Ultimate Dart Thrower Builds in DnD 5e

by Brandon Gregory

Have you ever watched someone tossing darts in a bar and thought, that should be my DnD character? Well, probably not. But darts in DnD can be effective weapons, proving to be much more deadly than the little things we throw for sport. This is not an overly powerful build by any measure (unlike some older versions of DnD, where darts were wildly overpowered), but a dart thrower can make for a unique and fun character with the right build.

What Are War Darts?

Darts in Dungeons and Dragons are a far cry from the little darts thrown at targets in bars. They’re most likely based on the Roman Plumbata, heavy weighted darts that were often tossed underhand up into the air to rain death and chaos down on enemy parties. These weapons had a barbed tip and metal shaft, along with a heavy lead weight, to make them fall with a good amount of force. The heavier metal shafts and weights were attached to a long wooden shaft with fletching to keep it moving straight once gravity took control. These were about 1 foot long and were typically 4.5-12.3 ounces (130-350 grams). These were not little novelty playthings that you tossed gingerly, they could do some serious damage.

In DnD, darts are mechanically similar to throwing daggers, but they can easily be played as a more serious weapon, able to sink into a target with much more force than a light throwing dagger could manage. With some of the build tips in this article, darts can be more deadly than throwing daggers.

What About Throwing Knives?

If you don't like the concept of war darts and want to be a knife-throwing fiend, darts can be re-flavored as throwing daggers. The benefits are listed out in this article (darts would be better throwing daggers than actual daggers), but also factor in that darts are significantly cheaper and lighter than daggers, so a dagger-throwing build would mechanically work best as a dart build.

If you want throwing daggers to be your gimmick, you might also look into the Soul Knife Rogue subclass, which summons spectral daggers which can be thrown. For regular (non-spectral) daggers, though, this article will be your guide.

Can This Work with a Boomerang?

Yes and no. Rules as written, the boomerang is a ranged weapon; however, it lacks the Thrown property, so some of the synergies here won't work. This seems like a major oversight, as the boomerang is pretty obviously a thrown weapon in the same way that a dart is. If you really want a boomerang build, ask your DM if you can play with boomerangs having the Thrown property. Mechanically, boomerangs are similar to darts, so there aren't any balance problems with this. Keep in mind that if you're using an online character sheet like DND Beyond, bonuses that apply to thrown weapons may not automatically apply on your character sheet and may have to be added through manual adjustment.

Also bear in mind that boomerangs only come back to you if they miss. If you want a boomerang that comes back to you every time, take a look at the Returning Weapon infusion builds below—otherwise, you'll have to carry multiple boomerangs.

All that said, most of the information on this page can also apply to boomerangs if you want that Aussie warrior.

The Mechanics of Thrown Weapons in 5e

Looking at the rules as written, thrown-weapon fighters unfortunately have some problems. Per the rules, you can draw 1 weapon as a free action on your turn; anything more than that would require you to use an action. This is a problem because each dart is a weapon, so if you have more than 1 attack per round, you’ll find yourself not being able to draw darts fast enough to use all your attacks. There are a few ways around this.

First is the Thrown Weapon fighting style. Introduced in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, this fighting style allows you to draw a thrown weapon as part of the attack (not action), effectively removing this limitation, but forcing you to pick this fighting style.

Next up is the Artificer’s returning weapon infusion, which will make a thrown weapon return to your hand after it’s been thrown. Artificers can use this on their own, but the rules get a little hazy on how, exactly, sharing an infusion with a party member works. If you have an Artificer in your party and want to get them to share a returning dart with you, clear it with your DM first.

Another solution requires some homebrew reflavoring. The Waterdeep: Dragon Heist adventure introduces a magic item that does something similar: the Bracer of Flying Daggers. This will allow you to draw up to 2 daggers as a free action and throw them. If your DM is cool with it, you can reflavor these to darts. It doesn’t help much if you have more than 2 attacks per turn (sorry, Fighters), but can help a lot of characters.

Lastly is simply the rule of cool. The rules about drawing weapons are nowhere near the rules for throwing weapons in the Player’s Handbook, so it’s not clear if this limitation was intended. The Thrown Weapon fighting style was introduced later as a fix, but your DM may just allow you to overlook this rule about drawing thrown weapons. Even with this free ability, thrown weapons are not overpowered, so you’re not likely to encounter a game-breaking balance problem by drawing a thrown weapon for each attack. If your DM is willing to hand-wave this rule, it certainly makes thrown-weapon builds a lot easier.

Fighting Style Synergies

Darts are unique among DnD weapons in that they’re both a ranged and a thrown weapon. This means that they’re affected by both the Thrown Weapon and Archery fighting styles. If you can find some way to get both of these, both are valuable: Thrown Weapon will allow you to not be bothered with the mechanics of drawing darts and adds a flat +2 bonus to the damage of each dart; Archery adds +2 to each attack roll you make with ranged weapons, greatly increasing your accuracy.

If you can only get one, which one you choose depends on how your DM rules drawing thrown weapons (see above) and whether you take the Sharpshooter feat. If you’re playing with the rules as written on drawing thrown weapons, you’ll need the Thrown Weapon fighting style to overcome this limitation; if you’re not playing with that particular combination of rules, or have another way around it, boosting your accuracy with the Archery fighting style can be helpful.

Magic Damage

When you hit level 6 or so, creatures that are resistant or even immune to non-magical damage become much more common, so finding a way of getting magical damage from darts becomes one of the most important considerations in this build. If your DM will give you an unlimited supply of +1 Darts, then you’ll have no problem; but for most of us, that’s not going to be the case and we’ll have to find some other way around this limitation.

The main problem is that once you throw a dart, you don’t have it anymore. Yes, you can gather up your darts afterward. The Player’s Handbook has this to say on recovering ammunition:

At the end of the battle, you can recover half your expended Ammunition by taking a minute to Search the battlefield.

It’s a point of disagreement that, since darts are not technically ammunition, you might be able to recover all of them after a battle, but that’s still not a reliable way to deal with your primary weapon. If you’re only recovering half of your darts after each battle, you’ll quickly run out of darts. There are two solutions to this.

The first, and simplest to work into a build, is the Artificer infusion Returning Weapon. Artificers can pick this at level 2. With that, you can take a thrown weapon (like a dart) and turn it into a +1 weapon that returns to your hand after being thrown. This gracefully solves the problem of magic damage with only a two-level commitment.

The second, which requires a bit more commitment, is a 6th-level Kensei Monk feature that makes all Kensei weapons into magic weapons. This will allow you to just purchase mundane darts, and they become magic weapons when you throw them. The downside, compared to the Artificer, is that these aren’t +1 weapons, but Monks have several other perks. For Kensei Monks, dart damage scales with the martial arts die damage, meaning darts will eventually be doing d10 damage plus your Dexterity modifier. Kensei Monks also get the option to use their bonus action to increase the power of any ranged attacks, getting to add 1d4 to each ranged attack made that turn. Additionally, when a Kensei throws darts, they remain lodged in the enemy. More about that below.

Boosting Damage with Spells

Any spell that adds damage to each attack can be amazing for dart throwers. The big ones to look at are Hunter’s Mark and Hex, both of which add 1d6 to each weapon attack you make while the spell is active. Hex is a Warlock spell, so you can either multiclass into Warlock or take the Fey-Touched feat. Hunter’s Mark is a Ranger spell (although a few Paladin subclasses have it), and the only way to get it is to multiclass into a class or subclass that has it. This makes Hex a little easier to come by.

Another spell that can be a big help is Heat Metal. Remember that Kensei Monks throw darts which then remain lodged in the enemy. Those darts can be targeted by the Heat Metal spell, allowing the caster to use their bonus action every turn to inflict more damage on the target. The easiest way to do this is to have an ally who can cast Heat Metal, but if you want to get it yourself, there are a few ways to do it. Bards and Druids get access to Heat Metal at level 3; Artificers get it at level 5. Note that if you’re going for Artificer, though, you’ll probably be using Returning Weapon to get magic damage, so Heat Metal won’t work. Technically, if you have multiple darts in an enemy and have multiple party members with Heat Metal, you can fire off this spell multiple times per round.

Feats for Dart Throwers

Darts, on their own, don’t do a lot of damage, but there are a few feats that can make them much more viable.

The big one to look at is Sharpshooter. Darts are ranged weapons, so they work with Sharpshooter. This feat allows you to take a -5 on your attack roll to gain +10 to damage. You don’t have to decide to use it until after you roll (but before your DM tells you if it hits). To make the most of this, you’ll need a boost to your accuracy. If you can pick up the Archery fighting style, this will give you a +2 to your attack roll, making Sharpshooter much more reliable. Monks also get an optional 5th-level feature to boost attack rolls using ki points. Sharpshooter also allows you to use a ranged weapon’s maximum range without suffering disadvantage on the attack roll, effectively upgrading the dart’s range from 20 feet to 60 feet.

The Fey-Touched feat can give you access to the Hex spell, which can significantly boost your damage per dart, assuming you can keep your concentration on the spell. You also learn Misty Step, a basic teleportation spell that can be useful for any ranged character.

As discussed above, darts can benefit from both the Archery and Thrown Weapon fighting styles, so using the Fighting Initiate feat to gain one of these can make you a more effective dart thrower.

Best Classes for a Dart Thrower

If you don’t want to multiclass, a Kensei Monk is really your only option. Yes, you could go straight Artificer, but your damage will be lacking. Note that Monk does not get a fighting style, nor does it have a way around the mechanic of only being able to draw 1 dart per turn, so this only really works if your DM allows drawing multiple darts per turn.

Multiclassing opens up some interesting combinations, though, which I get into in this list.

Artificer 2/Battle Master Fighter X

This is probably the most straightforward combo, using the Fighter’s skill with weapons for most of the damage, but taking a brief dip into Artificer for the returning weapon infusion. Fighters are the best class for weapon damage, getting a fighting style at level 1 and gaining multiple attacks with their class features.

The Battle Master subclass brings a lot to this build with its maneuvers, which can boost damage, boost accuracy, and introduce some battlefield control measures like knocking opponents down. Though this is primarily a martial character, having the Battle Master’s maneuvers can make this feel like a caster.

Fighter 2/Kensei Monk X

Kensei Monks can make amazing dart throwers, and taking two levels of Fighter grants several advantages. First, and the reason this works better than a single-classed Monk, is the fighting style you get at Fighter level 1. That alone makes the multiclass worth it, but at level 2, you gain Action Surge, allowing you to take an extra action once per short rest. This can give you a nice damage burst when you need it, made even sweeter by the Kensei’s ability to add 1d4 to each ranged attack on a turn.

Ranger 2/Kensei Monk X

We’re using the Kensei again as the chassis of this build, but instead dipping into Ranger. At level 2, Rangers get a fighting style, which makes the build that much more effective; but at level 2, Rangers also get access to magic, including Hunter’s Mark, which can add 1d6 to each attack you make.

Druid 3 (any subclass)/Kensei Monk X

We’re once again using the Kensei Monk for most of this build, but now we’re dipping into Druid. This does not gain a fighting style, but Druids do get a spell at level 3 that can serve as the cornerstone of this build: Heat Metal. You can lodge darts in an enemy, then cast Heat Metal on the dart to deal damage on that turn, and as a bonus action on subsequent turns. The challenge is that this takes 2 or even 3 rounds to really pay off, and a lot of encounters don’t have single enemies that last that long.

This can be a difficult build to make work mechanically, in a character concept that’s already pretty convoluted, so don’t go into this thinking that this will be an easy character to run. Still, this is certainly an interesting concept if you’re wanting to try something different.

This is a lot to keep track of. Are dart throwers really worth it?

Well, frankly, dart throwers are not going to be any more powerful than other martial builds. In fact, a well-built archer character will probably do more damage at just about every level. This isn’t a character you build because you want to be really strong; instead, this character is a niche concept that provides something different.

Thankfully, DnD 5e is a game where you can play with an interesting but not as optimal build and have just as much fun as playing with a powerhouse character who can kill anything. The big question is what other players at your table will be doing. If you’re at a table that values roleplay above combat efficiency, this can be a fun build. If you’re at a table where everyone is min-maxing to get the most powerful characters, a dart thrower can get left behind. Make sure you know what kind of game you will be playing before committing to this, or any other niche character concept. The most important thing is just to have fun. If a unique and interesting character concept sounds like fun to you, it probably will be.

About the Author

Brandon Gregory

Brandon Gregory is a web developer and writer in the Kansas City area. He's been playing TTRPGs since 2020 and is involved in the disability-related TTRPG podcast Tales from the Crips. He's into classic movies, mental health, and, of course, DnD. Also, he's in a band. One time, they rocked so hard it killed a man.