Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Technical & Gameplay Problems Returning Pike doesn't always return

A couple times now in an Honour Mode run I've had Karlach make with the yeet-stabbity using the Returning Pike only to have said weapon simply remain lying where she threw it instead of returning to her hand. This means I have to retrieve it and then spend an action equipping it.

Come to think of it, I should load a build where I made Lae'zel an Eldritch Knight and see if her bonded weapon does that too.

You don't need to spend an action equipping it if you plan on throwing it again, you can simply throw it from the throw menu without it being equipped.

I've found that returning weapons failing to return typically happens when attacking from out of combat, somewhere in the process of determining initiative and starting a round, the weapon "forgets" to return to the wielder. I'll usually keep a handful of non-returning weapons that I'm not going to miss (rusty spears with no value for example) to use in these cases.

Same.

If you attack while out of combat and then your initiative isn't immediate, say you're behind an enemy in initiative, it seems like the returning weapons don't return. At least in my small experience. I rarely play throw builds, but I happen to be using Lae'zel as a EK right now in my current playthrough.

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Slightly off topic: there are a lot of things I don't like about throw builds (mostly that tavern brawler is so over the top). I've noticed that the thrown weapon doesn't seem to get any special weapon abilities. For instance, if you throw the Sparky Points trident it doesn't seem to trigger lightning charges. Is that a bug, I wonder, or as intended?

Could not agree more, the most troublesome thing is that it is not stated anywhere and weapon effects read as “on hit/miss do X” and you do hit and miss while throwing weapons. You roll an attack, and apply a modifier, just like any normal attack would…