Damage vs. Opponent
| Weapon Type | Cost | Approximate
Weight in Pounds |
Size S or M | Size L | Notes | Length | Space Required | Speed Factor | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Morning star | 5 gp | 12.5 | 2-8 | 2-7 | 1H or 2H <>: includes Godentag <Goedendag
: "club-spear"> and
Holy Water Sprinkler |
c. 4' | 5' | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1 | +2 | +2 |
Question: I was glancing
through my PH at
the Weight & Damage
by Weapon Type Table at the Notes.
After the Morning Star explanation
I saw, “includes Goden-
tag and Holy Water Sprinkler.”
I did some research on the
Holy Water Sprinkler and
found it to be of all things, a GUN!
In D&D you aren’t supposed
to have guns or even gun-
powder. Why include it in
the PH if it is a gun?
Answer: From Webster’s
Dictionary: Morning star: Noun, translation
of Gmortenstern; a weapon
consisting of a heavy ball set with spikes
and either attached to a
staff or suspended from one by a chain; called
also holy water sprinkler.
The only
use of this term to mean a gun which we are aware of is a
modern nickname for a terrorist
weapon that sprays large numbers of
bullets into crowds. — WN
Question: Aside from
the obvious ones (pole arms and
bows), which of the listed
weapons are two-handed?
Answer: A battle
axe, spear, morning
star and bastard sword can
be, and a bo
stick, quarterstaff, two-handed sword and
a trident
always are.
Q: What is a morning
star?
A: A morning star
looks like a long, thin
club with spikes or flanges
at the business
end. The morning star in
the AD&D game
is similar to a mace but
is longer and
heavier. Some books on weapons
identify a
ball and chain as a morning
star, but this
combination is considered
to be a flail in
the AD&D game.
(150.9)
Holy What?
-
To the editor:
In the Sage Advice column of the October
1980 Dragon (#42), in response to
a question
concerning holy water sprinklers, it was stated
that this was simply another name for a morning
star It was also stated that “The only use
of this term to mean a gun which we are aware
of is a modern nickname for a terrorist weapon
that sprays large numbers of bullets into
crowds.”
However, consider the following passage,
taken from the book Antique Firearms by
Frederick Wilkinson, from Chapter 8, “Combination
Weapons and Curiosa”:
“In an inventory of the Tower
of London in
1547 there appears an entry recording ‘holy
water sprinklers’ with ‘gonnes in the topp.’
These holy water sprinklers have only a tenuous
ecclesiastical connection and were, in
fact, spiked clubs mounted at the end of a
long pole. Examples of such weapons have
survived; they comprise a spiked block in
which are incorporated three barrels, about
nine inches long, fitted with touchholes; the
muzzles may be covered with metal plates.
Whether this was a serious weapon or not is
uncertain, but clearly it could have served as
a hand gun, for basically it resembles the
early type of firearm in which the small barrel
was mounted at the end of a long pole. Once
the three barrels had been discharged by a
glowing match, the spiked head would certainly
have served as a reserve means of
defense or attack.”
So, you see, holy water sprinklers are guns
and were such, some four hundred years
before Webster’s current dictionary and terrorists.
David R. Eichel
Rochester, N.Y.
(Dragon #46)
Not again!
To the editor:
I would like to do my part to shed a little
light on a subject I have a little knowledge of.
In issue #42, Sage Advice, a question arose
as
to whether or not the holy water sprinkler was
a gun. I’ve done a lot of private research on
the subject. The holy water sprinkler is a
mace-like weapon (as described in the article),
but the name is also used to describe an
early handgun which fired six balls at once. It
also had a spiked, mace-like butt for close-combat.
William E. Belli
Oak Harbor, Wash.
oldschooler wrote:
Hey! Something I've always
wondered about, but kept forgetting to ask about:
Morning stars; what are they
(in AD&D terms) exactly?
Spiked balls chained to
sticks (I thought that was a horseman's flail)?
Spiked balls attached directly
to sticks (I thought that was a mace)?
Could you clear these three
weapons up for me as they appear in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons?
The Dungeon Master's
Log pictures a horseman's flail as a spiked ball(s) chained to a handle.
There is no such picture
of a mace or morning star.
My assumption: a mace is
a glorified club, consisting of a blunt weight at one end of a shaft.
A morning star is the same
thing, but with blood-drawing spikes attached. Am I far off?
Heh...
Any good book on arms &
armor will show various examples og the morning star.
the main one is a club set
at the business end with a steel ring drom which spokes project as do the
rays from a star.
think of it as the size
of a baseball bat.
the other weapons you describe are correctly identified, although a spiked ball is properly a morning star, not a mace, as they are generally smooth-headed or have phlangEs.
Cheers,
Gary
