Can you throw more than one weapon per turn?

Question

How do thrown weapons interact with the Extra Attack feature? Can you throw more than one weapon per turn?

How about two-weapon fighting? Do you need the Dual-Wielder feat to throw two weapons every turn?

Answer 1

Throwing multiple weapons in a turn is limited by the action economy. The rules say you can only interact with 1 object for free on your turn (PHB 190). Any other object interactions require a full action.

This is different from grabbing arrows/bolts as bows and crossbows have the Ammunition property, which has the specific rule that grabbing ammo for these weapons is free. Thrown weapons do not have the Ammunition property that grants this. However, do note that the thrown weapon fighting style grants free weapon drawing for thrown weapons allowing you to throw as many weapons as you have attacks.

The rules for two weapon fighting specifically allow thrown weapons to be used for both the first attack and the bonus action attack.

So how many weapons can you throw? Without any additional features it depends on what you start your turn holding and the number of attacks you can make.

• Starting empty handed you can only draw a weapon and throw it for 1 attack.
• Starting with a single weapon drawn you can throw it, draw, then throw again for 2 attacks (possible through two weapon fighting if both weapons are light, if not you must have a feature that grants an additional attack).
• Starting with two weapons drawn, throw first, throw second, draw, then throw for 3 attacks (must have a feature that grants an additional attack if using two weapon fighting, or have features that grant 3 attacks if weapons are not light).

Answer 2

Extra Attack specifies that you can attack multiple times when you take the Attack action. Thrown weapon attacks are attacks, so they can be done more than once as long as you have the weapons in hand (or can draw them fast enough) and as long as you respect any special properties of the weapon that might limit that (for example, some non-throwing weapons have the Loading property).

Two-weapon fighting specifically allows thrown weapons for either of the two weapons, allowing you to throw two weapons in a turn.

Note that you can normally only draw one weapon in a turn (as your "interact with an object" option), so continually throwing two weapons per turn is unlikely. You can, however, consistently attack with a melee weapon and throw a thrown weapon every turn.

Answer 3

So, this is legalistic to the point of absurdity, but...

The Use an Object description (PHB p 193) states (emphasis mine):

You normally interact with an object when you are doing something else, such as when you draw a sword as part of an attack.

The description of the Ammunition property (p 146), which does allow for interaction with more than one object in a turn, uses almost the same wording (emphasis mine):

Drawing the ammunition [...] is part of the attack.

Note that the PHB distinguishes between "an attack" and "taking the Attack action" elsewhere (e.g. Extra Attack description, Two-Weapon Fighting). This sets up a direct contradiction with the box o' single object interactions (p 190). By Specific Beats General, the more narrowly defined case would hold, making weapons drawn as part of an attack (not the Attack action) the sole exception to the "one free object interaction per turn" rule.

While it seems silly to read so much into this, it seems even sillier that thrown weapons would be singled out as the only form of physical attack that could not be incorporated into a fully-functional build. Given how far the system appears willing to bend to allow quirky builds to be viable, it's hard to believe the rules would intentionally hamstring darts champions and axe tossers.

Answer 4

Yes, you can; Dual Wielder helps you draw more weapons

In summary, you can throw multiple weapons each turn, either with extra attacks or with the bonus attack from two-weapon fighting, or even with a mix of both. The main problem is not the throwing, it is that you need to draw these weapons to throw them, or need some other way to get them into your hand. And you usually only can draw one weapon per round without using your action for it and you want to use your action to attack, so you quickly run out of weapons to attack with. Dual wielder can alleviate this problem, by allowing you to draw a second weapon each turn.

There are other ways to overcome this, which I list at the end of this answer; some of them even allow you to draw more than two thrown weapons per turn or get your weapon back into your hand after you threw it as often as you like, but all of those are depending on your DM allowing them.

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Extra attack

The extra attack feature does not have any limitation on the kind of attack you can make with it. It can be any attack. Here is the core text, that is repeated among all classes that have it:

you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.

Thrown weapon attacks are ranged attacks with a (usually melee) weapon that has the Thrown property (p. 147, PHB):

Thrown. If a weapon has the thrown property, you can throw the weapon to make a ranged attack. [...]

The game however makes no difference between main hand and off-hand, as earlier versions of it may have done. So, if you hold a javelin in in each of your hands, and you take the Attack action with extra attack, you can throw them both, one with your normal attack, and one with your extra attack. Two-weapon fighting or Dual Wielder are not required for this. You do not even need two hands for it. You could have a shield in one hand, a javelin in the other, use your Attack action to throw the javelin, draw another one, and then use your extra attack action to throw the second javelin, all with the same hand.

Two-weapon fighting

The two weapon fighting rule says (p. 195, PHB):

When you take the Attack action and attack with a light melee weapon that you’re holding in one hand, you can use a bonus action to attack with a different light melee weapon that you’re holding in the other hand [...] If either weapon has the thrown property, you can throw the weapon, instead of making a melee attack with it.

That means two-weapon fighting is another way to make two thrown weapon attacks in a turn. Everyone who has two hands can do it, there is no special feature needed for it, all you need to do is hold light melee weapons in your hands¹. You do not need Extra attack for it.

The second attack of two-weapon fighting is a bonus action attack, it is not even part of your Attack action. It is entirely separate from an attack you make due to Extra attack. A bonus action is a special action you can take once per turn if you have a feature that allows you to, such as using two-weapon fighting. In contrast, Extra attack is part of the Attack action, it does not allow you to make an attack with your bonus action.

You don't really need dual wielder just to make two thrown attacks with plain two-weapon fighting, as long as the weapons are light. But Dual Wielder enhances two-weapon fighting in several ways, one of them is:

• You can use two-weapon fighting even when the one-handed melee weapons you are wielding aren't light.

So, with dual wielder could you can for example throw spears, which are not light, instead of light weapons like daggers.

Drawing a weapon

Now we come to the real issue: you are constantly throwing your weapons away with this fighting style, so to use it round after round, you need to be able to draw enough new weapons to throw.

You need to hold the weapon in your hand to throw it. While the rules never explicitly state in general that you need to hold a weapon to make an attack with it, this is understood, because mundane things in the game behave as we expect them to from the real world, and in the real world, you cannot effectively throw an axe or a spear without holding it in your hand, so you need to draw them.

The thrown property does not allow you to retrieve the weapon as part of the Attack action, because it does not say so. You can compare this with the Ammunition property, that for example arrows or crossbow bolts use, and that says:

Drawing the ammunition from a quiver, case, or other container is part of the attack.

Because Thrown weapons have no such rule in the core rules, if you for example have javelins stored in a quiver, you will have to draw each javelin separately first before you can throw it.

Drawing a weapon is covered under Other Activity on Your Turn (p. 190, PHB)

Your turn can include a variety of flourishes that require neither your action nor your move. You can communicate however you are able, through brief utterances and gestures, as you take your turn. You can also interact with one object or feature of the environment for free, during either your move or your action. For example, you could open a door during your move as you stride toward a foe, or you could draw your weapon as part of the same action you use to attack. If you want to interact with a second object, you need to use your action.

So, you can normally draw only one weapon for free each round.

Starting with more weapons

All the math for drawing weapons can be influenced by how many weapons you have in your hand when the fighting starts, because these are "pre-drawn". You did draw them of course, just earlier on, when it did not cost you any actions of the turn based resolution of the fight. This is as if you had had a free draw once for each weapon you have already in hand when combat begins. These pre-draws are not replenished as the fight goes on, so while they can buffer drawing weapons for a bit, you still soon run out.

If you want to throw two weapons a round, than having one in each hand as fighting starts will allow you to throw two in the first two rounds of combat. If you have one weapon in hand as fighting starts, you can throw two in the first round. If you have none in hand, you cannot throw two. As soon as you start a round without weapon in hand, you can only throw one, if you want to attack that round:

If you have two weapons in hand as combat starts, you can throw one (with either the bonus action attack from two-weapon fighting, or an extra attack), then draw a new one as part of your Attack action for free and throw a second one with your normal attack. In the second round, you start by drawing one for free as part of your Attack action, then again throw one with your extra attack or bonus action attack, then throw the second one with your normal attack. As you already drew one at the start of the turn, you cannot do so again at the end, and end the round empty-handed. Then, in the third round, you can only draw and throw one.

If you already have one weapon in your hand when combat starts, you can draw one for free as part of the Attack action, and throw one with either the bonus action attack from two-weapon fighting, or an extra attack. (With extra attack the order does not matter, you also could throw, draw, and throw again; but for two-weapon fighting you first need to get a weapon into each hand). Then in the second round you start empty handed, and can only draw and throw one.

If you started the fight with no weapons in hand, then unless you use a turn to just draw more weapons, you could not attack with two thrown weapons in any round, as each round you can draw only one weapon, and you can only throw what you have drawn.

Drawing more weapons

So this style has an issue, if you want to throw two weapons every turn, or if you want to throw a lot of weapons in one turn. For example if you want to throw two weapons turn after turn then you would need to be able to draw two weapons each turn. Or, if you happen to be a high level fighter who can get up to three extra attacks you could want to throw up to five weapons per turn (four with your Attack action, and one from two-weapon fighting); to keep that up, you would need to be able to get weapons into your hands five times per turn.

You can use the Use an Object action to draw one more weapon, but that is counterproductive as it uses your action, and you want to use your action to Attack instead. So what are your other options for this?

Drawing more weapons with Dual Wielder

Dual Wielder can help with this. It says (among other things):

• You can draw or stow two one-handed weapons when you would normally be able to draw or stow only one.

When you have the Dual Wielder feat, you can draw a second one-handed weapon each turn. That means, you can draw and then throw two javelins each turn, and can keep this up as long as you have weapons to throw.

Or, if you started out with two javelins in your hands, you could throw both of them, then use your free object interaction to draw yet another one, and your extra draw from dual wielder to draw a second one, so you could throw up to four in one round (for example if you are a fighter with 3 extra attacks). But as you only can draw two each turn, you cannot keep up throwing 4 weapons every turn of combat.

You also can use Dual Wielder in combination with Extra attack. Let's assume you have a single attack as your extra attack. You could throw two javelins you hold in both hands with the Attack action using your extra attack, and then draw two new ones and throw yet another javelin with your bonus action attack from two-weapon fighting. You again will not be able to keep this up, as you only can draw two each turn, and can throw three, but it is an improvement.

Special Features for Thrown weapons

There are some game features that allow you improved use of thrown weapons, by either returning the weapon to your hand so you do not need to draw it, or by allowing you to draw thrown weapons as part of the attack. They include:

• In the PHB, the Eldritch Knight fighter weapon bond feature (p. 75) that allows them to bond a weapon and: If it is on the same plane of existence, you can summon that weapon as a bonus action on your turn, causing it to teleport instantly to your hand. If you do not need your bonus action for something else, you can use this to throw your bonded weapon as part of your Attack action, then draw and thow another thrown weapon (with extra attack), then as your bonus action summon your bonded weapon back to your hand, setting you up to repeat the same sequence the following turn. This will not allow you to throw four thrown weapons in a row, but it can surmount the issue of not being able to throw a weapons two times, turn after turn. However, as this also uses your bonus action, you cannot combine it with two-weapon fighting, it only works with extra attack.
• In the Dungeon Master's Guide (p. 167), the Dwarven Thrower is a very rare magic warhammer that can attune to a dwarf and flies back to your hand immediately after the attack. The Elven Thrower from Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants (p. 64), attunable by an elf works in the same way. Whelm (DMG, p. 218) is a legendary warhammer attunable for dwarves, kind of a souped-up dwarfen thrower, that flies back in the same way, and the Axe of the Dwaven Lords is an artifact (DMG p. 221), that again can return like a dwarven thrower. All of these are very nice, but of course they depend on your DM's generosity to provide them to your character, and as they all are very rare or rarer, they would normally not be available to you early on.
• The fighter's or ranger's Thrown Weapon Fighting fighting style (Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, p. 42), allows you to draw thrown weapons always as part of the attack: You can draw a weapon that has the thrown property as part of the attack you make with the weapon. In addition, when you hit with a ranged attack using a thrown weapon, you gain a +2 bonus to the damage roll. (This again demonstrates that you normally cannot automatically draw thrown weapons as part of the attack or it would not need to enable this). This is a clean way to get rid of that limitation and it deals extra damage, but depends on your DM using these optional rules.
• The Battlemaster's Quick Toss maneuver (Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, p. 42) As a bonus action, you can expend one superiority die and make a ranged attack with a weapon that has the thrown property. You can draw the weapon as part of making this attack. [...]. Same limitation of being an optional rule.
• The Artificers "Returning Weapon" infusion (Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, p. 23). It can infuse a simple or martial weapon with the thrown property, which becomes a magic weapon upon being infused and this magic weapon grants a + 1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with it, and it returns to the wielder's hand immediately after it is used to make a ranged attack. So there is no need to draw any weapon, as you can throw the returning weapon again and again. The gauntlets of the Artificer's Arcane Propulsion Armor also return to their wearer and reattach when used as a Thrown weapon. Again, optional rule.
• The Path of Wild Magic Barbarian (Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, p. 26) has a wild magic effect that "infuses one weapon of your choice that you are holding. Until your rage ends, the weapon's damage type changes to force, and it gains the light and thrown properties, with a normal range of 20 feet and a long range of 60 feet. If the weapon leaves your hand, the weapon reappears in your hand at the end of the current turn.". Optional rule.
• The Thri-Kreen race from Astral Adventurer's Guide (p. 15) has a set of Secondary Arms that say "You have two slightly smaller secondary arms below your primary pair of arms. The secondary arms can [...] wield a weapon that has the light property.", so you could use them to hold, and throw, up to 4 thrown weapons like a dagger, without needing to draw any. Most combats only take three rounds, and you can draw one every round too, so that would allow you to throw such weapons every round of combat for a typical combat encounter. Optional rule, too. (Thanks to @TreeSpawned for the pointer.)

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P.S. One concrete worked situation: A level 4 variant human fighter without extra attack yet wants to throw 2 daggers each round. They can use two-weapon fighting if they take the Dual Wielder feat as then they can draw two daggers a turn and throw one with two-weapon fighting, and the other one with their Attack action. They could keep this up for as long as they have daggers. They even could start the first round empty-handed, draw both daggers, and go to town.

If they do not have Dual Wielder, by the core rules how often they can throw two daggers would depend on how many daggers they happen to hold when the fight starts, see above.

If their DM allows them to use the Thrown Weapon fighting style, which they can pick up on level one, then they do not need Dual Wielder, therefore can be of any race and can draw and throw two daggers, even with +2 extra damage every round using two-weapon fighting, because the daggers are light weapons. Once they get to level 5 and gain extra attack, they then can draw and throw three daggers every round, two with their Attack action and one with the two-weapon fighting bonus action, each with +2 extra damage.

¹ You first need to make the bonus action attack, then the normal attack, because after having thrown one of the two weapons with your normal attack, you are not holding a weapon in each hand any more, which is the condition for being able to use two-weapon fighthing.

Answer 5

You cannot draw a weapon as part of the attack

(Note that this is heavily based my answer to this duplicate question.)

The only things that can be drawn as part of the attack are the ammunition used for weapons (such as crossbows) that have the ammunition property. From PHB (pp. 146-147):

Ammunition. You can use a weapon that has the ammunition property to make a ranged attack only if you have ammunition to fire from the weapon. Each time you attack with the weapon, you expend one piece of ammunition. Drawing the ammunition from a quiver, case, or other container is part of the attack.

Since throw weapons do not have the ammunition property, they must be drawn using your free object interaction (PHB, p. 190) or your action (to take the Use an Object action); from PHB, p. 193:

You normally interact with an object while doing something else, such as when you draw a sword as part of an attack. When an object requires your action for its use, you take the Use an Object action. This action is also useful when you want to interact with more than one object on your turn.

As you note, this means you cannot draw and throw three weapon in the same turn. At best, if you started your turn with two throwable weapon already drawn, you could then throw both of them (using Two Weapon Fighting), use your one free object interaction to draw another, then throw it (as your second attack as per Extra Attack).

Regarding house-ruling otherwise, see my related question here: Are there any balance issues with allowing thrown Javelins to be drawn for free like ammunition weapons?

Answer 6

Personally, with items such as darts, I revert back to original DnD rules. There is no way it costs as much movement and time to handle 3 darts held in hand as it does to pull, nock, draw, aim and shoot an arrow. I have done both IRL and there's a massive difference. So the ability to throw 3 darts/round with ease especially as a proficient weapon… you have developed that automatic eye hand coordination to release darts with fair accuracy. And don't forget you still have to roll the hit.