Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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There are several melee weapons with the Thrown property. The Thrown property tells you when those weapons can be drawn: “you can throw the weapon to make a ranged attack, and you can draw that weapon as part of the attack”. It seems that you can freely draw these weapons even when the attack isn’t part of the Attack action, such as the granted Reaction attack from a Battle Master’s Commander’s Strike or a Bonus Action attack from the Light weapon property. But is the easily drawn aspect of the property dependent on the weapon being used to make a ranged attack or does it still function for melee attacks? Could you, for instance, draw a dagger as part of an Opportunity Attack? Opportunity Attacks must be melee attacks, but there’s nothing about them being restricted to a weapon you’re already holding.
I can see someone reading “you can throw the weapon to make a ranged attack” and “you can draw that weapon as part of the attack” as two independent clauses. But other people might see “the attack” as referring to “a ranged attack”. Is there a community consensus or a semi-official ruling on this?
Just based on the normal rules of English, one would assume that the second part of that sentence refers to the thing being described in the first part of the sentence, and is not intended to be read as a whole separate thing.
pronouns: he/she/they
To me you can't draw a Thrown weapon as part of an attack unless it's a ranged attack with which you throw it.
You otherwise generally draw such weapon as part of the Attack action or with Time-Limited Object Interactions.
If they had written "that attack" or "it", you would certainly be correct. As it's written I think there's still ambiguity, although switching articles from "a ranged attack" to "the attack" does favor your reading. If instead the rule had been written as, "If a weapon has the Thrown property, you can throw the weapon to make a ranged attack, and you can draw that weapon as part of an attack" then the common reading would point in the other direction.
I'm not sure how much logical sense it makes for the effort to draw the same weapon to change based on whether you're attacking in melee or ranged, but that's a separate discussion.
It could have been ambiguous if it instead said ''as part of an attack'' but ''as part of the attack'' refers a ranged attack mentioned previously so.
It's a game design decision (not a realism thing). They wanted you to always be able to serially draw thrown weapons for throwing, but not allow extra weapon juggling in Bonus Actions, Reactions, etc.
@MoribundEidolon, if it's useful for you, I'd like to share this summary I posted in a related thread:
Also, I remember asking a similar question to yours:
I think it’s fair to say the community has weighed in and the consensus is decisively on the side of the Thrown property having no impact on drawing the weapon for a melee attack. The way Thrown works does lead to some odd interactions, like the aforementioned Commander’s Strike letting you draw a weapon but only if you throw it afterwards and having additional opportunities to equip or unequip weapons during the Attack action while you draw and attack with a Thrown weapon, but that’s par for the course I suppose.
Thank you for your input, but I am a little sad that Thrown wouldn’t make an empty-handed Rogue with a sheathed dagger more of a threat with Opportunity Attacks. Apart from Thrown, as far as I’m aware, there isn’t any game mechanic that would let you draw a weapon when it’s not your turn.
Huh. It just occurred to me that somebody with the Dual Wielder feat could draw two weapons when they draw a weapon to throw.
I don't think it's meaningfully useful, but you can do it.
That is an interesting rules interaction. If you were empty-handed, you could draw two Daggers at the same time and throw one as part of your Opportunity Attack. I can't really think of any time that would be particularly useful, since you could just draw then second one on your turn, but you could do it if you wanted.
Probably more useful is being able to draw two daggers during the last Thrown attack you make during your round so that you have one still available for Opportunity Attacks.
If you're empty handed and a creature provoke an Opportunity Attack, all you can do is make one melee attack with an Unarmed Strike.
Unless with your Opportunity Attack you have a way to make ranged attacks somehow...
But OA specifies a melee attack, and throwing a dagger is a ranged attack, no? A ranged attack with a melee weapon, but ranged.
And you have to make the OA before the creature leaves your reach, so, again melee. I’m not seeing a thrown ranged attack.
Except maybe some edge case where you’ve got a whip in one hand and dagger in the other. But even then, OA specifies melee.
I'm also not sure how these rules should work, if we can draw, pick up, sheath, stow or drop another weapon (or two, with Dual Wielder's Quick Draw) as the result of attacking with Thrown Weapons.
Relevant Rules: Thrown Weapon Property - Equipping & Unequipping Weapons - Dual Wielder's Quick Draw
Thrown: If a weapon has the Thrown property, you can throw the weapon to make a ranged attack, and you can draw that weapon as part of the attack. If the weapon is a Melee weapon, use the same ability modifier for the attack and damage rolls that you use for a melee attack with that weapon.
Equipping and Unequipping Weapons: You can either equip or unequip one weapon when you make an attack as part of this action. You do so either before or after the attack. If you equip a weapon before an attack, you don’t need to use it for that attack. Equipping a weapon includes drawing it from a sheath or picking it up. Unequipping a weapon includes sheathing, stowing, or dropping it.
Dual Wielder's Quick Draw: You can draw or stow two weapons that lack the Two-Handed property when you would normally be able to draw or stow only one.
So, drawing and attacking with a thrown weapon seems to be a "free draw" that doesn't count towards the "1 Equip/Unequip weapon per attack" rule.
These rules also say that the Equipping or Unequipping happen before or after an Attack and are part of the Attack Action, while the Thrown Property says it's free draw happens as part of that Attack. So, the free draw from Thrown can't happen before or after the attack, it has to happen as part of that attack.
So, just like you would be able to draw a scimitar before you attack with a longsword, you should also be able to do the same if you choose to attack with a handaxe you haven't drawn yet, right?
Also, because those same rules say "If you equip a weapon before an attack, you don’t need to use it for that attack", I think this means that we can at least Equip another weapon before we make a Thrown Attack.
The rules didn't specifically say we can also Unequip another weapon before an attack or that we can Equip or Unequip another weapon after an attack, probably because it would be normally implied that we can't attack with a weapon you just Unequipped (ironically, unless it's a Thrown Weapon), but because the specific wording matters in these rules, I'm not sure if we can also do these things to another weapon after an Attack.
My impression is that what they wanted to say was that we can attack with one weapon and use the Equip or Unequip rules for another weapon (probably with the other hand but, with the 2024 Juggling rules, not necessarily). However, I don't think that's really what the rules say. I'm left unsure what was the intention from the developers. This isn't relevant to just Thrown Attacks but all weapon attacks.
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The wording of Quick Draw is also questionable when we don't know for sure what they mean by "normally". Also, Quick Draw only allows you to Draw or Stow, not the full range of things you can do with Equip and Unequip.
I'm also not sure how should Quick Draw interact with Thrown Property Attacks:
• Can we Draw 2 other weapons before we attack with an Unequipped Thrown weapon?
• Can we Draw 1 other weapon before we attack with a Thrown weapon, Equipped or Unequipped?
• Can we Stow 1 other weapon before we attack with a Thrown weapon, Equipped or Unequipped?
• Can we attack with a Thrown weapon and then Draw 2 other weapons?
• Can we attack with a Thrown weapon and then Draw 1 other weapon?
• Can we attack with a Thrown weapon, Equipped or Unequipped, and then Stow another weapon?
There are some things we just can't do with just 2 hands, like Drawing 2 scimitars before Throwing a dagger.
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Now, does the "Free Draw" as part of the Thrown Attack can also "trigger" Quick Draw, allowing you to Draw another weapon at the same time? Could this allow one to Draw another weapon when making a Thrown Attack outside the Attack Action, with a Bonus Attack or a Reaction.
A lot of this may feel silly and like an exploit to many, but I think it would be good to first establish how the rules as written work and then, based on that, each table can decide how much of this will be allowed.
BTW, I'm assuming here we must Draw both weapons or Stow both weapons with Quick Draw, not Draw one and Stow another (though, personally, I don't see much of a problem with that, but I'm fine with this general consensus of this ruling).
Does anyone knows some word from the developers about how these interactions are intended to work?
No words from the Devs that i know, but it seems intended to Quick Draw or stow two weapons instead of only one normally.
A Thri-Kreen for example could draw two daggers as part of the ranged attack throwing one, and equip two Scimitars before or after the attack as well since it has enought hands to do so.