(D&D 3.5) Harpoon Fighting Build

[Lateral]

Well, my avatar is Captain Ahab, so I'd like to build a character who fights by mainly chucking harpoons at enemies. Problem is, I have no idea what it should be.

I am looking for classes/prestiges that would be good at throwing harpoons, good feats for a thrower, and also D&D stats for harpoons. I think there are some in Frostburn, but I don't own frostburn.

[Greenish]

Harpoon is d10 damage javelin with ref save to avoid having it stick to you.

Hulking Hurler is funny for throwing big javelins (you don't have to toss the moon or huge boulders with it). Master Thrower might have something of interest.

Brutal Throw from C.Adv is grand for strong throwers.

[Coidzor]

MM5, I believe, has stats for a Kuo-tuoan harpoon which is identical to the one from Stormwrack/Frostburn, but also can explicitly be used in melee.

Fleshgrinding harpoons with crystals of returning could be nice, IIRC, though depending upon things, it might require a bloodstorm blade from ToB to get the ranged attack to count as a melee attack to activate fleshgrinding.

[Lateral]

Harpoon is d10 damage javelin with ref save to avoid having it stick to you.

Okay, so it's an exotic weapon which sticks to you, slowing movement to half and allowing you to be moved if the harpoon has a rope attached to it? And if you pull it out, it does the same damage again? Cool; is there a way to get it returning, but you can delay the returning?

MM5, I believe, has stats for a Kuo-tuoan harpoon which is identical to the one from Stormwrack/Frostburn, but also can explicitly be used in melee.
Cool, that would be useful.


Fleshgrinding harpoons with crystals of returning could be nice, IIRC, though depending upon things, it might require a bloodstorm blade from ToB to get the ranged attack to count as a melee attack to activate fleshgrinding.
What would the use of fleshgrinding if it's returning? It just returns.

[Coidzor]

^: Crystals of returning, the least version, allow you quick-draw with that weapon, freeing up that feat slot if you don't grab an item that just gives you quick draw as a bonus feat.


Okay, so it's an exotic weapon which sticks to you, slowing movement to half and allowing you to be moved if the harpoon has a rope attached to it? And if you pull it out, it does the same damage again? Cool; is there a way to get it returning, but you can delay the returning?

The interaction of Returning and Harpoon is rather vague and basically DM adjudication territory.

Alternatively, depending upon how the DM adjudicates, Returning proper could be useful.

I believe there's a "Called" weapon property but I can't remember how quickly it activates.

[AtomicKitKat]

Mmm, Fleshgrinding Harpoons of Returning/Bloodstorm Blade. Brings back fuzzy memories from back in the day.:smallbiggrin:

[Cog]

MM5, I believe, has stats for a Kuo-tuoan harpoon which is identical to the one from Stormwrack/Frostburn, but also can explicitly be used in melee.
There's an additional difference. The MMV version only does 1d10 damage when pulled out.

[Fishy]

Bloodstorm Blade!

Level 1 gets you free returning, which as noted, may or may not be stupidly powerful on a harpoon. Later levels give you super-returning, letting you make full attacks with your favorite magic harpoon, and then ricochet between enemies, which may or may not tie them all together like a string of beads.

And that's before the Bloodstorm Blade's main shtick, which is treating ranged attacks like melee. This opens up Iron Heart strikes, Power Attack, Knockback, and more obscure things like Pushback, which is hilarious on a ranged weapon.

And for kicks, Weapon Aptitude combined with Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Harpoon essentially gives you proficiency in everything, if you get bored of Harpoons and want to use boomerangs or shuriken.

[Halae]

where is bloodstorm blade? It sounds... intruiging

[Cog]

where is bloodstorm blade? It sounds... intruiging
It's a PrC in Tome of Battle.

[Escheton]

Str based ranger 6/warblade1, then prestiges works well for this.
You can even go zen archery and sink dex completely.