|
| 1 person marked this as FAQ candidate. |
so from legacy of fire player's guide, to adventurer's armory, to adventurer's armory errata, to ultimate combat, meteor hammer is still confusing.
its an exotic 1d8/x2 weapon with reach and trip listed.
in the description it says that it can be used in two stances,
meteor mode: use it as a double weapon. i guess for 1d8/1d8
and fortress mode: where it gains reach, you get a +1 shield bonus, but can't use it as a double weapon.
admittedly they've fixed it a lot better than when it first came out with like 1d10/19-20 or something. But I just wanted to make sure the Ultimate Combat version is the latest. I seemed to remember updates by SKR saying that the weapon had reach in both modes, but the text in the description seems to trump the table as it only has reach in fortress mode?
( incidentally after all this fixing of the meteor weapon, why was the spiked chain downsized so badly again? ::rubs head:: doesn't the meteor hammer do everything that the spiked chain was chastised for doing? )
|
I say the old 3.5 style spiked chain was better because it threatens both adjacent and reach at the same time. the meteor hammer only threatens one catagory at a time. 3.5sc makes AoO a little more likly and much easier on battlefield placement. with the new d8 damaage, the mh now does 4.5 dam average compared to the 5 average of 2d4.
i took mh with the good/old version of heirloom weapon and had to swap out a feat for it now in pfs. I built another pc w/ it from the gencon cert. sure some people will use the alterante 1/2elf racial feature to use it.
i think the mh is closer to being worth a feat than any other exotic but it is still lacking and i have a hard time seeing myself ever spending a full feat for it again. even the first taking of it was only due to heirloom weapon change. The spikechain on the other hand i had an easier time swallowing the cost for. the mh shd+ is nice but not always used. my alc has extra arms and wields a hevy shield+1 for a bonus of 3 instead. though the mh shd+ is useful the 1st level or 2.
The double weapon feature is almost useless. i think it is better to just swing two handed (1+1/2)for the same total str bonus as opposed to full and 1/2 each with a -2. a d8 is not that big a deal when considering -2 on both. the case gets even worst when u get bab6 and could swing for 1&1/2 twice or full twice &1/2 once, again all at -2.
|
|
with the ability to switch as a free action at the start of your turn, the reach changes don't matter as much. ( you stay in reach mode, and when someone closes in with you, you switch to double weapon mode and just stick to using one end of the double weapon. ) the only thing you lose is being able to still make AoO on other foes that run up to you while you're in double weapon mode.
i like the improvement in UC, its better than the last ones where it was just the best weapon ever for 1 exotic wp feat. its toned down but now still very useful. Its just not clear still whether it should have reach in both modes or not.
|
|
is it useful? yes, it gives you options. inferior options. a d8 20x2 is worse than any martial weapon worth use. twf, trip, drag. with two pcs useing the weapon, i have never cared about drag, never felt the feat/penalties were worth the benifit of twf and i think i have used the trip feasture 3 times or less in 7 levels of play. i would have to spend 2 or three feats to make trip maybe worthwhile and hope that it worked against the right type of foe. i have considered taking twf or trip but if i do, it will not be because i think it is so good of an option. it will be because i think so poorly of almost all the feats in the game.
i recently used a 1/2elf alt race feature to use the dwarven dorn-dergar(spoke/starfleet/reboot style background). it takes a move action(swift w/ another feat) to switch between reach/adjacent but at least it does a d10 damage.
i would gladly take the 3.5sc with a 0.5 damage more over the options of the mh.
|
|
Meteor hammer: a 3.5 Spiked Chain with bludgeon instead of piercing. Begs the question, why was the chain nerved in the first place. 25g for the chain, or 10g for the MH, which is way better now. At least swap the cost so there is some reason to justify the MH being better.
The meteor hammer is not as good as the old spiked chain, because you can't choose to threaten adjacent squares without giving up reach for a round. Though there's no question about it being way better than the new spiked chain.
I'm inclined to but it back to the way it was in 3.5, but change it to a slashing weapon instead of piercing. At least for games i run as a DM.
|
|
come to think of it, both d10 and 19-20/x2 does step pretty heavy on the bastard sword, shorts swords & 2 bladed sword with far fewer options. Still, weakening both the dam & threat range were heavy hits themselves to me. I would not have been nearly as anti feat cost on it if only one of those options was reduced.
|
|
yeah my initial problems with initial printings were the 1d10/19-20
it was essentially a double heavy flail with reach, trip, pull etc. and could be used to grant a +1 shield bonus.
for 1 feat, it was the best weapon in the game.
the reductions to 1d8 make it on par with all other double weapons, none of the ones in the core book exceed d8. and x2 instead of 19-20/x2 crit evens out why you would ever want a double sword. They're logical reductions when you actually comparison shop for what an exotic weapon proficiency can get you. but they still haven't cleaned up the text w/ the chart. for a weapon that has two modes, it really needs 2 chart entries if its going to have different properties ( reach, trip, defense etc. ) in each mode.
