Hexhammer (ZE GOGGLES ZEY DO NOTHING)

[Tony Vargas]

I get exception based design, but I don't much care for it when it's an exception by omission. The Warlock's Curse damage is one/round. If an item or something is going to override that, it should do so clearly, not because it doesn't say that it doesn't override it.

It really looks like whoever wrote the item up thought the curse damage only aplied to warlock powers, and that he intended an exception to that. The wording is sensible and clear if that were the case. As an exception to the 1/round limitation, it's poorly and incompletely worded.

That said, it's a reasonable way to rule it, since it lets the hammer do /something/ but that something is not terribly out of line. The only way it might be problematic would be if you had a warlock who Paragon MC'd to Ranger to pick up twin strike - and that's such an inefficient thing to do, that even the 'brokeness' of doing curse damage twice a round every round probably wouldn't save it...

 

[WalterKovacs]

One point:

It doesn't say you CAN apply the extra damage. It says that you DO apply the damage. When used as a weapon, it doesn't give you a choice to not apply the damage.

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Property: When you hit a target affected by your Warlock’s Curse with this weapon, you deal your extra curse damage against that target.

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It doesn't seem to indicate the option of applying the curse damage.

EDIT:

Just double checked, and saw that it's worded the same way as the PHB in terms of "if you hit, deal extra damage". Seems odd to word it that way, when they immediately contradict it by saying that you choose if you want to deal the extra damage after making the damage roll.

 

[DracoSuave]

Well, CS has forwarded this to the designers to ask them 'What -does- this mean?' so...