Are light hammers seriously meant to be martial weapons? If so, y? They're hammers, ffs... they're the most basic simple weapon you can have, short of a club.
Light Hammers aren't hammers like what you use to hammer a nail in with. They're specifically made for combat. So just like it's a Martial Weapon Proficiency for the Short Sword and Long Sword, so it is with Light Hammer and War Hammer.
but you still just swing it and smash people with it, they're no more complex than a mace or morningstar.
What do the 3.5 rules say? I rather thought they were simple weapons, too. Any 3.5 rules experts out there?
the online guide thing says martial but if they were really made for war they'd have piercing and bludgeoning damage...
What Green Knight says is correct, according to the 3.5 Players' Handbook, page 116. Light hammer and warhammer are listed as martial weapons. For those of you without access to a Players' Handbook, check here for an online SRD. And no, I have no idea why the hammers are martial weapons, but light mace, heavy mace, and morningstar are simple weapons. By the way, your mileage may vary, but I prefer morningstar of the lot, since it's a simple weapon, does both bludgeoning and piercing damage. and does the same damage as heavy mace and warhammer for less gold and less weight. For that matter, although it isn't implemented in ToEE, a scaled down version of morningstar for small creatures makes a very nice off-hand for the dual wielding player - piercing and bludgeoning at 1d6 damage, and as a light weapon, it can be used with weapon finesse. Edit: Fixed hyperlink
thats the site where I got my info - something that pissed me off the first time I played ToEE (and thus encounted D&D) was that warhammers weren't real warhammers they were just hammers, big hammers... almost small mauls in other words. for real war hammers see here
Yeah, see Warhammers (and even gigantic mauls) I could understand, but the dinky thing pictured in ToEE looks no less simple to use than a mace, as u guys correctly said. Anyways, thanks for clearing that up.
I think the most important questions is: Why does the light hammer exist in D&D? Clearly it's not meant to be used. Any number of better weapons exist (or can be found in the woods.... club anyone) that do more damage than 1d4. Maybe it's just the only way to get off-hand light bludgeoning damage.... oh wait... light mace is better.... and easier to use. Back to the original question. Why, WoTC, WHY??? I vote we make it an exotic weapon so that it's even more pointless. If you are taking it, it must be for style, or you have some sort of dwarf or gnome+hammer fetish.
I've always rationalized it like this: 1. Real medieval warhammers are more like the picks in D&D (though I agree there should be a choice between bludgeoning or piercing damage). The thing called a warhammer in D&D is more like Thor's hammer or the fantastical-stereotypical dwarven smithying/fighting hammer. 2. A hammer is harder to use effectively in combat versus a mace, becuase you have to worry about keeping the head oriented in the proper way. If you want to catch an opponent on a backswing, you've got to pivot the weapon. A -4 for non-proficiency is probably a little steep, but some sort of penalty makes a modicum of sense. 3. Light hammers aren't necessarily the best weapon to use, and as such many PCs aren't ever going to touch them, but then a lot of PCs don't bother with a little thing called roleplaying when they're deciding things like class levels, feats, or weapon selection. There's more to D&D than number-crunching. Again, 1 and 2 are rationalizations for the rules, not necessarily an endorsement. Rather than changing the rules, I interpret them this way to have everything make sense to me in my stone-filled head. Your mileage may vary. :thumbsup:
fyi - Light hammers [much smaller versions of what's in Cujo's link] were used as off hand weapons, in conjunction with trained european knights who could also use a broad sword at the same time in their primary weapon hand.
Yeah I asked this cause I am trying a twf rogue for the first time and bought a light hammer as an off-hand weapon. And got screwed of course once I realised it was martial.
@Ted - make a Dwarf Rogue with deity = Moradin Feat = Two-Weapon Fighting Primary Weapon = Dwarven War Axe Secondary Weapon = Light Hammer Use the console to level and train for 3rd level...console command = levelup Add Martial Weapon Proficiency (Light Hammer)...the Dwarf is proficient with and can use both weapons, both the Dwarven War Axe and Light Hammer. Check out the jpg for details on the Feats and purchased items. Notice Primary/Offhand = +1/+0 and Dwarven War Axe = 1d10 <---
