Pathfinder 2E The starknife hurts my brain

[pawsplay]

The starknife makes no sense. At first I thought it was a bit like wind and fire wheels, but you can't actually hold it a plane with your arm because of its ring body. You can't really use it holding it up and down, because it doesn't even have a point going down, they go at diagonal angles. Even if you did, it would like holding a fistload or a buckler, but instead of your fist being protected, your knuckle would be fully exposed and you would have no striking surface if you punched. A lot of the illustrations seem to show the character gripping the handle with their wrist going over the ring, which would be a weak grip.

I guess you could throw it, but the handle in the middle is not conducive to a spinning throw. You might be better off just throwing it by the point, like a big shuriken.

 

[amethal]

The PF1 description says you throw it by gripping the ring, not the handle.

Of course, PF1 also says that if you worship Desna you can use your Charisma modifier to hit and damage with a starknife.

 

[pawsplay]

That's more effective than any method I could come up with.

 

[Kaodi]

I am not sure what you would expect when a starknife is buried in your skull. It would rather be more surprising if it didn't hurt your brain, I think?

 

[GuardianLurker]

Most likely cause of your problem is artist ignorance, I think. Rotate the handle so its inline with one pair of blades (instead of offset), and most of your problem would disappear I think.

As for throwing, IDK, maybe a one-handed baton twirl kind of thing?

 

[mach1.9pants]

Also see dire flail

Or any hammer with the head larger than two fists

Or armour with spikes

Or....

 

[GuardianLurker]

(Short) Spikes on vambraces and greaves would work. And shoulder-spikes augmenting/replacing a gorget would work. But yeah, spiky all-over is just for intimidation. And depending on where and how long the spikes are, possibly mobility-reducing and unwise.

 

[MatthewJHanson]

Also see dire flail

Or any hammer with the head larger than two fists

Or armour with spikes

Or....

Yeah, fantasy RPG weapons require some suspension of disbelief (much like dragons being able to fly). If there isn't an actual historical weapon like that there's probably good reason.

Even historical weapons are often quite different from how they appear in art. Battle axes, for example, historically had smaller heads and pretty much never double sided, unlike what much of RPG art would like you to believe.

 

[Staffan]

(Short) Spikes on vambraces and greaves would work. And shoulder-spikes augmenting/replacing a gorget would work. But yeah, spiky all-over is just for intimidation. And depending on where and how long the spikes are, possibly mobility-reducing and unwise.

Devil's advocate: in D&D, spikey armor makes a little more sense than it would do in real life. D&D has lots of monsters who like to hug or swallow you, and spikes provides a disincentive to that.

 

[pawsplay]

Yeah, fantasy RPG weapons require some suspension of disbelief (much like dragons being able to fly). If there isn't an actual historical weapon like that there's probably good reason.

Even historical weapons are often quite different from how they appear in art. Battle axes, for example, historically had smaller heads and pretty much never double sided, unlike what much of RPG art would like you to believe.

This is a little different than simply unrealistic weapons. I can't even visualize how you would wield this.