A Ballad for John Henry: Options for Players and DMs using the Warhammer

[Saintheart]

A Ballad for John Henry

Options for 3.5 Players and DMs using the Warhammer

In this world a man must either be anvil or hammer.
--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Introduction
The warhammer: one of the more notable mythical weapons, most typically pictured as the weapon of Thor, Mjolnir, whether wielded in melee or hurled around the battlefield and then returning to the thrower’s hand.

While most handbooks or guides tend to focus on classes or styles of combat, this guide is about canvassing the options and support available in D&D 3.5 for someone who wants to use or focus on the warhammer as opposed to other weapons. (We also look in a little more detail at some weapons closely akin to it). As with all my weapon guides, I make no claim to saying which of these are fantastic and which are not for a particular build, my main intent is to list and speculate.

Features of the Warhammer

Let’s get back to the fundamentals. There are certain issues with the warhammer that you need to identify and consider when trying to build a character around it. So, looking over to our chosen weapon:

It’s a martial weapon. The warhammer is, by definition, a weapon of war. Which means the War domain power will apply to it. Also means characters such as mages, druids, etc, won’t qualify for it right out the gate.

It’s a one-handed weapon. This has several consequences for the manner in which you use it, both good and bad:

• In melee, if you wield it two-handed, your bonus to damage is your STR modifier x1.5.
• Power Attack allows you to add twice the number deducted from your attack rolls to damage.
• You can’t wield it in the off hand without attracting significant TWF penalties, unless you have something like Oversized Two-Weapon Fighting. That's because it's not a light weapon.
• A Feycraft version of a warhammer deals 1d6 damage rather than 1d8, and it can be treated as a light weapon for the purposes of Weapon Finesse, but for no other purpose. Which again means that it's still a one-handed weapon for the purposes of TWF, and can't be wielded in the off hand without attracting significant TWF penalties.
• A Medium size warhammer is a one-handed weapon, making it a two-handed weapon for anyone at Small size, and a light weapon for anyone at Large size. That said, if you do wield a Medium size weapon as a Large or Small character, you are using a weapon which is not appropriately sized for the wielder, and that in turn means all your attack rolls take a -2.

It’s not a light weapon. Weapon Finesse, which allows you to substitute your DEX for your STR on attack rolls, does not normally apply to the warhammer. Something being Feycraft only makes the weapon a light weapon for that feat's purposes; it is not a way to quietly get around the need for a light weapon in the off hand. (And indeed note one often-overlooked aspect of Weapon Finesse: if you're using a shield, the shield's Armor Check Penalty applies to your attack rolls under Weapon Finesse.)

It’s a melee weapon. Certain spells and feats apply to these as opposed to other forms of weapon, and this by definition qualifies.

It is not a ranged weapon. Not without other options, and even then, it takes a DM interpretation to say so. A warhammer has no range increment, which means it isn’t designed to be thrown, and therefore is not by RAW a "thrown weapon" as the game rules define them. (Some hammers are, but we’ll get to that.) If you throw a melee weapon not designed for it, you take a -4 on the attack roll at least; the weapon is also deemed to have a range increment of 10 feet when thrown, so that means if you throw it 15 feet, you’re actually sucking up a -6. The other thing to note is that for thrown weapons you use your likely-suboptimal DEX modifier rather than STR for the attack roll. You do get your STR bonus to damage, but absent some serious work on the build, it doesn't go any higher than just the flat bonus. Finally, you nerf the hammer’s crit multiplier down to x2, which is annoying since the warhammer starts with a x3. There are feats, magic items, and whole classes that attempt to deal with these issues but not at the start.

It’s not a dwarven racial weapon. At least nowhere that I’ve ever seen. Complete Warrior has a variant rule that says you can swap an existing weapon familiarity with another racial weapon, but for dwarves, the racial weapons are the dwarven waraxe, dwarven urgrosh, dwarven warpike and the dwarven buckler-axe. No hammers. (Dwarven clerics do get an ACF that helps out with hammers, and there's the Eberron-specific Mror Stalwart feat which all but turns a warhammer into a racial weapon, but that’s it.)

It has a d8 damage dice. Same as a longsword. Nothing to write home about.

It has a x3 critical multiplier. Statistically, this is actually the same expected damage as the longsword’s 19-20/x2, but it’s generally easier in 3.5 to widen the crit range than increase the critical multiplier. Either way critfishing options are thin on the ground for bludgeoning weapons in D&D 3.5, you don’t need to pay a lot of attention to this.

It does bludgeoning damage. And here is where things get the most distinct from the normal line of weapons. Maybe the most significant distinction here is that Mighty Wallop and Greater Mighty Wallop raise the damage dice of a bludgeoning weapon by at least one step, which doesn’t really have much of an equivalent among the piercing or slashing weapons as such. Suffice to say it’s easier to optimise bludgeoning weapon size than it is bludgeoning weapon criticals.

The Rest of the Family

The Kid Brother: Light Hammer
The light hammer’s comparator is the dagger, which has a 19-20/x2 critical hit range and the same 1d4 damage dice as well as not weighing two pounds. Another comparison is the throwing axe at 1d6 /x2.

That said, the light hammer does have one small thing over both: a better range increment, 20 feet, as opposed to the dagger and hand axe’s 10 feet. If you’re pursuing a throwing build and range is one of the factors you’re looking at optimising, it’s always easier to start with as big a range increment as you can.

Having a range increment and being a thrown weapon as defined by the PHB, the light hammer is both a melee weapon and a ranged weapon. Any bonus which applies to a ranged weapon (e.g. Point Blank Shot) specifically will apply to all the attacks one can make with a light hammer, not just the ranged ones, because there’s a difference between a ranged attack and a ranged weapon.

(And indeed around this subject, if you’re looking for resources relating to throwing stuff, to save space I’ll refer you to my dagger guide; many of the options in it pertaining to dagger throwing should also apply to throwing light hammers.)


The Tall Brother: Lucerne Hammer
Brother Lucy comes to us from the Arms & Equipment Guide. He does 2d4 damage, so basically similar damage to the warhammer, but he has a critical range of 20/x4, and that damage can be bludgeoning or piercing. (The Dragon 331 version of the Lucerne Hammer, together with the Dragon Compendium version which uses Dragon 331, does both bludgeoning and piercing damage; the AEG version only does piercing. Unfortunately the Lucerne Hammer otherwise never got an official 3.5 update, despite being mentioned even in Weapon Group feats out of Unearthed Arcana as included in the pick/hammers groups ... in which it says "if you use the Arms and Equipment Guide"). I would argue that, being named as a Lucerne hammer and in virtually all iterations being represented as a hammer that this might be a teensy-tiny request you could make of your DM.) Also in Brother Lucy's favour is that he has Reach and he’s specifically a polearm … as well as being a two-handed weapon, which makes the weapon a lot more optimal for AoOs. Best of all, the Lucerne Hammer is a martial melee weapon, so no EWP feat tax required, but as a blow-in from 3.0 and Dragon magazine, you’ll need a nice GM to let you have one.


The Big Brother: Greathammer
(You’re wondering where the maul is? Oh, he’s the black sheep of the family. Go have a look in the “Maneuvers and Stances” section for a big explanation.)

The Greathammer comes to us from Races of Stone. It’s an exotic weapon, sure, but what an exotic weapon. 1d-freaking-12 damage dice at Medium size, pulling ahead of the competing Greatsword and Greataxe, x4 critical hit multiplier if you care about that sort of thing, and a +2 to sundering attempts on enemy weapons or shields if you want to amuse yourself in that way. Two-handed weapon, though, so no more sword hammer and board for you.

Want more? Well, the Greathammer was (arguably) updated even further in MM IV. The Greathorn Minotaur wields a greathammer that does 1d12, 19-20/x4, and gives you a +2 on sundering attempts on enemy weapons or shields. Your DM might have to rule whether this is its own weapon, but if you can get it, then not only are you busting people up heavily, but your capacity to critfish with the damn thing is significantly expanded as well.

If you’re going with charging Power Attack all-out damage pwnership this is just the gold standard of exotic weapon bases. For the bludgeoning focused type, you basically can’t go much past this without doing something stupid like hunting down Titans for their hammers.

[Saintheart]

Feats and ACFs

Hammer's Edge (CWar): Probably the first thing you thought of under this heading. For high-STR builds, it’s potentially pretty solid, and that largely because the feat scales with character level. In essence, if you hit the same creature with both your sword and your hammer in the same round, the opponent has to make a Fort save (10 + 0.5*character level + STR mod) or be knocked prone. It takes four feats including two Weapon Focus, but the feat doesn’t require that you use the sword and hammer you qualify with. That is, you could use a warhammer in the primary hand and a short sword in the off hand and the feat would trigger. And though on first blush you might think you have to hit the enemy in a full attack, that’s not necessarily so. Basically, this is a tripping feat for people who don’t have access to tripping weapons.

Anvil of Thunder (CWar): Probably the second thing you thought of under this heading. Arguably better than Hammer’s Edge both because of the prerequisites and the effect: if you hit with both your axe and hammer in the same round, the opponent has to save against being dazed, which might not lay them out like prone does, but does stop them taking actions. For thrower builds, note the weapons by which one can qualify for this include the light hammer (i.e. throwable) and the hand axe (i.e. also throwable).

Three Mountains (CWar): You probably thought of this too, but unfortunately a hammer (whether a maul or anything smaller) doesn’t trigger it by RAW. Which is a bit of a pity, because it imposes the nauseated condition – slightly weaker than dazed or prone, but still pretty decent. On the other hand, a warhammer with the Aptitude weapon quality might well allow you to do this.

Brutal Strike (PHB 2): Much better than Three Mountains in prerequisite terms – only needs Power Attack and BAB +6, and despite the feat description, works with any bludgeoning weapon, i.e. including hammers. That said, it only imposes the sickened condition -- one of the weakest status effects out there, and it explicitly only works once per round in conjunction with a successful Power Attack.

Hammer and Piton (DScape): This is as weird as it is thematic and imaginative. Basically, hammer a climbing piton into the opponent with your warhammer or light hammer (both are one-handed bludgeoning melee weapons) and then move into his space without provoking an AoO. (The enemy has to be Large.) My guess is that this would work particularly for halflings using things like Underfoot Combat or Confound the Big Folk, but at least the prerequisites are very easy. For the hijinks that can be achieved with this feat, have a look here.

Crushing Strike (PHB 2): Boosts bludgeoning weapons and therefore applies to hammers, but you’re waiting until you’ve got BAB +14, Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialisation and Weapon Mastery.

White Raven Defense (ToB): If you’re wielding a preferred weapon of the White Raven school, your adjacent allies gain a +1 bonus to AC. The warhammer is one of White Raven’s preferred weapons. Not much, maybe, but the feat is required for Clarion Commander, which isn’t bad for the White Raven types.

Blade Meditation (ToB): This feat applies to a specific martial discipline, and grants +1 to damage when using one of the discipline’s preferred weapons in a strike maneuver. Minor buff to the warhammer or maul (White Raven and Devoted Spirit, respectively).

Hurling Charge(MinHB): Throw a weapon at the enemy while charging him as well as a melee attack at the end of the charge. Won’t work for a single warhammer without Bloodstorm Blade, but more attacks are good attacks since the attack from the throw and at the end of the charge are at the same bonus.

Power Lunge (Ghostwalk): Gets you x2 STR bonus to damage on a charge attack, whether you're wielding one or two-handed. However, it provokes an AoO from the opponent.

Point Blank Shot (PHB): Mainly of interest because it’s a prerequisite for Bloodstorm Blade, and useless to a warhammer wielder unless and until you pick up Throw Anything, but it works perfectly with all attacks made with Light Hammers in the meantime, melee or otherwise. A really nice DM who forces you to take Throw Anything would from that point on allow you to add +1 to attack and damage to all warhammer strikes, melee or ranged, because it’s then a ranged weapon, but we know your DM isn’t that nice.

Throw Anything (CWar): Throw a melee weapon you’re proficient with as if it were a ranged weapon. This gives the warhammer a range increment of 10 feet and you, your first step on the road to cosplaying Thor.

Power Attack (PHB): Come on, you really need me to explain this? Either way, so far as this feat’s concerned you get maximum benefit out of it; a warhammer is not a two-handed weapon, but you still get your double bonus damage for attack penalty on it.

Brutal Throw (CAdv): Rather helpful for SADing the big beefy fighter with the rubbish DEX score. This allows you to swap your STR for your DEX to attacks with thrown weapons. Unfortunately this won’t apply when chucking the mundane warhammer around; a thrown weapon is something that has a range increment but isn’t a projectile weapon such as a bow or crossbow. Way around that is Throw Anything, which likely deems your warhammer a thrown weapon for these purposes, or just pony up and get the Throwing property on your weapon.

Divine Might (CWar): If you do wind up sword-and-boarding it with the warhammer and divine caster abilities, this one is worth thinking about. Basically, one turn undead attempt allows you to add (not substitute) your CHA bonus to weapon damage for 1 full round. The prerequisites are just Power Attack in effect.

Power Throw (CAdv): Not as good as it looks. Unlike Power Attack (which is a prerequisite for this), Power Throw only allows a one-for-one exchange of attack accuracy for damage. Bloodstorm Blade’s Thunderous Throw feature renders this obsolete in every way as well as gives you x1.5 STR damage. That said, if you’re throwing your warhammer, and you don’t have access to ToB and/or some of the other prestige classes mentioned below, this might well be as far as you go.

Ranged Threat (Dragon 350): When armed with a ranged weapon – and we are armed with a light hammer or a warhammer plus Throw Anything, i.e. a ranged weapon – you threaten all squares within 15 feet. AoO at your highest attack bonus may be made once, and counts as all your AoOs for that round. For thrower builds you’ve likely taken most of the prereqs anyway, and the single AoO can be mitigated by something like Double Hit. Alternatively, consider this in combination with Stormguard Warrior.

Staggering Blow (Dragon Compendium): If you confirm a critical with a bludgeoning weapon that you've got Improved Critical with, the target has to make a (scaling) Fort save or be stunned for 1 round. Very interestingly it allows this quality to work even if you're only inflicting nonlethal damage, so that's another vote in favour of the Merciful weapon quality. That said, you'd be getting this towards the end of your build: the prereqs include BAB +12 and Improved Critical.

Pulverise Foe (CoR): Hit the same enemy more than once in the same round with a bludgeoning melee weapon, deal an extra 1d6 points of bludgeoning damage with each hit after the first. No feats amongst its prerequisites, and applies just as nicely to iterative attacks as two-weapon builds. Indeed, it's a big damage improvement for throwers of 1d4-damage-dice light hammers. Hell, consider Double Hit or similar optimisation of AoOs in this area! And it's about as thematic as you can get for hitting people with a big freaking hammer!

Weapon Group (Picks and Hammers) (UA) If you’re playing with this variant then this is the proficiency group to pick – it even includes Lucerne Hammers – but the problem is that it doesn’t change the fact a warhammer isn’t a ranged weapon and a light hammer is.

Weapon Focus (PHB) This turns up a bit when qualifying for some of the more interesting PrCs, but the problem is where what’s required is Weapon Focus in a thrown weapon, which a warhammer is not unless you have Throw Anything and a generous DM.

Lightning Mace (CWar): No, I am not advocating infinite attack abuse -- it’s harder to pull off with hammers anyway thanks to the smaller critical hit range -- but if you’re going to use the an aptitude weapon to apply this to light hammers in place of light maces, at least the weapons are close in concept. That said, using this exploit does supply you with a little cheese for throwers: because Lightning Mace doesn’t make a distinction between ranged and melee attacks, this would give you another ranged attack on a critical threat, especially with Quick Draw.

Windup (Dragon 304): This feat was from just before 3.5 came out, and was created in a Dragon special about the otherwise forgettable videogame Asheron's Call 2. It duplicates Power Throw for virtually no prerequisites. And it's a prerequisite for a far more interesting feat...

Rout (Dragon 304): Any attack with a thrown weapon weighing more than 2 pounds "also affects your opponent as if you had performed a bull rush." You can't move them back more than 5 feet ... but Rampaging Bull Rush from Races of Stone might well allow you to knock them over anyway!

Heft (Dragon 304): And while we're at it, how about we give you Bloodstorm Blade's ability to add 1.5xSTR bonus to your thrown weapon attacks instead of just your STR?

Bowl Over (Dragon 304): And for a finale, if you do more than 10 points of damage on a weapon throw, get a trip attack as a free action against the target!

Crush (Dragon 304): And just as added sauce, let's add that, if you have Weapon Focus with any bludgeoning weapon, when using Power Attack, if you subtract enough points from the attack roll that equal or exceed the opponent's armor bonus from armor, you add his armor bonus from armor worn to the damage you deal, one for one, on top of the rest of the Power Attack. Enhancement bonuses to the armor don't add to the damage, and if the enemy has armor higher than a +8, they're immune to this effect. Shields don't count towards this either.

Mror Stalwart (RoE): If you're a dwarf specifically from the Mror region, and you're proficient with a warhammer or battleaxe or any of the dwarven racial weapons (urgrosh, waraxe), have a +1 to damage with the warhammer as long as you don't move during the round. Handy for throwers. Also a Warblade-lite feature in that if you've got Improved Critical, Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization, Greater Weapon Focus, or Greater Weapon Specialization in any of the other three weapons, you can use them for your warhammer; a generous DM might allow this to help you out qualifying for Anvil of Thunder. Finally, when you spend an action point to infl ence an attack roll made with either a battleaxe, warhammer, dwarven waraxe, or dwarven urgrosh, you also add the result of the action point roll to your damage for that attack. About as close as you get to a warhammer becoming a dwarven racial weapon.

[Saintheart]

Races, Class Features, Prestige Classes, Monsters

Hammer of Moradin (PrC) (PGtF): The biggest challenge out of this thing is that it requires you to cast second level divine spells as a prerequisite and then never go any higher, in favour of full BAB and fighter save progression, along with a bunch of random-ish abilities mostly themed around being a mini-Thor, complete with returning hammer ability and going around striking miniature earthquakes on the ground. It’s a grab bag of middling abilities which probably aren’t worth giving up a clerical career for, but it’s a decent topping on a Lego-brick martial build and it is a super-dwarfy class. It might be worth considering for someone really focused on the warhammer and with martial abilities, but you really, really need a way to get 2nd level divine spells for low opportunity cost. There’s a suggested build at the end of this guide.

Justice Hammer of Moradin (PrC, Dragon #329): A bit more like it for the cleric builds. Admittedly it’s 5/10 casting, but the requirements are much easier to meet, with the heaviest prerequisite being the BAB of +5. You pick up the War domain at first level, and your warhammer – and only the warhammer -- gets extra [fire] damage dice. Most of the rest of it is nothing to write home about, but it gives you a limited save reroll function, and a ROFLMAO ability to render stuff half as hard when you want to sunder things. The capstone ability is to fling your hammer on a ranged touch attack, ignoring cover, and you do 10d6 damage and paralyse the target for 1d4 rounds (NO SAVE).

Battlesmith (PrC) (RoS): Five levels, so nice and quick, but the most relevant level is Battlesmith 1, which allows you to add – not substitute – your WIS bonus to the damage dealt by a Warhammer you’ve crafted yourself. Does have one useless prerequisite feat by way of Endurance, but the rest of it is fine.

Bloodstorm Blade (PrC) (ToB): Now, if you really want to hurl stuff around the battlefield, then this is where it’s at. Just send that warhammer ricocheting off successive enemy heads and stop worrying about spellcasting or the fact it allows you to make targets bleed somehow. You’ll most likely have taken the ranged feat Point Blank Shot anyway, and if you really must get use out of it, Point Blank Shot applies to Light Hammers.

Hulking Hurler (PrC) (CWar): On its face, the Hulking Hurler has a lot of goodies for someone who wants to throw warhammers around. In particular, it increases the range increment of stuff you throw, allows you to pick up x2 STR bonus on the throws, knock people down with no save, and allows you to fully apply Power Attack to stuff you throw. However, there are a couple of obstacles to overcome to get in, the first and trickiest of which is being Large size. Traditionally this immediately sets off the argument about whether a race with a Powerful Build (e.g. Goliaths, humans with the Jotunbrud feat) qualifies, because Powerful Build has equivocal language around when exactly the character is considered Large. Personally I don’t think it does work for these purposes, but if you can convince your DM, all power to you. The second and more annoying obstacle is that you have to have Weapon Focus in a thrown weapon to qualify. That doesn’t include the Warhammer, which is a melee weapon with no range increment. A generous DM would allow you to qualify via Throw Anything as applied to the warhammer, but that’s actually still wasting a feat since Hulking Hurler gives you a class feature that renders Throw Anything obsolete. Best way to deal with this is possibly just suck up Weapon Focus in light hammer and trundle into the class that way.

Dwarven Thane (PrC) (Dragon #299): Well, if you’re determined to pick up Anvil of Thunder, then ask your DM as to whether he’ll allow this charming little 5 level dwarfy PrC that was created as part of a Dragon special on Warcraft III. The prereqs are steep-ish but mostly match Anvil of Thunder’s own – TWF, Power Attack, Weapon Focus in any axe and any hammer – and it does some nice things for dual wielders. First, you add full STR bonus to damage on your off hand weapon. Second, you can make stunning attacks with any thrown weapon, and eventually stun automatically on a critical hit. Third, you can cause an earthquake, and finally, you gain – not substitute -- WIS bonus to damage on all melee and thrown weapon attacks.

People’s Champion (PrC) (Web): Five levels and obscure, but it’s not bad. You have to be a dwarf. Accessible from BAB +4 which is nice and early. In what might be an oversight, the class is proficient with all armors and all shields, i.e. exotic armors seem to be included, i.e.e. hello Mountain Plate for dwarfy dwarfiness. Forces you to waste a feat on Cleave, but gives you Great Cleave, Supreme Cleave, a small bonus to Tumble and some Will saves. It takes Weapon Focus (warhammer or maul) to qualify; at level 4, it allows you to double your STR modifier to damage when wielding the warhammer two-handed. Also pumps up your hit dice to d12, which is nice for martials. Main drawback is the oath requirement, though you’re only required to swear an oath, not keep it. Also, Supreme Cleave is a class feature out of Knight Protector and Frenzied Berserker, not a feat – probably this works the same way. Don’t take the fifth level, it sucks.

Faith Scion (PrC) (UA): This divine PrC is best considered in tandem with the Hammer of All Souls, further down. If the scion meets the requirements and wields a particular Legendary Weapon, the weapon provides certain abilities depending on how far they go in the class. In this case, the abilities are bonuses to Knowledge checks, a couple of Smite Evil uses, an increase in the weapon’s enhancement bonus, limited use throwing and returning weapon abilities, and +6 to CON over 8 levels. The entry requirements scream dwarven cleric, right down to a need for Weapon Focus (Warhammer), and it advances divine casting 10/10, so it preserves the most important aspect of the divine caster’s entry while providing a not-bad side dish of abilities. The prerequisite of Great Fortitude is a wasted slot, but can be obtained for free if you take the Dwarf domain as a cleric – as is likely given the theme of this thing.

Dwarf Soulborn (MoI) (Racial Substitution Level): Here for completeness. At level 1, if a Dwarf Soulborn delivers a smite with a warhammer, he gets a +1 on the attack roll. The only problem with this is that you have to take a level in Soulborn.

Dwarf Cleric 4 (RoS) (Racial Substitution Level): Lose a second level spell slot, pick up Martial Weapon Proficiency with the warhammer if you don’t already have it, and also a +2 to damage rolls while wielding a warhammer in melee.

Hida Defender 1 (OA) (PrC): Critical Focus at first level increases the critical multiplier of, amongst other weapons, a warhammer - which raises ours from x3 to x4. The Hida Defender also gets a rage feature at level 2, so if you're needing some way to start foaming at the mouth outside bog-standard Barbarian, this isn't a bad one to think about.

Kensai (Variant Fighter Class) (Dragon 310): The main mention here is if you’re looking at the Goliath Greathammer, because this Kensai gets proficiency in one exotic weapon without the need for a feat, and the first level bonus fighter feat is replaced by a +1 to attack and damage with the chosen weapon, i.e. basically Weapon Focus, i.e.e. two feats for the effective price of one. The list of feats the Kensai can choose from is sort of limited, but you may not want to stay that long in this class anyway.

Exiled Dwarf (Race) (Dragon 320): Exiled dwarves lose darkvision (ugh), stonecunning (meh), stability (meh), and the racial bonuses to resist poison and magic (ugh) of the standard dwarf, but they pick up an extra feat at first level (yay!), +2 racial bonus to attack and damage against orcs, goblinoids (meh to situational yay), +6 dodge bonus to AC against giants (situational yay) and favoured class barbarian (meh). The extra feat might be handy …

Titan (Monster) (SRD): I was sure before going and looking this up that the Titan wielded a maul. However, they are said to wield what is explicitly said to be a “great, two handed Warhammer (big enough for Gargantuan creatures) without any penalty.” And in that respect, you are able to take the Major Titan Bloodline which allows you to do the same thing from level 12. Also note that the Titan's ability to wield the weapon "without penalty" was probably RAI meant to referr only to size penalties, but has the same drafting problem as people have identified with Tormtor School for javelins: "without penalty" by RAW means you take no penalty to attack rolls from Power Attack, fighting defensively, fighting two-handed with dual Titan warhammers, etc, etc ...

Dedicated Wright (Monster) (ECS): Construct. Probably wields an un-martial hammer given the damage it does is 1d3. Indeed it’s possibly the hammer is part of the wright itself.

Greathorn Minotaur (Monster) (MM4): carries a “greathammer”, which does 3d6 /x4 daamge and which presumably is a Large weapon.

Binder: The 4th Vestige Eurynome gets Euronyme's Maul. You summon a large +1 warhammer that you can wield in one hand. It improves with your Binder level, up to a +3 anarchic adamantine warhammer. This isn't actually that bad, since a large warhammer normally has to be a two-handed weapon for a Medium size character, and it appears implicit that this vestige removes the normal -2 for wielding an inappropriately sized weapon.

LA +1 Races that get Large size, arguably or otherwise

• Half-Minotaur (Dragon Magazine #313, +1 LA)
• Half-Ogre (also Dragon Magazine #313, +1 LA)
• Anthropomorphic Baleen Whale (Savage Species, +0 LA, 3 RHD)
• Incarnate Construct Maug (Savage Species, Fiend Folio, +1 LA, 2 RHD)
• Goliath Barbarian (Races of Stone, only while raging, powerful build while not raging +1 LA)
• Half-Giant (Expanded Psionics Handbook, Powerful Build, not actually large, +1 LA)
• Incarnate Construct Dustform Creature (Savage Species, Sandstorm, +0 LA, any humanoid-shaped creature with no LA otherwise can be put through it, will keep their racial hit dice)

Honorable Mentions:

• Lycanthrope 1 (Savage Species) for a Large-sized animal will get you Alternate Form into that animal, but it does not give you natural attacks, stats, or other bonuses. However, since the Savage Progressions generally put large size as an ability gained through having several hit dice, the DM is well within his rights to not let you take a Large form until you've put some more levels into it. If you can find a Large-sized animal with one hit die, you can take that one hit die, though.
• Hidden Talent (Expanded Psionics Handbook) gives you the ability to use the power of the same name a few times per day. Normally this would be fairly useless, but if you Use Magic Device (emulating race and emulating manifester level) some Power Link Shards (Magic of Eberron, psionic item), you can use them to augment it to a 10 minute duration.
• Athas Human (Dragon 319, +1 LA) with Inborn Power (Expansion) has a manifester level, so it can pull the same trick, but it will last 10 minutes per character level. They also have the capacity to augment it normally once you hit level 3.
• Permanency'd Enlarge Person on any Humanoid creature with CL 20 costs 3,700gp going by the standard rates.

[Saintheart]

Spells and Soulmelds

Earth Hammer (RoS) (Clr 5, Pal 3) – base damage of weapon improves 1 step, deals bludgeoning damage and overrides DR as if it were adamantine. Swift action. Basically the divine answer to Mighty Wallop, albeit it’s a long wait for Cleric 9 or Paladin 11 to cast the thing.

Mighty Wallop/Greater Mighty Wallop (RotD) (Sor/Wiz 1 and 3) – basically, increase the damage dice of a bludgeoning melee weapon, which all hammers are.

Enlarge Weapon (Sor/Wiz 2): Increases the size and therefore damage dice of your hammer without you taking any penalty for wielding an inappropriately sized weapon. Stacks with Mighty Wallop, since Mighty Wallop does absolutely nothing to the size of the weapon.

Arcane Maul (SoS) (Sor/Wiz 3): Just create a +4 warhammer in your hand and wield it regardless of proficiency as a [force] effect, or alternatively get a one-shot hurling effect on it. No indication about whether your feats and so forth count for wielding the weapon.

Weapon of Impact (SpC) (Brd 3, Clr 3, Sor/Wiz 3): Doubles critical threat range for a bludgeoning weapon. Doesn’t stack with any other crit-increasing effect.

Weapon of the Deity (SpC) (Blk 3, Clr 3, Pal 3, Mysticism 4): give your weapon enhancement bonuses and a special ability if it’s your deity’s favoured weapon. A list of the deities who like warhammers is set out below. The special ability tends to be throwing or frost. but might need DM adjudication depending on the god you pick.

Blade Storm (SpC) (Rgr 3): Despite the title, works on all melee weapons, of which a warhammer is one. On a swift action, take a full round action to make one attack with each melee weapon against one opponent within reach. Until you’ve got enough iterative attacks, this is actually pretty solid if you’ve got a lot of enemies around you and even more handy if you can combine it with an increased reach.

Incarnate Weapon (Soulmeld, Arms Chakra): Generates a hammer in the case of a lawful weapon, consistent with how Weapon of the Deity works for clerics of ideals. Not a bad option given the more essentia you invest in the weapon, the better its attack and damage gets, and your feats apply to the weapon.

[Saintheart]

Suggested Maneuvers and Stances

Whilst it’s hard to pick wrongly from Tome of Battle, there are some schools that might be of more interest than others. For those aiming for Bloodstorm Blade, the easiest entry path is by Warblade, mostly because it has direct access to Iron Heart. That said, there are some small advantages to be found depending on which big whacking weapon you’re focusing on. The maul is an associated weapon of the Devoted Spirit school, while the warhammer is an associated weapon of White Raven. But most of the time you don’t have to be using associated weapons to take advantage of a maneuver or stance for a given school.

And it’s also here that we need to talk a bit more about the maul.

Under 3.0 rules, the maul was a 1d10 20/x3, martial melee weapon. It was also Large. That meant it could only be used by Medium-sized characters as, and therefore was, a two-handed weapon.

However, it was updated in Complete Warrior. The maul is still a 1d10 20/x3 weapon, but it’s now an exotic and one handed weapon. In other words, it’s the bastard sword of hammers: only useable in one hand if you have Exotic Weapon Proficiency. It counts as a martial weapon when used two-handed, i.e. you get x1.5 STR bonus to damage when wielding it two-handed.

Now, this change has both pros and cons. The pros, I guess, are that it can now be used as a one-handed weapon with which it dishes out 1d10 damage - a dice that isn't generally available to single-handed weapons, and which simply wasn't available under 3.0. The fact it's one-handed means that if your DM is unkind and targets one of your hands, you can still use it. As an exotic weapon, that also opens up some stuff that helps it pull ahead of most two-handed weapons; specifically, Uncanny Blow in Exotic Weapon Master which allows the wielder to pull x2 STR bonus to damage when wielding it two-handed. It also has one minor benefit for throwing builds, in that throwing a two-handed weapon takes a full-round action while throwing a one-handed weapon is a standard action.

The con is that it still costs you a feat to wield the weapon with one hand. Particularly unfortunate for the maul is that the Greathammer (whether the Goliath or the Greathorn) is also an exotic weapon. Generally two-handed combat styles outstrip one-handed weapons in damage. For the same EWP feat tax, the Greathammer gives you a better (1d12) damage dice, a better critical multiplier at least (x4), and a x1.5 STR bonus by default, albeit -- because it's a two-handed weapon -- can't be ramped up to x2 STR bonus to damage in Exotic Weapon Master. The quickest fix I could suggest for this and which might make the maul more competitive again might be to allow that, if you have EWP (maul), Power Attack can be used to double bonus damage while the maul is being wielded in one hand.

As it is, there might be a case for the maul if your campaign is a long one and you want to start with sword and board hammer and board and move to two-handed wielding later on. Since the maul and the greathammer are both covered by an Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat, a Warblade’s aptitude class feature can be used to shift the weapon the feat applies to – i.e. you could change from EWP (Maul) to EWP (Greathammer) later on when you’re not quite so squishy and decide to come out from behind that shield. :)

The other case for the maul is where you’re planning on sword and board long-term and intending on Crusader. Almost uniquely among the base classes of 3.5, the Crusader actually makes a pretty good tank and sword-and-board is therefore quite workable for it. That being so, the maul is arguably the best among Devoted Spirit’s one-handed weapons (falchion, longsword, and maul) – and the school is exclusive to Crusaders. Although even then it doesn’t have massive synergy; Devoted Spirit is one of the few martial disciplines that doesn’t get a feat specifically benefiting from wielding a discipline-associated weapon (e.g. White Raven Defense or Shadow Blade).

In short, if you can’t get access to ToB or there’s nothing in there that you specifically want, or if you are intending on two-handed combat, there really isn’t much reason to use a maul if a greathammer is available. Even if the warhammer has less of a damage dice, at least it has a bit more support in terms of options.

[Saintheart]

Deities with the Warhammer as their favoured weapon

Aulasha LG Good, Knowledge, Law
Bleredd TN Creation, Earth, Fire, Strength
Dennari CG Chaos, Earth, Good, Liberation, Plant
Durann LG Good, Healing, Law
Flandal Steelskin NG Craft, Creation, Earth, Fire, Gnome, Good, Metal, Oracle, Strength
Fortubo LG (LN) Community, Earth, Good, Law, Mysticism, Protection
Gaerdal Ironhand LG Courage, Gnome, Good, Law, Nobility, Protection, War
Gelf Darkhearth CN Chaos, Destruction, War
Ghaunadaur CE Cavern, Chaos, Corruption, Drow, Evil, Hatred, Slime
Gond TN Artifice, City, Craft, Earth, Fire, Knowledge, Metal, Planning, Sin-Pride
Grumbar TN Balance, Cavern, Earth, Metal, Time
Hephaestus NG or TN Artifice, Community, Earth, Fire, Good, Protection, Strength
Istishia TN Destruction, Ocean, Storm, Travel, Water
Jascar LG Earth, Glory, Good, Law, Mysticism, Protection
Laduguer LE Craft, Domination, Dwarf, Earth, Evil, Law, Magic, Metal, Mind, Protection, War
Lyris TN Destiny, Fate, Luck, War
Moradin LG Craft, Creation, Dwarf, Earth, Fire, Good, Law, Portal, Portal (alt), Protection, Sin-Avarice, Sin-Pride, Sin-Wrath, Strength, War
Onatar NG Artifice, Creation, Fire, Good, Metal, Sin-Envy, Sin-Pride, Temperance, Warforged
Reorx TN Earth, Fire, Forge
Skoraeus Stonebones TN Cavern, Earth, Healing, Knowledge, Protection, Summoner, Temperance
Tharmekhul TN Destruction, Fire, War
Thor CG Air, Chaos, Good, Protection, Strength, War, Weather
Ulaa LG Earth, Good, Law, Liberation, Mysticism, Protection, Summoner
Yan-lo LN Death, Knowledge, Law
Stronmaus CG Air, Chaos, Good, Protection, Sky, Storm, Sun, War, Weather
Kurtulmak LE Competition, Earth, Evil, Hatred, Kobold, Law, Luck, Madness, Scalykind, Sin-Envy, Trickery, War (favoured weapons spear or warhammer)
Maglubiyet NE Chaos, Competition, Destruction, Evil, Planning, Strength, Trickery, Tyranny, War (favoured weapons battleaxe or warhammer)

The 3.0 book Defenders of the Faith provides that in the case of clerics of ideals rather than deities, the favoured weapon is determined by the cleric's alignment, similar to how Spiritual Weapon works. And just as with Spiritual Weapon, in the case of Good, the favoured weapon defaults to the warhammer!

Deities with the Maul as their favoured weapon

Dumathoin TN Cavern, Craft, Community, Dwarf, Earth, Knowledge, Metal, Oracle, Protection, Sin-Avarice, Sin-Pride
Kostchtchie CE Chaos, Evil, Fury, War, Winter
Silvanus TN Animal, Plant, Protection, Renewal, Water

Significant Domains

Dwarf domain – Free Great Fortitude feat. Can be handy for some PrCs.

War domain – if your god likes warhammers, you pick up proficiency in that weapon if need be and Weapon Focus in the same weapon. Greathammers and Mauls are not covered by this as they are exotic weapons, not martial.

Metal domain – free Martial or Exotic Weapon Proficiency and Weapon Focus with your choice of hammer. War domain eat your heart out! This gives you free proficiency with the Goliath Greathammer or indeed the maul, or even gnome hooked hammers, double hammers, etc., etc …

Knowledge domain – usually useful not for itself but for the thinking man’s Power Attack, Knowledge Devotion. Particularly has synergy for dwarves who take Ancestral Knowledge, whose Knowledge checks then key off WIS rather than INT.

Notable Affiliations

Church of St. Cuthbert (C.Champ) - (Rank 4, Affiliation Score 30 or higher) - Wielder of the Cudgel: Once per day, use a bludgeoning weapon to stun and daze a foe. The foe struck must succeed on a Fortitude save (DC 10 + 1/2 your character level + your Wis modifier) or be stunned for 1 round and dazed for 1d4 rounds thereafter.

Church of a War domain (C.Champ) - (Rank 4, Affiliation Score 30 or higher) -"Apply any feat that normally applies to a single weapon to all the weapons with the same damage type in an entire weapon class. For example, if you have Weapon Focus (longsword), you can apply its benefit to all martial slashing weapons." So: Lightning Mace applies - bludgeoning weapon. That annoying Weapon Focus (Light Hammer) you've been carrying around with you applies to your warhammer. It might not be Warblade aptitude, but it's one handy alternative. Indeed the Rank 3 ability below this is handy, too, i.e. boost your Power Attack once per day so it does triple damage rather than double.

[Saintheart]

Weapon Qualities and other items

- Throwing (SRD): +1 bonus. Gives your weapon a range increment of 10 feet so long as you are already proficient with it. If you don’t have this on your weapon, or you don’t have the Throw Anything feat, then you’re going to suck at being Thor. (Well, unless you’re ditching Light Hammers around, but that’s another story.) And note that the Dwarven Thrower, despite its name, doesn’t have this quality.


- Returning (SRD): +1 bonus. By RAW, the weapon only comes back to your hand at the start of your next turn. Which leaves you quite unarmed after you launch that hammer, i.e.e. no Attacks of Opportunity for you. You’re going to need a second Mjolnir if you want to perform iterative attacks. If you can get the Lesser Crystal of Return, it’s both less expensive and arguably superior to getting a returning weapon. Bloodstorm Blade’s Lightning Ricochet deals comprehensively with these problems, and likely obviates the need to take this weapon quality at all.


- Aptitude (ToB): +1 bonus. The Warblade's Aptitude class feature is actually elegantly worded. A Warblade really can only switch around the designated - i.e. appointed, or nominated - weapon that a feat which can apply to multiple weapons in fact applies to. Weapon Focus can apply to basically any weapon, but you have to pick one. That is then the designated weapon for that feat, and the Warblade's class ability is only to change that weapon. So feats like Weapon Style feats or Lightning Mace - which are locked down to defined weapons - can't benefit from Warblade aptitude.

Fortunately or otherwise, the Aptitude weapon quality is not so elegantly worded. It provides that "A wielder who has feats that affect the use of a particular type of weapon, such as Weapon Focus, Greater Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization, or the like, can apply the benefits of those feats to any weapon that has the aptitude quality." WOTC never concretely decided what they meant by the word "type". Weapon Focus instructs a person to choose one type of weapon; and the word type implies, if not by definition means, a category or group. But Weapon Focus is also regularly referred to as applying to only one weapon, and in virtually all usage, Weapon Focus is applied to a single weapon, e.g. "longsword" (indeed that interpretation is what the Warblade's aptitude class feature rests on). Never mind that when you get back to the SRD, "type" on the tables describing various weapons refers to the triptych of bludgeoning, slashing, or piercing damage.

Assuming, though, that "type" means one weapon, then, a feat such as Lightning Mace comes within the ambit of this weapon quality. Lightning Mace applies to the light mace, which is a type of weapon. Indeed Weapon Focus (light mace) is one of the prerequisites for Lightning Mace. Therefore, the benefit of those feats can be applied to any weapon that has the aptitude quality.

And insofar as it serves to further pry the Aptitude weapon quality away from the Warblade's Aptitude ability, it might be pointed out the fluff text about Aptitude weapons even further reinforces the idea this "abuse" was intended even if it wasn't thought through: "The aptitude property lets a wielder apply his expertise with another type of weapon to the aptitude weapon. Thus, the master of a greatsword is the also the master of any aptitude weapon."

For our purposes, this has most application for those souls who've suffered through taking Weapon Focus in a ranged weapon to qualify for some throwing option and then are confronted by starting all over again with the warhammer. But the potential breakage of this weapon quality doesn't need to be expanded on other than to point out the vast number of feats that apply to one weapon across 3.5.

Spoiler: A selection of apt cheeses

Show

Lightning Mace - as described. Get a critical threat with your warhammer, get an additional attack.

Spinning Halberd (CWar) - when you full attack with your warhammer, pick up a little extra AC, get extra bludgeoning damage, and an additional attack at -5.

Tormtor School (DoTU) - when you do damage with your warhammer, throw the warhammer at an enemy as a swift action. Also, have a +1 to damage. But the biggest cheese comes from a RAW oversight in the wording of the feat: the wielder of a [javelin] takes no penalty to a melee attack roll. This insanity was probably only meant to cover the fact a javelin is not a melee weapon and therefore normally invokes a -4 to the attack roll, but worded so generally it applies to any penalty you might otherwise take: Power Attack, TWF, range increment, nonproficiency penalty, the list goes on. And an Aptitude weapon can apply that to itself.

Turtle Dart (RoS) - when you're tanked up in Mountain Plate and carrying a Tower Shield or similar, don't provoke AoOs when you move away from an enemy that you have attacked (not hit) in the same round with your warhammer.

Those are just on an initial search for feats that unquestionably apply to only one weapon. The range is wider when you start looking at feats which apply to more than one weapon, which might also pass muster by RAW: Three Mountains for one, Boomerang Daze for another.

- Hammerblock (MIC, Armor Quality): Your DM is a jerk if he starts throwing enemies with this at you, because it provides DR 5/piercing or slashing.


- Merciful (DMG): Costs a +1. This is on theme with cleric-style builds using warhammers, but there is one exploit that’s handy in there: a weapon with this deals an extra 1d6 damage and all the damage the weapon deals is nonlethal. The ability can be switched on or off. This is useful because if your weapon happens to have certain forms of energy damage, and a creature you run into has resistance to that damage, you can switch this ability on and suddenly all those dice are preserved, but the creature’s energy resistance no longer applies to them. It might not be lethal damage, but an unconscious monster is a dead monster one coup de grace later.


- Martial Discipline (ToB): Costs a +1, but it’s one more handy reason to have a White Raven warhammer as a Crusader – because if you are wielding it and know a White Raven maneuver, it’s a +1 to your attack rolls, and if you’re using a White Raven stance or maneuver, it’s a +3 to the attack rolls. This is reasonably potent even at low levels, since stances are available at very low levels of martial adepts. And it doesn’t have to be a White Raven warhammer, either; it can be any martial discipline, but stances are the easiest way to get maximum bang for your buck out of this thing.


- Disruption (DMG): +2 bonus. This is one of the few weapon qualities that can only be applied to bludgeoning weapons, and basically comes down to: if you’re undead and get hit with a weapon that has this quality, roll a low-ish Will save or be outright destroyed. This would be more impressive if the Will save scaled or was a little higher, as it is I don’t know that I’d spend the cash for a +2 for this – especially not if you’re a cleric, and especially when you can cast Disrupting Weapon instead.


- Brutal Surge (MIC): +1 bonus. Free bull rush attempt after successful attack, 1 + CON bonus per day! The earlier DMG 2 version only allowed this once per day, but was a flat +2,000 gp to the price of your weapon and could only apply to bludgeoning or slashing weapons.


- Collision (MIC): +2 bonus, for a +5 to damage on all strikes. Probably worth it if you’re targeting critical hits, mainly because it likely doubles along with all other nonvariable damage according to the critical multiplier, but I would still query whether it’s worth that appalling amount of money in the face of other equivalent value stuff like buying items that grant feats or similar.


- Impact (AEG): +1 bonus. Double your bludgeoning weapon’s critical threat range. Why bother?


- Wrecker (Dragon 315): +1 bonus. Applies only to bludgeoning weapons. Your warhammer bypasses hardness entirely. Have fun sundering enemy weapons, I guess, especially if you're going down the Combat Brute path? Functionally, an adamantine weapon is still probably superior in the long run because adamantine does pretty much the same as this (ignore hardness up to 20) but only costs a flat gp bonus to make a weapon out of this. A Wrecker weapon by definition is going to cost you 8,000 gp since you have to make the weapon a +1 weapon first.


- Lesser Crystal of Return (MIC, Weapon Crystal): The Lesser Crystal allows you to call a weapon to your hand from 30 feet away as a move action. Don’t get the Greater Crystal. Why? Because of two things: the Greater Crystal gives the weapon the Returning property, which arguably overwrites the Lesser Crystal’s ability (Returning, as said, only returns the weapon to your hand just before the start of your next turn.) Secondly, the Greater Crystal can only be applied to a weapon designed to be thrown, which a Warhammer is not (and which you would arguably need the Throwing quality to make so. Throw Anything only allows you to treat the weapon as if it were a ranged weapon, it doesn’t change the weapon as such.) The Lesser Crystal allowing you to call a weapon back to your hand allows you the sequence of swift action teleport (say), standard action throw, move action recall weapon, thus leaving it available for an attack of opportunity if one presents itself. Returning leaves you unarmed for the remainder of your turn after you throw.


- Gauntlets of Extended Range (MIC): when you throw a weapon or object, the gauntlets double the weapon’s range increment. Great for smashing people more than 10 feet out, and cheap at 2,000 gp!


- Gauntlets of Throwing (MIC): three times a day, any melee weapon you hold takes on the throwing and returning properties … for 1 round. It’s cheap at 2,000 gp for the warhammer thrower, but really the best use you can make of this item is as an argument to your GM that a custom magic item which grants these abilities at will shouldn’t be too pricey. If you have access to the Michael Jackson Glove below, then skip this.


- Gauntlets of Agile Striking (MIC): twice per day, deal an extra 1d6 damage with “ranged weapons” for 1 round. 2,200 gp is just too expensive for this amount of uses given some random additional 1d6 of energy damage can be gotten for a +1 bonus and gives you that benefit all day long … on top of the fact you still have to convince your DM that warhammer + Throw Anything = you holding a ‘ranged weapon’.


- Glove of Taarnahm the Vigilant (PGtF): single chainmail gauntlet, and thus, the Michael Jackson Glove, that allows the wielder to hurl "any melee weapon he carries" as though it had the throwing and returning properties. 10,000 gp. Sounds expensive, but in this space it's actually a massive cost saver. A throwing and returning weapon has the cost of a +3 weapon, which is 18,000 gp plus change. And that weapon will only give you a +1 enhancement bonus to your attack and damage rolls; just because it's priced as a +3 weapon doesn't mean it grants a +3 enhancement bonus. (Quite the contrary, a +3 throwing and returning weapon, it would cost you 50,000 gp, since that's effectively a +5 weapon.) So putting your warhammer of throwing and returning side-by-side with the Glove, if you take the warhammer you are literally paying an extra 8,000 gp for the privilege of a +1 to attack and damage and making it more expensive to get any further enhancement on the weapon. This is an outrageous hidden cost, even moreso in a world where the spell Greater Magic Weapon is a thing. Even moreso given the Glove allows you to throw any melee weapon, not just that warhammer of yours. Put it another way: if the rule of thumb of magic item creation is that a feat should cost about 10,000 gp in a magic item, this item is giving you the Throw Anything feat plus an effective +1 via the grant of the returning quality. It is extremely cheap for what it grants, presuming you want to hurl weapons around the battlefield. Its one drawback is the returning quality it imparts to a melee weapon, which as said above means you are left unarmed until the start of your next turn. If you can whack a Lesser Crystal of Return on your warhammer and get it to override the returning quality, that problem is solved - and still for massively less money than you'd spend on throwing or returning.

[Saintheart]

Special Materials

- Pearlsteel (Stormwrack): About the most useful special material for bludgeoning weapons, and even then it’s situational – damage dealt underwater by a pearsteel bludgeoning weapon is reduced by -2 rather than halved.

- Heavy (Gold or Platinum): (MoF) It’s often seen as a cheesy option, but a weapon made of alchemical gold or platinum has an increased damage dice. Doing this turns it into an exotic weapon. Now, this has an interesting set of pros and cons attached to it, because it's not quite as simple as "it does damage as if it were a Large version of itself." Nope; if your weapon does 1d8 or 1d10, its damage is advanced to 2d6. If your weapon normally does 1d12, it's advanced to 2d8. Arguably that means warhammer wielders actually get more out of this substance than maul or greathammers do, mainly because the warhammer's damage dice becomes that of a Large warhammer, but the maul and greathammer's damage dice don't become Large versions of themselves. There's also that insofar as we care about that stuff, making a warhammer into a Heavy weapon turns it into an exotic weapon and opens up Exotic Weapon Master, amongst other things. That said, the greathammer and maul still probably wind up ahead because they still do more damage and you have to take an EWP to wield them fully anyway, but it's interesting at least.

- Riverine (Stormwrack): The writers didn’t contemplate weapons being made out of this substance, but it’s debatable whether it’s actually going to help you out much. The main thing about riverine is that as armor it turns half the armor bonus into a deflection bonus. This might be useful if you wanted to do something like stack Mage Armor on top of a chain shirt or something, but it’s not clear what effect it has if you put it into a weapon (albeit there are pricings for making riverine things other than armor.) Riverine is immune to all damage and unaffected by most spells, which your DM could turn around on you to say you can’t enhance your weapon with spells. On the other hand, walls of riverine block ethereal travel, so the argument is that riverine can affect incorporeals. This is definitely one for the DM to adjudicate if you’re going down this path, but frankly there's a hell of a lot easier ways to get a ghost touch weapon.

- Lenear wood (Dragon Annual #5): Look, most of the special materials in this annual are just hilariously badly balanced, at least compared with the rest of 3.5. On the other hand, one might see them as a pretty good way to balance up the equally hilariously badly balanced system of how expensive weapon qualities are in the rest of 3.5. Anyway, lenear is one of those substances which were probably intended to apply to ranged weapons but which weren’t thought through about their effect on thrown weapons (which are a subset of ranged.) Lenear, mainly because it’s a lot lighter than normal, adds 10 feet to a ranged weapon’s range increment. On a warhammer this is pretty much pointless unless your DM agrees Throw Anything or some similar magic effect turns it into a ranged weapon. If so, this doubles your warhammer’s thrown range increment. And for a Light Hammer, it basically increases the range increment by one third.

- Quicksilver/iron-filled (Dragon Annual #5): +2 untyped damage bonus for +5,000 gp flat bonus. Expensive, yes, but, again, taking the overall-hideously-overpriced weapon upgrades available in 3.5, this is still cheap in comparison -- and unlike normal weapon qualities, it doesn’t make adding further enhancements even more expensive.

- Copper-adamantite alloy (Dragon Annual #5): Not much point, it’s +4,500 gp for a +1 to damage when for +5,000 gp you can get two. This entry in the table on page 28 does not even have a fluff description for how this is meant to work.

- Darksteel (MoF): adds a +1 of electricity damage on a hit (which is expressly cumulative on any other abilities such as shock or shocking burst.) Costs a flat +1,500 gp to weapon price. If you want to be mini-Thor, here's mini-lightning bolts.

- Fever Iron (MoF): as darksteel, but fire damage this time, and again cumulative on stuff like flaming or flaming burst.

- Hizagkuur (MoF): combines darksteel and fever iron for the same price -- i.e. +1 electricity and +1 fire damage -- but you can never put it in a magic item that uses cold effects, e.g. [frost] or [icy burst].

- Duskwood (MoF): "Any steel or mostly steel weapon (such as a sword or a mace) made from duskwood is considered a masterwork item." That is, +1 to attack bonus. Costs +1,500 gp to weapon price, which is kind of silly given a masterwork weapon is only about +300 on a mundane weapon's price ... until you start casting spells like Brambles on it, which gives it piercing damage as well, and start painting it up with an Unguent of Timelessness, which allows those spells to stick around for hours rather than seconds. Hey, I'll leave it to Anthrowhale to explain how duskwood can be ab/used: "A cleric wielding a Duskwood Greathammer having the Strength domain and Power Attack can cast Brambles, have the party wizard cast Greater Mighty Wallop, cast Sense Weakness, then cast Surge of Fortune and Divine Power. When triggering this all in a single attack they can deal (8d6(colossal)+10(enhancement)+20(strength)x1.5(tw o handed)+20(Power Attack)x2(two handed))x4(critical) dealing an expected 432 damage in a single hit that always lands. Relative to the above, Brambles makes Duskwood pretty good, Surge of Fortune + Sense Weakness exploits that crit range of the Greathammer, while Power Attack + Divine Power is a free damage amplifier in the presence of Surge of Fortune. Although I've calculated things for level 20, all the elements can be used in combination at level 9."

[Saintheart]

Specific Hammers Of Interest

Hammer of All Souls (UA): the Hammer is a Legendary Weapon. Legendary Weapons come from Unearthed Arcana and are a sort of prototype for the later, and much-derided, Weapons of Legacy. In this case, the hammer is a +2 adamantine Warhammer that also grants +5 to Craft checks relating to stone and metal, as well as, 3/day, a bonus to Knowledge checks equal to your WIS modifier. That is, it at least substitutes and possibly adds to the Ancestral Knowledge feat from Races of Stone. This alone would make it very interesting for the dwarven cleric focused on Knowledge Devotion. However, when the hammer is wielded by someone in the Faith Scion PrC, the weapon gets stronger and provides more abilities, set out in the PrC section above.

Dwarven Thrower (SRD): Ye want a dwarven racial hammer?! Here’s yer dwarven racial hammer, ya stinkin *&$%#$#@! Normally functions as a +2 warhammer, but in the hands of a dwarf, becomes a +3 warhammer and gains the returning special ability. When hurled, does extra 2d8 damage against a giant and an extra 1d8 against everyone else. Unfortunately, because it doesn’t have the throwing special ability, you’re still throwing a weapon not designed for ranged combat, and you suck up at least a -4 penalty on the attack roll.

The War Widow (Dragon 333): While carrying this warhammer, you get a +3 luck bonus on all saving throws against disease, poison, and traps. Otherwise a +2 anarchic warhammer. You have to get into a fight once every 10 days or the relic ceases to function until next combat. Either sacrifice a 5th level divine spell slot or take the True Believer feat and have 9 HD.

Tyranny’s Knell (PGtF): As a Dwarven Thrower, but once per day you can set off an earthquake; if you hit a giant, DC 16 Fort save or be affected as if by a reduce person spell.

Rejavik (Dragon Annual #5): This warhammer has a mechanic similar in fluff to a mercurial longsword. Basically, it grants a +2 to damage. Untyped. It’s not magical. And in what is surely a misprint it costs 1,600 gp.

Bonebreaker Hammer (A&EG): +2 warhammer, glows. On a critical hit, does 1d6 of DEX damage in addition to normal!

Hammer of the Magesmith (A&EG): +1 warhammer, but when you use it to forge another magic weapon, it reduces the raw materials price by 5%. Battlesmith would probably get most use out of it. On top of that, it can cast Magic Weapon at CL 10 once per day ... on another weapon, not itself.

Hammer of Sacrifice (A&EG): Might be worth considering for the Crusader. Either way: sacrifice 5 hitpoints, and you get +5 to damage with all warhammer attacks until the next round.

Skullshaker Hammer (A&EG): +2 warhammer. 3/day, do 1d6 WIS damage on a successful hit.

Hammer of Thunderbolts (DMG) (Minor Artifact): Or, Mjolnir with the anti-Tony-Stark inscriptions filed off. +3 Large returning warhammer, does 4d6 damage on any hit (i.e. melee or thrown). But if you wear a Belt of Giant Strength, Gauntlets of Ogre Power, and know it’s the Hammer of Thunderbolts, its enhancement bonus goes to +5, allows belt and gauntlet bonuses to stack, strikes dead any giant it hits (Fort DC 20 save), and stuns people within 90 feet on a hit when it’s thrown. Oh, and a range increment of 30 feet, just because.

Hammer of Kharas (Dragonlance Campaign Setting): Planning on forging any dragonlances any time soon? If not, then you’ve got an intelligent +2 disruption warhammer that can detect evil at will, wielder is immune to fear, wielder gets a +4 to all saving throws vs. spells, hammer casts bull’s strength, heal, prayer, protection from arrows all once per day. Wielder gets a +8 circumstance bonus on Diplomacy checks against dwarves, but good grief, if your DM is crazy enough to actually give you this thing you should look around for the DM railroad that comes with all campaigns in the Dragonlance setting.

Hammersphere (MIC): Once per day conjures a giant hammer that functions as spiritual weapon at CL 7 except that it deals 3d6 damage on a hit.

Galeb Duhr Hammer (MIC): Cheapish at 5,312 gp: it’s a +1 warhammer, but if you score a critical hit against a creature standing on the ground, for 5 rounds the creature takes a -2 to attack rolls and AC, and has its speed dropped to 5 feet per round.

Runehammer (MoF): +1 warhammer made of darksteel, has one of three runes on it that can zap people once per day: Heat Metal, Burning Hands ... and Polymorph Other, "typically" into a snail or toad. Relatively cheap at around 20,000 gp for the polymorphing weapon.

Hammer of Skill (Dragon 324): Odd thing. Every time you fail an attack roll with this Warhammer, it imposes another -1 on your attack roll … but it adds a +1 circumstance bonus to your damage. If the wielder fails 10 consecutive attack rolls, the warhammer abandons the wielder permanently. Can actually be made at low levels, it’s CL 6 and priced at 18,000 gp.

Craemmol's Hammer (PGtF): +3 warhammer that rings like a bell when drow come by and allows you to concentrate and pinpoint the location of said drow.

Demondoom (BoED): +2 holy demon bane warhammer, made of cold iron. Once per day, can make a blinding strike attack against a demon, if successful, demon is blinded as if by a power word blind, but it’s nothing to write home about in price or ability terms.

Morzhul, the Forgeheart (RoS): It’s a dwarven Ancestor Weapon, which really just means it’s an intelligent weapon with a +2 to Ego, -2 to CHA, and has darkvision. Can cast Daze Monster, Faerie Fire, and Wall of Fire a bit as well. Basically if you want a portable jerk in a hammer, this is how you do it.

Bloodcrier’s Hammer (WoL): All right, all right, it’s a Legacy Weapon. That said: if you’re Large or can get yourself considered Large, then so long as you can figure out how to avoid advancing the weapon’s abilities past the initial 5th level ability, it actually represents a cost saving: buying the weapon and the cost of its least legacy ritual is about 5,000 gp all up, which is a cheap +2 weapon. Its powers otherwise aren’t bad as such, but they just aren’t strong for the levels they come online at, and they certainly aren’t worth the cumulative of a -3 to attack rolls, -6 to saving throws, and -16 hitpoints you suffer over 20 levels.

Hammer of Witches (WoL): Legacy Weapon again, but in its ‘unwoken’ form it’s actually cheap (2,300 gp) for what it does: a +1 warhammer that grants a +1 bonus on all saves against arcane magic. Don’t even pay the cost of the first legacy, though, it’s horrendously bad after that.

Maladur’s Warhammer (Ghostwalk): It’s a +2 disruption warhammer that allows you to cast detect undead once per day, but good grief at 36,000 gp why would you bother?

Oathkeeper (Ghostwalk): +1 thundering warhammer and allows the wielder to cast discern lies once per day. Around 30,000 gp to buy, don’t bother.

Oath-Hammer (CoV): normally a +2 warhammer, if activated by swearing an oath in Dwarven, it becomes a +5 warhammer, does an extra 2d6 damage, and critical multiplier increases to x4 ... but these improvements only apply to creatures directly associated with the wielder's path of vengenace. Against everybody else, it's just a masterwork hammer. Once you achieve the oath, gain a negative level. This isn't a bad bunch of abilities for 30,600 gp.

Anvil of Hope (CoV): one of the Reluctant Four. +1 merciful dwarven warhammer, produces a Good Hope effect 1/day. Emits a 60 foot aura that only affects good dwarves, any such opponent in the aura makes a DC 11 Will save or leaves the battle to not sell anymore deathsticks and go home and rethink his life.

Maul of the Titans (SRD): It’s a +3 greatclub and does triple damage against inanimate objects. FEAR ME, BLOCKS OF CONCRETE. Oh wait, you need STR 18 or else you take -4 to attack rolls with it.

Mattock of the Titans (SRD): a ditch-digger that is the equivalent of a Gargantuan +3 adamantine warhammer, doing 4d6 of base damage.

Maul of Construction (A&EG): and just rounding out our big tools for building stuff, the Maul is a +2 Large warhammer that deals 2d6 base damage but casts stone shape and wall of stone once per day.

[Saintheart]

Other Mallets To Consider

Ramhammer (Planar Handbook): A weird one only for bullrushing builds. 1d10/x2, an exotic two-handed weapon. It’s a melee weapon with a 10 foot reach, but you don’t threaten the area into which you attack. Using it provokes attacks of opportunity as if you had used a ranged weapon. But you can make bull rush attacks with it without having to enter the opponent’s square, and it gives you a +2 on your opposed STR check, and still gains a +4 if you have Improved Bull Rush.

Throwing Hammer (RoS) – exotic light weapon, 1d6 x2, range increment 20 feet, bludgeoning. Basically the light hammer with a d6 damage dice rather than a d4. But it’s an exotic weapon and Weapon Focus in it doesn’t count for any appropriate weapon style feats in Complete Warrior, e.g. Hammer’s Edge.

Double Hammer (CWar) – 1d8/1d8 x3 on both ends, exotic double weapon. This is not how you do Darth Maul (yes, I went there).

Warmace (CWar) – 1d12 x2, exotic one-handed weapon. So it’s a maul with less critical damage but a better damage dice. Still not much case to take this over the greathammer if you have to spend exotic weapon feats, especially given it’s not one of the associated weapons of any martial discipline.

Gnome Hooked Hammer (PHB) 1d8/1d6, x3/x4. Double weapon, helps out with trip attacks, and it’s a racial weapon for gnomes, but my goodness it is silly.

War Spikard (MoE): exotic weapon, it's basically a crossbow combined with a warhammer (and does bludgeoning and piercing damage) ... but the weapon description specifically indicates it's not enough like a warhammer to benefit from any feats or features pertaining to that weapon.

Hammer of the Weaponsmith (MoF): not a weapon, but a masterwork tool: grants +10 circumstance bonus on Craft (Weaponsmithing) checks for about 2,000 gp.

Approaches, Combinations, Suggested Builds

Always taking suggestions!

Anvil of Thunder + Double Hit: Potential daze effect every time you take an attack of opportunity. Double Hit allows two strikes: hit once with the hammer, once with the axe, opponent gets dazed. However, it’s very expensive to set up, needing 9 feats in total: Anvil of Thunder, Double Hit, Improved Sunder, Power Attack, TWF, Weapon Focus (hammer), Weapon Focus (axe), Combat Reflexes, and Improved TWF.

Hammer’s Edge + Double Hit: Technique is the same as for Anvil of Thunder – use Double Hit to meet H.E.’s conditions of hits with sword and hammer, and the opponent is knocked prone. The moment he tries to stand up again, he provokes another attack of opportunity to which Double Hit may be freely applied, potentially knocking him prone once more. Slightly easier than the Anvil of Thunder combination since it only requires 8 feats: Hammer’s Edge, Double Hit, TWF, Improved TWF, Combat Reflexes, Improved Bull Rush, Weapon Focus (longsword), Weapon Focus (warhammer).

Anvil of Thunder + Quick Draw: if you’re throwing alternating hand axes and light hammers, free action draw-and-throws potentially daze the enemy on successive hits. Not as strong as the above options, but at least it’s slightly cheaper at 7 feats: Anvil of Thunder, its 5 prerequisite feats, and Quick Draw, albeit several Least Crystals of Return could deal with the last item. As with a lot of things thrown, Bloodstorm Blade’s Lightning Ricochet also helps significantly.

Anvil of Thunder + Quick Draw + Throw Anything: Why stop at throwing stuff that was designed to be thrown? Throw Anything allows you to, throw. Anything. So ditch that warhammer and the sheathed waraxe at the guy, if you hit him with both, he's dazed!

Stormguard Warrior + Ranged Threat + Throw Anything + Power Attack: Ranged Threat allows you to threaten all squares within 15 feet with a ranged weapon. If you have Throw Anything and a warhammer, you are armed with a ranged weapon. Don’t worry, we’re not throwing anything. Stormguard Warrior requires that you refrain from taking attacks of opportunity, which arise every time the opponent closes by five feet within the 15 feet range, i.e. a free +8 to your attacks next round. Push all that +8 from attack to damage in Power Attack. Now you’re hitting for 24 extra damage for no loss in attack roll. Add Robilar’s Gambit for even more hilarity. No reach weapon required, but it does take 8 feats and a level in Warblade to set up: Combat Reflexes, Power Attack, Ranged Threat, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Stormguard Warrior, Ironheart Aura, Throw Anything, the level in Warblade supplies the Iron Heart maneuvers which are prerequisites as well.

Hurling Charge + Pulverise Foe + Lightning Ricochet + Any form of Pounce: Throw your warhammer at the opponent as you charge him. If it hits (and it picks up the +2 from charge as well as your best attack bonus), not only do you still get a full attack at the end of the charge with the warhammer as it bounces back to you, but all your strikes in that full attack have +1d6 of bludgeoning damage when they hit.

The Hammerdin of Moradin

Spoiler: Monk 1 / Barbarian 1 / Cleric 3 / Bloodstorm Blade 4 / Drunken Master 2 / Hammer of Moradin 9

Show

This build was made by gruftzwerg in this thread. https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?527093 . Replicating gruftzweg’s explanation of the build…

Hammer of Moradin has some really nice (and even a few unique) abilities to offer with his warhammer. Extra 0.5 Str bonus on warhammer dmg, extra dmg due to enemy armor, Quake (AoE Reflex or fall prone!) and even some ranged option.
He gets the ability to throw (+ returning) for his warhammer and even a special attack called "Power Throw" which hits all enemies in a line of 60ft. The downside of the ranged abilities is that the returning ability works at the start of your next turn. And since most of the times you won't be carrying more than 1 or 2 warhammers with you, your ranged attacks / round are limited.
To overcome this limitation we need Bloodstorm Blade 4 which gives use Lightning Ricochet. This is a returning ability which can be used as free action and thus enable ranged full attacks.
To get the needed mobility & dmg, we need Pounce (Barb 1 ACF) and Stagger (Drunken Master 2). This enables pounce every turn in almost any space & environment, since you can freely change directions with Stagger while Charging. And since we can charge every turn, a valorous warhammer doubles our dmg output.
At lvl 20 when you get your Power Throw, you can pounce with Heedless Charge and hit everything in a 60ft. line with every attack each turn (don't forget x2 Str bonus for 2h, and extra dmg for enemies wearing armor).

BAB: +19 (@lvl20)
DMG Formula:
(assuming +5 weapon with Collision for another +5 dmg and valorous for x2 charge multiplier // further assuming Str 34 - Base 18 +5 from lvl, +5 tome, +6 item):

= (1d8 + 2xStr + 2xPA +5 +5) x2
= 2d8 + 4xStr + 4xPA + 20
= 2d8 + 4x12 + 4x19 + 20
= 2d8 + 48 + 76 + 20
= 2d8 + 144 dmg
If enemy is wearing armor, add double the regular AC bonus (without magic) to dmg.


Sure the build kicks in very late, but it's still a playable interesting build. Dmg is high enough imho, but can't compete with high single target dmg of high optimized builds (compared to my other builds). But on the other hand, your dmg is a 60ft AoE line. At least it is the most interesting build I could came up for a Hammer of Moradin in all the years.
The PrC has a lot of fluff, but so far I had a hard time to build something really useful out of it. But now, it seems I have found a build which is worth the flair & fluff of this nice PrC. I mean, every good dwarf should be able to "Drink like a Demon" (Drunken Master 1)

Thx for reading up till here.
I hope you like the build and I would be happy for some feedback as always =)

Ring of Evasion:
The build relies on a Ring of Evasion to enter Drunken Master (while I hat it on my original notes, I somehow missed it in the original post here.. sry for that.). Sure, relying on a magic item for your PRC abilities (DM is in one of the 2 books with the odd rule) ain't a good idea, but since it's only for DMs Stagger ability it should be compensate able. You can buy the ring at lvl 11 (when you WBL is enough to buy it as expensive magic item per the rules) just before entering Drunken Master.

Alternative Build Suggestion - Subrace: Exalted Dwarfs
Exalted Dwarfs (Dragon 320) have the human bonus feat. This feat can be used for Leap Attack or another Maneuver (e.g. Iron Heart Surge) or a Stance (e.g. Child of Shadow to get concealment/misschance).

edit:
- added BAB & DMG calculation
- added required Magic Item

edit2:
- added "Exalted Dwarf" as alternative Build/Race Suggestion for further optimization.

[Saintheart]

Acknowledgments

As always, I want to thank the community for continuing to make this forum great, and once again apologise for my lack of optimisation knowledge; I learn something more every time I do one of these guides, and I am always happy to hear if I’ve gotten something wrong or if you have some additions to suggest. Whenever I finish one of these I think I’ve covered everything, but I am invariably proven wrong by you wonderful people.

As with all my guides, even if they drop into disuse, I do keep adding little bits and pieces into the threads as I find them, so please feel free to get in touch if you find something of value that should go into this compendium. As you would note, some (a lot?) of the content above is not original to me, and for that I’m again very thankful for your indirect support in that respect.

As for specific sources, I recommend (links to be added):
- X Stat to Y Bonus
- Darrin’s TWF Handbook
- Dictum Mortuum’s Fighter Handbook
- Troacctid’s Comprehensive List of Deities

I also drew from the following threads which weren’t specific guides as such:

https://forums.giantitp.com/showthre...Shield-Paladin
https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questi...where-are-they
https://forums.giantitp.com/showthre...finite-attacks
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...87sVSvWL8/edit


Thanks again, all, and from here, it's over to you!

[Palanan]

This is just fantastic. Thanks for assembling this resource; my only question now is how I'm going to include some of this in my campaign.

I've been planning an encounter with dwarves for a while now, and this just might give me the centerpiece. I'd never heard of the Exiled Dwarf from Dragon #320, but that's already giving me all sort of ideas.

So, very well done, and many thanks.

[tyckspoon]

Two things I believe you have wrong: You repeatedly state that two-handed weapons give double Strength damage. This is incorrect, in the absence of any special features modifying this - they work the same as wielding a one-handed weapon in two hands, giving 1.5x Str mod to damage. Same for Power Attack - the default handedness of the weapon doesn't matter, if you're wielding it in two hands you get double returns. (You have a lot of good recommendations here and quite a few interesting options that I was previously completely unaware of, but wherever you got this particular misunderstanding from I think it's significantly warping your choice of weapon opinions.)

Warblade's Aptitude feature does not allow you to change the weapon for things like the style feats and Lightning Mace. What it does is allow you to reselect the chosen weapon for feats like Weapon Focus, where it says 'Pick a weapon, this feat gives you the bonuses with that weapon..' As things like Hammer's Edge don't allow you to pick a weapon to affect in the first place Warblade can't change them.
You want the similar-but-distinct Aptitude weapon enhancement, which instead says 'This weapon can be used with any feats that work with a specific weapon type.' So you can take your Aptitude Light Hammer and say 'For purposes of Lightning Mace this is actually a Light Mace.'

[Maat Mons]

Mauls and warmaces are martial weapons when used in two hands. So you don't have to spend a feat on them unless you're going Two-Weapon Fighting or sword hammer and board. And two-handed is generally considered the superior style anyway.

If you have martial weapon proficiency and were planning to use a warhammer two-handed (for increased Power Attack damage), I see little reason not to switch over to a maul.

Edit: Are you treating the goliath greathammer as an update of the greathammer from MMIV? (It's on page 101.)

Something never addressed by the rules for making weapons of gold/platinum is, "what happens if the weapon was already exotic?"

[Powerdork]

If you have martial weapon proficiency and were planning to use a warhammer two-handed (for increased Power Attack damage), I see little reason not to switch over to a maul.

So you're not as screwed by the non-proficiency penalty in the case that one of your hands becomes unavailable? (If you say back-up weapon, I say "your feats don't apply".)

Something never addressed by the rules for making weapons of gold/platinum is, "what happens if the weapon was already exotic?"

It doesn't need a special case. You, as a user of an exotic weapon, probably have the Exotic Weapon Proficiency (exotic weapon in question) feat, so you don't take the penalty the special material imposes. If they wanted to add an arbitrary feat cost for using superdense metal weapons, they could have easily without even touching the proficiency mechanic.

[Maat Mons]

I did say the maul was for a two-handed Power Attack build. Such a build is already screwed over if you lose a hand. That's not a weakness being introduced by the maul. Even with the warhammer, you've still lost almost half your damage. Compared to that, the -4 attack roll penalty is minor.

Edit: I'm not quite sure what you're getting at with the "if they wanted to add an arbitrary feat cost" bit. They did add an arbitrary feat cost. You need Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Heavy [whatever]) to wield a [whatever] made out of gold or platinum without penalty.

[Thurbane]

Great guide as usual!

Only thing I have to contribute off the top of my head is the 4th vestige Eurynome, which gets Eurynome's Maul.

You summon a large +1 warhammer that you can wield in one hand. It improves with your Binder level, up to a +3 anarchic adamantine warhammer.

[edit] I'll add stuff as I find it:

Hida Defender 1 (OA): Critical Focus - increase critical multiplier of a warhammer, battleaxe or great club.

Staggering Blow feat (Dragon Compendium): on a confirmed crit with a bludgeoning weapon, foe must save or bu stunned for 1 round.

Pulverize Foe feat (CoR): if you hit with the same enemy with bludgeoning weapon more than once in a round, the extra attacks each get +1d6 damage.

Some specific magical weapons (all from Arms & Equipment guide):
- Bonebreaker Hammer: +2 warhammer; Deals 1d6 Dex damage on a crit
- Hammer of the Magesmith: +1 warhammer; reduces material cost of making magical weapons
- Hammer of Sacrifice: +2 warhammer; sacrifice HP to increase damage
- Maul of Construction: large +2 warhammer; casts stone shape and wall of stone 1/day each
- Skullshaker Hammer: +2 warhammer; 3/day does 1d6 Wis damage on a hit

[/edit]

[Saintheart]

Two things I believe you have wrong: You repeatedly state that two-handed weapons give double Strength damage. This is incorrect, in the absence of any special features modifying this - they work the same as wielding a one-handed weapon in two hands, giving 1.5x Str mod to damage. Same for Power Attack - the default handedness of the weapon doesn't matter, if you're wielding it in two hands you get double returns. (You have a lot of good recommendations here and quite a few interesting options that I was previously completely unaware of, but wherever you got this particular misunderstanding from I think it's significantly warping your choice of weapon opinions.)

Warblade's Aptitude feature does not allow you to change the weapon for things like the style feats and Lightning Mace. What it does is allow you to reselect the chosen weapon for feats like Weapon Focus, where it says 'Pick a weapon, this feat gives you the bonuses with that weapon..' As things like Hammer's Edge don't allow you to pick a weapon to affect in the first place Warblade can't change them.
You want the similar-but-distinct Aptitude weapon enhancement, which instead says 'This weapon can be used with any feats that work with a specific weapon type.' So you can take your Aptitude Light Hammer and say 'For purposes of Lightning Mace this is actually a Light Mace.'

I am constantly amazed at my own general failure to understand the very basics of D&D :D

Seriously, thanks for the correction on STR bonus, since it does change how I'll be 'rating' certain weapons in the guide. Now I think I get it: in general, two-handed weapons have a larger damage dice than one-handed weapons do, so really that's the advantage you get from wielding a two-handed weapon as opposed to a one-hander. The STR bonus is the same.

As to Warblade Aptitude: its wording as I understood it was:

Each morning, you can spend 1 hour in weapon practice to change the designated weapon for any feat you have that applies only to a single weapon (such as Weapon Focus).

The Lightning Mace feat applies only to the Light Mace. That's the designated weapon for the feat. Ergo, it is a feat that applies only to a single weapon. Is there something I am missing with that sentence? (I grant it is RAW cheese, but it does seem to be RAW even if it's not quite what they intended.)

I certainly agree that for Weapon Style feats like Hammer's Edge you couldn't use Aptitude to change the sword and hammer to axe and kukri, since there's more than one type of weapon to which the feat applies. Fortunately, those feats generally have some flexibility inbuilt to them in that while they require Weapon Focus in certain weapons to qualify for them, the wording of the feat usually says something like "hit with your sword and hammer" -- which means you don't have to be using the precise sword or hammer in which you have Weapon Focus.

Mauls and warmaces are martial weapons when used in two hands. So you don't have to spend a feat on them unless you're going Two-Weapon Fighting or sword hammer and board. And two-handed is generally considered the superior style anyway.

If you have martial weapon proficiency and were planning to use a warhammer two-handed (for increased Power Attack damage), I see little reason not to switch over to a maul.

Edit: Are you treating the goliath greathammer as an update of the greathammer from MMIV? (It's on page 101.)

Something never addressed by the rules for making weapons of gold/platinum is, "what happens if the weapon was already exotic?"

- The only thing being that there isn't quite as much support for the maul in feats, ACFs, and so on, than there is for the warhammer. But that's a decision people just have to make I guess. I certainly agree if the choice is between warhammer and maul and the intended style is two-handed and the selection of feats isn't intended at using something specific to the warhammer only, then the maul is not such a bad idea.

- I'll note that there's a greathammer in MMIV but maybe offer some conjecture about whether it's an update or its own weapon, since it's carried by a Greathorn Minotaur.

- I think on gold/platinum weapons the answer is that you would have to have exotic weapon proficiency in a specifically heavy weapon. Magic of Faerun contains this:

"Without the proper Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat (for instance, heavy longsword) you suffer a -4 penalty on attack rolls with a heavy weapon."

Thus, the weapon has to be made as a gold/platinum weapon, and if it is, it has its own EWP feat separate from the weapon's original EWP feat. Gold/platinum isn't something that can be applied over the top, the weapon has to be made from the start as a heavy weapon.

Great guide as usual!

Only thing I have to contribute off the top of my head is the 4th vestige Eurynome, which gets Eurynome's Maul.

You summon a large +1 warhammer that you can wield in one hand. It improves with your Binder level, up to a +3 anarchic adamantine warhammer.

[edit] I'll add stuff as I find it:

Hida Defender 1 (OA): Critical Focus - increase critical multiplier of a warhammer, battleaxe or great club.

Staggering Blow feat (Dragon Compendium): on a confirmed crit with a bludgeoning weapon, foe must save or bu stunned for 1 round.

Pulverize Foe feat (CoR): if you hit with the same enemy with bludgeoning weapon more than once in a round, the extra attacks each get +1d6 damage.

Some specific magical weapons (all from Arms & Equipment guide):
- Bonebreaker Hammer: +2 warhammer; Deals 1d6 Dex damage on a crit
- Hammer of the Magesmith: +1 warhammer; reduces material cost of making magical weapons
- Hammer of Sacrifice: +2 warhammer; sacrifice HP to increase damage
- Maul of Construction: large +2 warhammer; casts stone shape and wall of stone 1/day each
- Skullshaker Hammer: +2 warhammer; 3/day does 1d6 Wis damage on a hit

[/edit]

Noted and I'll add them in, thanks and appreciated once again!

[Gruftzwerg]

First, a big thx for your hard work. I always appreciate it when someone does this cruel information grind and puts it into a nice format.


Weapon Aptitude: It only works on feats that lets you designate a single weapon. Not on feats that limit you to a single weapon. If the feat doesn't let you choose the weapon that it applies to, you may not change it. And if its a feat which you may change, it must still be a legal target.

[Saintheart]

First, a big thx for your hard work. I always appreciate it when someone does this cruel information grind and puts it into a nice format.


Weapon Aptitude: It only works on feats that lets you designate a single weapon. Not on feats that limit you to a single weapon. If the feat doesn't let you choose the weapon that it applies to, you may not change it. And if its a feat which you may change, it must still be a legal target.

Fair enough, I will go and make some changes to it, or at least point out that doing this is likely a bit dodgy at best.

[Riggdgames]

I remember you once said you had some experience with Mauls. I'm pretty sure it was right around the time I was asking you permission to go down that path. For some reason even though I've seen your signature a million times it's taken me a full couple months to finally understand what you meant. Holy moly Saintheart, this is f***ing awesome.

Thanks for building this thread. It's an enjoyable read and jam-packed with information, but most of all it's a celebration of a particular kind of fantasy weapon. Some warriors dance though battle carrying a rapier wielded like a scalpel, others hack and slash with swords and axes, but there is something undeniably brutal about the character that walks into melee carrying a big hammer. It is akin to saying, 'you can run, but you can't hide' in weapon form.

The other case for the maul is where you’re planning on sword and board long-term and intending on Crusader. Almost uniquely among the base classes of 3.5, the Crusader actually makes a pretty good tank and sword-and-board is therefore quite workable for it. That being so, the maul is arguably the best among Devoted Spirit’s one-handed weapons (falchion, longsword, and maul) – and the school is exclusive to Crusaders.

I wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment The crusader is definitely unique. Shield Block and Shield Counter are the only shield-based maneuvers in ToB and they belong to Devoted Spirit. Combined with the fact that they're good all by themselves (show me the person who doesn't like Immediate Actions that fit well with their role), the Crusader-package is chock full of goodies for a tank. That just leaves the question of what to wield in that other hand. You could do a lot worse than adding a 1d10 x3 1H weapon into the mix for the cost of one feat, and lest we forget, you also get to carry a big hammer around instead of being one more stooge with a longsword.

Anyway, now that I've found this and had a chance to give it a read-through I just wanted to thank you for putting in the work.

[daremetoidareyo]

Incarnate weapon (good) is a warhammer. And it's accessible via the shape soulmeld feat

Hammer and piton hijinx are here: https://forums.giantitp.com/showthre...m-Dungeonscape

[Saintheart]

Thanks for the kind comments, riggd, I do appreciate it.

And for the extra materials and links, daremetoidareyo: updated, and appreciated!

[The Glyphstone]

I happened to spot you mentioning the Titan wielding a two-handed warhammer, but did I miss any mention of the Major Titan Bloodline from Unearthed Arcana, which at 12th level gives you the ability to wield a Gargantuan Warhammer without penalty?

https://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/r...ines.htm#titan

[Saintheart]

I happened to spot you mentioning the Titan wielding a two-handed warhammer, but did I miss any mention of the Major Titan Bloodline from Unearthed Arcana, which at 12th level gives you the ability to wield a Gargantuan Warhammer without penalty?

https://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/r...ines.htm#titan

You didn't miss it, it wasn't there, but I will make sure it is from now on! Many thanks for the catch and the additional material!

[Anthrowhale]

A cleric wielding a Duskwood Greathammer having the Strength domain and Power Attack can cast Brambles, have the party wizard cast Greater Mighty Wallop, cast Sense Weakness, then cast Surge of Fortune and Divine Power. When triggering this all in a single attack they can deal (8d6(colossal)+10(enhancement)+20(strength)x1.5(tw o handed)+20(Power Attack)x2(two handed))x4(critical) dealing an expected 432 damage in a single hit that always lands.

Relative to the above, Brambles makes Duskwood pretty good, Surge of Fortune + Sense Weakness exploits that crit range of the Greathammer, while Power Attack + Divine Power is a free damage amplifier in the presence of Surge of Fortune. Although I've calculated things for level 20, all the elements can be used in combination at level 9.

[thorr-kan]

The Tall Brother: Lucerne Hammer
Brother Lucy comes to us from the Arms & Equipment Guide. He does 2d4 damage, so basically similar damage to the warhammer, but he has a critical range of 20/x4, and that damage can be bludgeoning or piercing.

Cite for the bludgeoning damage?

My copy of A&EG only shows Piercing. There may well be errata I don't have a copy of.

[DwarvenWarCorgi]

Awesome guide. The sacred texts are fuzzy on the subject of kneecaps.....

2 additions for you,
Hammer of Earth from Magic of Rokugan lets you ADD your Con bonus to damage with the hammer.

Mattock of the Titans is on SRD, huge +3 adamantine warhammer, gives bonuses to destroying walls, dikes, etc.

Also, I saw you mention the PrC Battlesmith, its decent, but Ironsoul Forgemaster (MoI) is superior, but far more of a commitment as the bonus with a weapon you craft doesn’t arrive until IF9.

[Saintheart]

Sorry about the delayed responses, folks, a certain other handbook had my attention...

A cleric wielding a Duskwood Greathammer having the Strength domain and Power Attack can cast Brambles, have the party wizard cast Greater Mighty Wallop, cast Sense Weakness, then cast Surge of Fortune and Divine Power. When triggering this all in a single attack they can deal (8d6(colossal)+10(enhancement)+20(strength)x1.5(tw o handed)+20(Power Attack)x2(two handed))x4(critical) dealing an expected 432 damage in a single hit that always lands.

Relative to the above, Brambles makes Duskwood pretty good, Surge of Fortune + Sense Weakness exploits that crit range of the Greathammer, while Power Attack + Divine Power is a free damage amplifier in the presence of Surge of Fortune. Although I've calculated things for level 20, all the elements can be used in combination at level 9.

Noted and I'll get it in there.

Cite for the bludgeoning damage?

My copy of A&EG only shows Piercing. There may well be errata I don't have a copy of.

No, you're quite right, the Lucerne Hammer in AEG is a piercing weapon and the fluff describes it quite literally as a pick on a stick. There is, however, a polearm in Dragon 331 called the Lucerne Hammer identical to the AEG version in all respects other than that it does both piercing and bludgeoning damage. And insofar as it's relevant, the Pathfinder Lucerne Hammer matches the Dragon version as well.

Awesome guide. The sacred texts are fuzzy on the subject of kneecaps.....

2 additions for you,
Hammer of Earth from Magic of Rokugan lets you ADD your Con bonus to damage with the hammer.

Mattock of the Titans is on SRD, huge +3 adamantine warhammer, gives bonuses to destroying walls, dikes, etc.

Also, I saw you mention the PrC Battlesmith, its decent, but Ironsoul Forgemaster (MoI) is superior, but far more of a commitment as the bonus with a weapon you craft doesn’t arrive until IF9.

I'll add Ironsoul Forgemaster. Mattock of the Titans is already in there, but Hammer of Earth is technically a third party book since Magic of Rokugan was by Alderac Entertainment Group, not WOTC. Oriental Adventures itself is the only book that's widely considered "first party" in that it was published by WOTC; the remainder of the Legend of the Five Rings books might use the d20 system, but it doesn't come with 'Official D&D' markers and thus doesn't tend to be considered a "legit" option for D&D 3.5. Not that I'm trying to tell anyone what books to use or not as such, at this stage D&D 3.5 might as well be "Homebrew 2020" for all the official support it gets.

[Thurbane]

No, you're quite right, the Lucerne Hammer in AEG is a piercing weapon and the fluff describes it quite literally as a pick on a stick. There is, however, a polearm in Dragon 331 called the Lucerne Hammer identical to the AEG version in all respects other than that it does both piercing and bludgeoning damage. And insofar as it's relevant, the Pathfinder Lucerne Hammer matches the Dragon version as well.

The Dragon version of the Lucerne hammer was re-printed in the Dragon Compendium hard cover, which is generally considered a more "official" source.