Lucerne Hammer?

yzarCritS · Post by **yzarCritS** » Sat Jun 16, 2007 3:45 pm

One of my players opted for the mega damage lucerne hammer from the PHB (d12). I certainly don't have an extensive background in medieval weaponry, so I figured I'd ask some experts about the hammer.

From what I've been able to gather, the lucerne hammer appears to be a pole arm. Focusing on by the book rulings for now, it doesn't appear to be two handed (is this a mistake in the PHB?). Therefore, the character also carries a shield with the lucerne hammer.

Seeing as the lucerne hammer is a high damage dealing, one-handed weapon, can anyone comment on how I might introduce a downside to this player's weapon selection. More details on the weapon wouldn't hurt either. Will the weapon function well indoors versus outdoors?

As of now, I'm thinking the size of the weapon will prevent a party member from standing side by side with his character in a 10 foot wide corridor. Also, for smaller monsters using hand to hand tactics, I've considered making the lucerne hammer too large to effectively use.

Thoughts or comments? Ideas?

Thanks.

serleran · Post by **serleran** » Sat Jun 16, 2007 4:00 pm

It is a polearm, and two-handed (as are all polearms,) so the best shield possible would be a buckler. Also, because of the spear-like extension common to the weapon, it can be used effectively as such (and should deal spear damage), but is generally used as a big pick, meaning you need room to swing it. These weapons are often 6-10 feet long, and so they'd need about 1.5x that to be used effectively, preventing them from being swung sideways (like a baseball bat) in most dungeon environments, and the ceiling might prevent the use of the weapon's normal function (swung over the head, sort of like a sledge hammer). So, the best way to use the weapon is more like a pike (or lance,) at least, indoors.

stoneshape · Post by **stoneshape** » Sat Jun 16, 2007 9:32 pm

I believe it should get a good chance to dismount a rider.

Any suggestions?

BASH MAN · Post by **BASH MAN** » Sun Jun 17, 2007 5:04 am

stoneshape wrote:
I believe it should get a good chance to dismount a rider.

Any suggestions?

+2 to hit and damage mounted targets?

Whether the book says so or not, it is a 2-handed weapon. Any weapon that does better than d10 damage should just automatically be considered 2-handed, and the lack of an asterisk denoting such as a typo.

In fact, I would consider all weapons doing d10 damage to be two-handed, with the exception of the bastard sword, though I would make it d10+1 two-handed [there's got to be an upshot to using it that way]
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slimykuotoan · Post by **slimykuotoan** » Sun Jun 17, 2007 3:42 pm

Yip, she's a poleaxe.

As to a bonus to dismount riders I'd definitely give it something.

Nothing too big though; although it was undoutably employed against riders, the 'angles' aren't optimim for the task when compared with other similar weapons...

I think this was more a '300 years later, they discovered a modification to the mace', etc' senario, because I'm sure the dismounting application was there, if I remember my coursework from the old days.

Buttmonkey · Post by **Buttmonkey** » Sun Jun 17, 2007 5:35 pm

Yep, the third printing of the PHB (picked up 3 copies yesterday at the LGGC!) shows it is a 2-handed weapon.

Treebore · Post by **Treebore** » Sun Jun 17, 2007 7:10 pm

Buttmonkey wrote:
Yep, the third printing of the PHB (picked up 3 copies yesterday at the LGGC!) shows it is a 2-handed weapon.

So is the heavy flail now a 2 handed weapon in the third printing?
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Buttmonkey · Post by **Buttmonkey** » Sun Jun 17, 2007 7:46 pm

Treebore wrote:
So is the heavy flail now a 2 handed weapon in the third printing?

Yes, it is.

Say, do you think TLG will sue me for copyright infringement if I start charging to answer questions about the contents of PHB - Third Printing?

Treebore · Post by **Treebore** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 2:35 am

Buttmonkey wrote:
Yes, it is.

Say, do you think TLG will sue me for copyright infringement if I start charging to answer questions about the contents of PHB - Third Printing?

Probably.
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