Rigid Body Launching

I’ve recently been pondering the logistics of physics simulation in certain situations for the animated series I’ve been working on, and one particular scene I’ve written stands out as something of a head-scratcher to me.

It’s a seemingly simple action, where one character tosses a sheathed longsword to another, but how best to execute that is what’s got me thinking about it. I know I can easily fake the entire action by animating the start of the toss with keyframes, cutting to a different angle, and keyframing the catch animation; but I want to have my options open for other, more complete and encompassing shots of the toss, if I want or need them.

I’m kind of weighing my options, here. Tweak keyframe animation until I get something that looks right, or try to incorporate rigid body physics into the action?