Ogresmasher

)   Ogresmasher
Base item	war hammer
Damage vs. small	1d4+1 x2
Damage vs. large	1d4 x2
To-hit bonus	+1d5
Bonus versus	ogres
Weapon skill	hammer
Size	one-handed
Affiliation	unaligned
When carried	(none)
When wielded	(none)
When invoked	(none)
Base price	200 zm
Weight	50
Material	iron

Ogresmasher is an unaligned war hammer that adds +1d5 to hit and does double damage against ogres. It also sets the wielder's constitution to 25.

Strategy

Since it's based on a weak base item, and does its extra damage to a class of monster that's neither particularly common, nor especially dangerous, Ogresmasher is often considered the most worthless artifact weapon. (A regular +0 long sword does more damage to ogres than +0 Ogresmasher, and given its extremely limited use, enchanting it would be foolish.)

In recent versions of NetHack, Ogresmasher also sets the wielder's constitution to 25, making it only very slightly less pointless - a character with 25 constitution will gain 1 more HP per level over a character with 18 constitution, and at level 11 or above, regenerate slightly more HP depending on the character's experience level (up to 21 HP per three turns at level 30). An elven character might consider sacrificing for Ogresmasher and wielding it before levelling up to gain additional 3 HP / level.

History

Before NetHack 3.6.1, Ogresmasher did not change the wielder's constitution.

Variants

In SporkHack and UnNethack, it sets the wielder's constitution to 25 and deals an extra +d4 damage to all monsters. It also has a 50% chance of instantly killing ogres.

In dNetHack, it can be two-weaponed with and also grants warning versus ogres, in addition to instakilling ogres. Characters in dNetHack who aren't capable of two-weaponing and have no need of the second weapon slot can get increased max HP by keeping Ogresmasher in the off-hand. The 25 constitution will grant a character 14 consitution about 5/3 as much health, since it applies retroactively to all health gained from leveling up.