you hit.
Which two? Sorry I am having trouble keeping up here...
With Darts do you get to add dueling + thrown weapon?
Dueling and Thrown Weapon Fighting Styles stacks on any ranged attack done with a melee weapon having the thrown property.
Dart don't work with Dueling Fighting Styles as they are not melee weapons.
Darts can be concealed with ease, they are good kensei weapons if you have invested only a few level ins monk class as a ranged choice, and the throwing fighting style works quite good with it. +1d8 dread ambush, +1d6 from hunter's mark, +1d4 from kensei's shot, +2 from style, +x from dex modifier (+sharpshooter if you are into it) coupled with extra attack options and action surge (or haste if you are not using hunters mark, but i prefer haste in melee situations) is while not op quite viable even in later levels, if you are playing multiclassed bladesinger who likes to save spell slots for logistic spells and looking for a range attack option to compliment your cantrips in extra attack feature(though if you are doing right you won't be using damage cantrips often in medium-high levels as those simple darts will overshadow cantrips in most cases, due to lower intelligence compared to dex) level 4 fighter/battle master(in theory brute works too but we do not allow brutes to bladesinging :/), 4 ranger/gloom stalker, 4 monk/kensei, 5 wizard/bladesinger (remaining levels are to any class, i like more feats so i go for fighter, but going for wizard, monk or ranger works as well if not better) with proper feats you get yourself a bladesinger who can outrun almost every living thing while retaining a good ac and decent melee dps.
In short dueling isn't something necessary for throwing, and logic pointed above is solid, the moment you throw the weapon there simply is no weapon in your hand, and wording is clear, when you have a weapon at your hand and no other weapon at your other hand... Besides what kind of "dueling" understanding you have? Let us not try to interpret stuff in our best interest, things are sometimes easy to understand, acting other wise makes us look like people who are looking for bugs to abuse :S
Historically a duel is a fight agreed to by both combatants. Rules are agreed to and held to by honor. Otherwise its just a street fight, simply combat. Its not a fighting style.
Why they even made it a style in the game must have been to simply fill a hole with something before the publishing date.
Archery is the use of bows. The only question is would crossbows be added in or would they get their own rules? I do not consider a gun a form of bow but the crossbow covers both. I count it like a gun. Unless specifically stated a +1 bow would only give a plus to the attack not damage. The arrow causes the damage. A +1 arrow would only be for damage, unless specifically stated.
Thrown weapons is a whole other skill set. You need to train and practice at it. Throwing a two handed weapon is very possible but also very different than a one handed weapon. Throwing a one handed weapon it is a dexterity skill. Throwing a two handed weapon should be a strength skill.
Just my rant today.
It's just a name. Don't get all bent out of shape over it.
DnD is not based on European history or fantasy. While it certainly draws upon tropes present in that source material, DnD is a pastiche of tropes drawn from all over the world as well as a hefty amount of stuff peculiar to DnD. That’s why Druids, Bards, Barbarians, etc. are not the same as they appear in their original source material. Sometimes that is done out of traditions peculiar to DnD, while other times tropes are represented and labels used in such a way as to simplify the rules. This is one of those instances. DnD is not a simulation of anything.
Bent out of shape I am not.
But does anyone else think that by using standard English dictionary definitions of words we would have less interpretation troubles in the game?
No. I don’t. Lawyers use specialized languages to reduce confusion. Engineers, scientists, medical doctors, etc. all do the same. DnD is making use of the same design pattern - a design pattern proven to work.
The correlation between a real base attack % and the percentage you get from Archery or Sharpshooter cannot be calculated that way.
If you need 2 to hit, you have a base percentage of 95% and Archery can never increase that, since 1 is always a failure, and this is true until you reach a base % of 85.
Same for Sharpshooter, as 0.75 x 95% is 0.7125 but your real percentage of hitting is (95-25)= 70% in that case. And this small "fork" in numbers (1,25%) splits really hard when you are no more so close to 100%: if you need an 11 to hit, your base percentage is 50% to hit and Sharpshooter reduce it to 25%, so it's basically halving your chances, which is a multiplier of 0.5, very distant from the 0.75 you considered; if you need a 15 to hit, you are at 30% but with Sharpshooter you only hit with a 20, 5%...this is 0.16666666, which is dramatically far from 0.75.
The average percentage ratio, considering 20 cases from two initial 95% to hit, down to 5% (only hitting on a 20) as base percentage is:
This is far from being exhaustive, because there would be other conditions to be considered, such as when you only need "0" or less to hit, which would increase the number of the 95% positions to consider, or, at the other end of the calculations, the fact that you have the 5% chance to hit everything, no matter the AC, with a natural 20...but under "normal" conditions those are the average numbers by which every (some percentage of) has to be multiplied in order to obtain the average damage expected.
One of my players has a female variant human PC dart-throwing concept, with an interesting build:
Gloom Stalker 5th - Battlemaster 4th - Assassin 11th (requiring only to maximize Dex and have a decent 13 on Wis)
ASI / Feats (we use random rolls for abilities and he got an 18 in Dex, that became 19 with one +1 from the VHuman):
VHuman (1st level): Sharpshooter to negate the +2 or +5 AC from cover for her whole adventuring life, as well as removing the range penalties (to stay out of a base 30 feet move + attack from foes)
Gloom Stalker 4th (4th level): Piercer to get 20 on Dex (at 2nd level he took the Thrown Weapon Fighting style, as he wanted the PC to throw darts since the beginning)
Battlemaster 4th (9th level): Lucky, to avoid bad Initiative d20 rolls (her Init already being 1d20 + 5 bonus Dex + 3 bonus Wis thanks to the Gloom Stalker feature) in her subsequent career (at 6th level the Archery style came in)
Assassin 4th (13th level): Alert, to represent the fact that she's a bit paranoid for background flavour and to maximize the chances of going first in every surprise turn (Initiative 1d20 with Lucky reroll if needed + 13) and use Assassinate every time she can (at this level her Stealth is 1d20 with Lucky if needed +15 from the Rogue Expertise and Dex bonus +10 with Pass Without Trace...1d20 rerollable + 25 in Stealth, and she is invisible for anyone using Darkvision to spot her in darkness)
Assassin 8th (17th level): Shadow Touched (+1 Wis, Invisibility 1/day without slots, plus maybe Inflict Wounds) OR Crossbow Expert (to throw in melee without disadvantage and to add a bonus attack with a hand crossbow
Assassin 10th (19th level): Fey Touched or Gift of the Gem Dragon (+1 Wis if paired with Shadow Touched, to reach Wis 18 and Initiative 1d20 + 14; evasive features like Misty Step or Telekinetic Reprisal, plus maybe one free Bane, Bless or even Silvery Barbs to get advantage on her next - surely sneak - attack) OR Martial Adept (2 extra Maneuvers and 1d6 extra Superiority Die)
In a surprise turn, if she manages to go first as she should and uses both Dread Ambusher and Action Surge, she can make six 2+ hitting dart attacks that are all autocrits, plus one 2+ hitting hand crossbow attack as a bonus action which is another autocrit.
6 x [3d4 (dart/crit/Piercer!) + 17 (Dex/Thrown style/Sharpshooter) + 2d8 (2*crit Ambush bonus dmg + 4*Superiority dice)] +12d6 crit sneak attack = 18d4 + 102 + 12d8 + 12d6 = 243 avg dmg (342 theoretical max)
1 x [3d6 (bolt/crit/Piercer!) + 15 (Dex/Sharpshooter) +2d6 (extra Superiority Die from Martial Adept)] = 5d6 + 15 = 32.5 avg dmg (45 theoretical max)
Even without the Kensei (one of my fav archetypes in all the game, and I see its contribute in the build hinted above) or the magnificent Bladesinger, it's a pretty decent 275.5 avg dmg in her "nova-turn" if all attacks hit; sure, there are Sharpshooter builds doing even more damage, but it's pretty consistent, not very MAD as a tri-class PC and he's playing all the other stuff regarding the girl so well that all the math madness above is just behind the curtain of the role-playing at the table. Even so, the girl is quite deadly...but she had some bad moments when dealing with a certain "Hadar" spell XD
I know I'm a good few years late to this but I did want to say my piece. By saying "Arrows are merely the vehicle by which bows deal their damage" one could also say hand axes are merely the vehicle by which bows deal their damage, it goes both ways. An arrow is being released from a bows arms and a hand axe is being released by a persons arms.
Not to mention, if you are throwing a weapon, the power going into that throw (aka. the damage that weapon will deal should it hit its target) is all coming from the moment you are considered to be wielding that weapon. The power is coming from the action of winding that weapon back, flinging it forward, and releasing it (in other words, wielding the weapon.)