Speak quickly, lest you taste of the fury of Harrow!

That goddamn axe.

If there is a Arcanum weapon database to be created, a stand on Harrow will have to be taken. At first I wanted to ignore it, considering it too complicated and multidimensional. Eventually, though, I came to a conclusion that splitting the weapon into 10 different Harrows in the database may be the best route to go.

Sadly, I do not possess complete data about the weapon. Its damage is still at least partially a mystery to me. All I know is based on what Drog once wrote. I'm not even sure where did he get those values from, but hey:

Thing is, if there's something I learned from collecting the weapon data so far, it's that each weapon seems to have a damage cap. For example, you will never deal more than 18 points of damage with a Fine Steel Dagger (critical hits excluded), even if you have a damage bonus of 20+.

I don't know if Drog was aware of the weapon damage caps. I don't know if a cap applies to a weapon dealing damage purely by script. If so, does it have one cap, or maybe ten different ones, depending on the character? What is(are) its(their) value(s)?

Anyone feeling up to the task to find the answers to these questions?

 

I do remember something about a damage *bonus* cap of twice the maximum base damage of the weapon. For a fine steel dagger (2-6), you would not be able to get more than +12 to damage from all sources (in this case, str only). So a 20+ str character wielding one, would not get more than 18 non-crit.

Its been awhile, I'll try to look up where I read that.

 

Indeed, but it's still technically a weapon, right?

I checked the data I gathered so far and it seems you are right. I did notice damage caps following some kind of a pattern, but didn't realise that it is as simple and handy as Max Dmg x 3 (except for fighting with your fists, where the cap is Max Dmg x 2 for some reason). Thanks for that observation, it will make creating the database easier.

Still, with Harrow being a script based weapon rather than a standard one, that doesn't tell us whether it follows a standard weapon's damage cap formula as it does with the bonus damage coming from Strength or not.

I can but hope that your searches will prove successful.

 

That makes sense, all that was required in the weapon editor is that the correct proto was made to replace any other weapon. The stats could be anything. I made a LGR with a damage cap of 1000.

 

Tested it with a STR 21 (bonus damage: 22) dwarf with -100 alignment. According to what Drog said and what RAS confirmed, Harrow should be set to the 1-5 dmg scheme for this character. If the axe had a standard damage cap, it would be 3*5 = 15.

So, if it would lack a cap, my dwarf should deal 1(+22) - 5(+22) = 23 - 27 dmg against foes with no damage resistance. If it would have a cap, any cap, he would deal less than that. If it would have the standard MaxDmg*3 cap, he would deal 15 - 15 dmg.

My dwarf dealt random damage between 23 and 27 to the chickens in Shrouded Hills. Funny how, with verbose floats on (thanks RAS, I completely forgot Arcanum had those), the game always insisted to say that I dealt two hits with each strike: one for 23 - 27 dmg and the other for 0 dmg. Anyway, it's official - Harrow has no damage cap.

Ladies and gentlemen, it would seem that today Harrow's mystery has been fully revealed to the public for the very first time.

 

Indeed, when if not now?

 

Nice work guys, I always was curious about this particular axe.

Then I hope you've got a wine cooler stand with a batch of nevermelting ice in it.

 

All the better. Oblivion with top hats and monocles would hardly be a reason to celebrate.

 

Careful. People thought X-Com and Fallout were dead too, but then they were brought back... some say, for the worse.

 

A gentleman with a heart-based wine-cooling system? Fascinating.

 

That'd be FOUR CHAMBERS of COOLANT PROPELLING AWESOMENESS.

 

In my current game I gave Harrow to Magnus (with 18 STR) because with the Pyrotechnic Axe, he was obliterating all my enemies before I could get a shot at them. He now kills roughly one enemy per turn depending on the circumstances.

Here's the funny thing though...

I was in the Glimmering Forest and critted a Kite Berserker, who dropped his sword. Magnus picked it up and equipped it in preference to Harrow, and the attack number listed under his items went up.

Crazy.

 

So is Harrow worth using or it should be just given to followers (since if I understand correctly, it doesn't give xp)?
One of the coolest looking axe though that's for sure!

 

I'd say that the way it works now, neither.

Harrow's sins:

• - Not giving XP for harming nor killing enemies.
  
  - Not marking the killed enemies in the Kills & Injuries section of the Living One's Log Book.

 

Aw too bad!
Guess the best thing to do now is just throw it on the ground in front of King Thunderstone and wait for him to pick it up

 

Turns out Drog overlooked Harrow's damage for a dwarf with an alignment between 0 and 25.

As the script says and tests prove:

Dwarf, alignment = (0, 25):
Damage: 6-26
Fatigue Damage: 4-14