Well as long as this thread has already been necroed, I'll add that taking Temporal mastery when you get the chance will halve not only the casting costs of Hasten or Tempus Fugit, but also their maintenance costs.

This means that you can leave them running while you're dungeoning, and (if you're careful and your CN is high enough) maintain or even regenerate more Fatigue points than you're spending.

Nope, White Necromancy is bad for a mage thrower.

The spells you need are :
- Mental : Stun, because stun disables dodge therefore your weapon will always hit.
- Phantasm : Illuminate, to negate the penalty from low light in dungeons and therefore increase your crit rate.
- Morph : Weaken, against ennemies with high DR.
If you can't keep the fatigue cost of Hasten on then switch to Turn-Based Mode and reset the turn after each opponent.

Almost right.
AC is useless alone, it needs to work with dodge.
For the main character, AC can be definitely useless as he can get Apprentice/Expert/Master Dodge but for the companions who don't get any dodge training, it is very useful.

Personnally, I chose to master the college of Divination as I grew really tired of unseen traps.

Tech is better for throwing because of the wide variety of grenades and explosives you have access to if you go tech. ALso, with an Apprentice in throwing, you can throw an infinite number of grenades without spending action points. As mentioned earlier, the grenadier build in Arcanum is OP.

That being said, and whichever path you go - Get the Aerial Decapitator

https://arcanum.fandom.com/wiki/Old_Blind_Master

The location will not be marked on your map, and you won't be able to reach him until after the Dredge. But once you do - you have access to not only the Best Throwing Weapon, but also one of the best weapons in the game, period. Whether you go a mage build that grants you access to useful spells (heal, jolt, etc), or a tech build thjat allows you to craft all the explosives you need, whatever the case, the aerial decapitator, being a neutral weapon, is THE weapon to get for a true throwing master.

One thing that would give a mage character an advantage - temporal spells like hasten and tempus fugit. Grenades are badass, but, they are limited, and you have to keep crafting them. In contrast, a mage character with haste and tempus fugit, along with the aerial decapitator, can keep delivering crits within the first phase.

A potential optimum would be a technomage, now that I think about it - Half-elf, 10 tech schematics (all explosives, with 3 in any schematics of your choosing) and 10 mage skills (temporal, and the other can be something like conveyance or force) and of course, the aerial decapitator. I'll have to give that build a try sometime Its decent. While Azrams star is good as a throwing weapon, a magical throwing weapon that is - by the time you can reach that location, you can also go to the blind master house by then, and get the REAL best throwing weapon imho. The only real drawback to the Aerial Decpitator is the lack of range but, as a close range throwing weapon, its damage far surpasses any others in the game. That said, and looking at the stats, the azrams star can be thrown further, and has a faster speed. I guess its up to preference.

Usually yes the Aerial will be better for any thrower character because even the mage throwers won't have the high magic affinity that a pure mage will have, since you won't have offensive spells, force tree, harms, etc and will be using your throwing weapon as damage. You won' t have high enough affinity that the Azrams Star will benefit from. A mage with 69-100 affinity probably will be best with the Azrams star and its higher criticals, but a regular mage/thrower? Probably the full teleport tree, then picking up stuns, weakens and a few other spells to help boost your throwing skill, and your affinity won't be even close to a full mages magic affinity.

Yes the Star can be thrown further, but any hasted thrower will just run up into range and blast stuff with their weapon, range isn't a factor late game. And its only SLIGHTLY faster than the Aerial, so that isn't a factor either. Only the Star's boosted critical damage is the difference, and that isn't a factor unless you have very high magic affinity where it can help bridge the difference in damage

I think at max damage, the aerial is 20-40 damage, and 100 affinity with the Azrams will be 20-30 damage, plus 50% crit boost. So for most people the Aerial is superior in most regards, unless your a full 70-100% affinity mage which usually a mage/thrower won't reach since they don't need that many spells.

I have a different feedback on these :

Except that the Azram's Star has a weight of only 50 and Stun spell a weight of... zero !

I've tried both and I can tell that the Aerial is not good for a master thrower. You loose a lot of crit chance.
Supposedly you have a good mage-thrower build then the Azram deals 21-40 damages with 33% crit chance, adding between +50%/+200% damages rather often.
The Aerial offers the same damage range (20-40) but with a weight of 150 and no crit bonus and it is also slower (12 speed vs 16 speed for the Azram).
You don't need Hasten with the Azram while you certainly need it with the Aerial.

Range doesn't matter for a master thrower.

Yes, but it does matter for the aerial decapitator. Because it's essentially a giant deadly yo-yo on a chain, it has a fixed range beyond which it simply won't reach.

I've not experienced a range limit with the Aerial.

It has a range limit of 50 feet, about 8 squares. Plenty good for most encounters, but according to the wiki, that's not quite far enough to reach some of the obstacles in the Throwing master's quest.

To complete the mastery quest, i.e. : before becoming master.
While I'm speaking about the Aerial as a weapon for a throwing master, i.e. after the mastery quest had been completed.

That's just moving the goalposts.

And the weapon still won't reach all the way across the screen, and even off of it, as will Azram's Star (or even a simple chakram).

So when camping for enemies at the mysterious portal outside of Liam's workshop, for example, you have to get closer to (and risk damaging your armor from) the hordes of mysterious creatures that keep pouring through.

I can reach the border limit of the screen with the Aerial as a master-thrower.

I've not experienced a range limit with the Aerial.