Soulhammer - Not a forge hammer

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Ungtar
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Soulhammer - Not a forge hammer

Post by Ungtar » Wed Jun 17, 2015 2:12 pm

I feel like this is an oversight or a bug, though it may have been intended.

The soulhammer that followers of Moradin may receive via supplication is not usable for smelting or forging, even though it's an exact replica of the magical glowing hammer that Moradin uses in his heavenly forge.
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Re: Soulhammer - Not a forge hammer

Post by Raona » Thu Jun 18, 2015 11:22 am

The problem is that the Soulhammer is coded as a warhammer, and like all other warhammers it will not work at a forge. Forge techniques are hard-coded to require a light hammer. Practically, while a god might have the strength to employ a warhammer for this purpose, something lighter would be needed for we mortals.

Along those lines, the same applies to
(28039) a heavy steel smithing hammer (good)
which is coded as a warhammer and could do with either a weapon type change or a description tweak so as to not imply smithing use. (I know it threw me for a good while when I was new at the forge.)
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Re: Soulhammer - Not a forge hammer

Post by Harroghty » Thu Jun 18, 2015 4:47 pm

What if I made a switch on this object which would change it between light hammer and warhammer? Is that practical or shady?
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Re: Soulhammer - Not a forge hammer

Post by Talos » Thu Jun 18, 2015 4:50 pm

Practical. Both weapons are single handed, are they not? There is no other advantage to it becoming a lighter hammer, and it's from a god. Seems legit.
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Re: Soulhammer - Not a forge hammer

Post by Ungtar » Thu Jun 18, 2015 5:06 pm

The weapons generally pictured as a "war hammer" in the hands of dwarves are technically a maul or a sledge, usually cut down with a shorter haft.

A war hammer was a specific Middle Ages period weapon that was shaped roughly like a claw hammer. The front part was for smashing and the back part was long and piercing like a mining pick. They sometimes called it the "raven's beak" and it was designed to puncture heavy armor. The smashing part defeated chain mail and the raven's beak would puncture heavier armor.

http://astor-versand.eshop.t-online.de/ ... ammer1.jpg

Here's a picture.

The war hammer you see pictures of Moradin (and lots of dwarves) using is actually a sledge, not a traditional war hammer. In my blacksmith shop, I use a 4 pound smith's hammer for working with hot metal and a series of smaller hammers for folding and curling.

I can't see any lore-specific reasons why the soulhammer couldn't be used to work at a forge, but I understand the limitations of code and human bandwidth. Certainly more important stuff for people to be working on that fiddling with my hammer for something I tend to do in private anyway.
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Re: Soulhammer - Not a forge hammer

Post by Harroghty » Thu Jun 18, 2015 9:24 pm

Yeah, don't get me started about the lack of weapons knowledge inherent in role-playing game rules. We have a rule set to work within though and it is far easier for me to apply a bandage than to propose some way to reinvent the wheel and do open heart surgery.
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Re: Soulhammer - Not a forge hammer

Post by hasryn » Thu Jun 18, 2015 10:18 pm

It would be interesting if it didn't require coding work of how pc's could handle each sort of weapon. Within the limitations of coding it relies on the subtype as to what type of damage weapons do. There are many a weapon out there that can do bludgeoning, piercing or slashing damage. A rapier can slash and pierce while as said above a warhammer can crush the heck out of people or pierce with the other side.

I do agree Harro that there isn't enough knowledge behind how weapons are treated in the table top settings.
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Re: Soulhammer - Not a forge hammer

Post by Harroghty » Fri Jun 19, 2015 6:07 pm

Added the keyword warhammer to switch the object between the two states. To work, one must have the weapon held or in inventory. There is no signal for the switch, but you can see the change when examining the weapon; I didn't want to make this OOC fix into something IC with an echo. A brief note in the object's description explains this.
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