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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Christian" data-source="post: 1694061" data-attributes="member: 381">3rd Edition isn't as kind to those interested in military history as 1st Edition was. The much-esteemed Mr. Gygax included some alternate names for the weapons in the PH tables; next to morningstar was listed 'includes Godentag and holy water sprinkler'. Unlike the name morningstar, which is used somewhat inconsistently in different medieval texts, these two names refer to specific weapons from specific times and places. The Godentag (German 'good day') was nothing more complicated than a large club with a number of spikes driven into it. The holy water sprinkler was named after its resemblance to the priestly tool rather than for any anti-undead function*, and consisted of a heavy spiked head attached to a long haft by one or two links of chain, or even just a hinge.This makes it pretty clear to me that the original intent of the 'morningstar' weapon was to include any club-, mace-, or flail-like weapon with sharp spikes included. Whether that carried through to later editions is obviously disputable; but considering that maces are listed as doing bludgeoning damage only, I'd have to assume that a spiked mace would fall under the morningstar rubric.*In Richard Armour's memorable turn of phrase, these were much more likely to be seen sprinkling blood and brains than holy water ... Which of these weapons is more ironically named, do you think? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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