I am on my second playthrough

[rakenan]

But overall damage throwing weapons are still superior to anything else.

In exactly what way are they superior to missile weapons? The crossbow you get in the slime chamber does more damage than any ranged weapon in the game - and you get it in early level 4, while throwing axes come much later. The bolts for the crossbow are also far more common than throwing axes, weigh less, and can be enchanted for +5 damage. The bonus strength from throwing skill adds up to a whopping +3 attack power.

Throwing is not a bad skill - if nothing else, it leaves a hand empty to hold a torch if you don't like magic, and you can only really have one crossbow user anyway. The bow is a bit closer in damage output to thrown weapons, and it's just boring to have two characters using the same skill build in one party, at least for me, so I tend to go with throwing weapons if I have two back-row non-mages. I still don't see any evidence that it is superior to everything else, though.

[Lethaemis]

My rogue with 50 unarmed hit about 80 per hit with skills hitting about twice that(besides Three Point Technique which could hit for 340). You could do a lot of damage with an unarmed character.