The description of Hammer of Thunderbolts, says that while attuned to it your strength increases by 4. This boost is not getting applied.
Since one of the requirements is an attuned belt of giant strength, I assume this belt is overriding the total strength back to the belts strength value. But since the belt is a requirement to wield the hammer it makes no sense for the hammer to have the +4 boost if one of the requirements just resets it back.
The hammer will be adding it's +4 to your character's strength score (not onto the strength score granted by the belt) and should take the higher of the two.
So, if you had a strength of 19 and were wearing a belt of Fire Giant strength (grants strength 25) then you wouldn't see an increase, as 19 + 4 = 23 which is less than the belt.
Yeah it is kind of strange... RAW they should not synergise well: The Belt of Hill Giant sets the Strength to 21, no alterations possible; ie as long as you are wearing it and attuned to it your STR is 21 and can not go higher or lower by any means. That means that the Hammer is useless in that regard. That's very weird and I don't think that's intended.
"but with all 3 items attuned, the strength score is 21"
incidentally, he also clarifies that you don't actually need to be attuned to the 2 other items to be able to get the benefit from the hammer, just wearing them.
Attuning to only the Hammer works fine for me, it adds 4 STR. If you attune to the belt and gauntlets, the Strength is set to 21 (the highest). This is mostly due to the stating: They have no effect on you if your Strength is 19 or higher without them. in both the gauntlets and the belt. I find it odd that you'd not need to be attuned to the belt and gauntlets in order to attune to the hammer, but I guess that's due to the way magic items and attunement work in 5e
With natural 19 STR and attuning to the hammer it should be 23, not 20.
Attuning to only the Hammer works fine for me, it adds 4 STR. If you attune to the belt and gauntlets, the Strength is set to 21 (the highest). This is mostly due to the stating: They have no effect on you if your Strength is 19 or higher without them. in both the gauntlets and the belt. I find it odd that you'd not need to be attuned to the belt and gauntlets in order to attune to the hammer, but I guess that's due to the way magic items and attunement work in 5e
With natural 19 STR and attuning to the hammer it should be 23, not 20.
oops, can ignore that bit. I have had the ogre gauntlets for a while now, and forgot my natural str was 16, so yes that bit is actually working. just not the belt "set" property overriding everything else.
I just found a tweet which mentions that the way DDB calculates it currently is faulty; wielding a Hammer of Thunderbolts while attuned to a Belt of Giant Strength should give you higher STR, just not above 30 (which means hammer + hill gives you 25, frost/stone 27, fire 29 and cloud/storm 30 (since it can't go above 30). So this means that I was wrong previously and you should disregard my other post. The only thing that is "useless" to attune to is the Gauntlets of Ogre Strength.
In order to fix this they need to make the code differentiate between the various bonuses, since normally the "fixed" Str values overrule "modified" Str values in magic items.
Hi
The description of Hammer of Thunderbolts, says that while attuned to it your strength increases by 4. This boost is not getting applied.
Since one of the requirements is an attuned belt of giant strength, I assume this belt is overriding the total strength back to the belts strength value. But since the belt is a requirement to wield the hammer it makes no sense for the hammer to have the +4 boost if one of the requirements just resets it back.
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D&D Beyond FoundersWhat is the strength of your character?
The hammer will be adding it's +4 to your character's strength score (not onto the strength score granted by the belt) and should take the higher of the two.
So, if you had a strength of 19 and were wearing a belt of Fire Giant strength (grants strength 25) then you wouldn't see an increase, as 19 + 4 = 23 which is less than the belt.
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Yeah it is kind of strange... RAW they should not synergise well: The Belt of Hill Giant sets the Strength to 21, no alterations possible; ie as long as you are wearing it and attuned to it your STR is 21 and can not go higher or lower by any means. That means that the Hammer is useless in that regard. That's very weird and I don't think that's intended.
Subclass: Dwarven Defender - Dragonborn Paragon
Feats: Artificer Apprentice
Monsters: Sheep - Spellbreaker Warforged Titan
Magic Items: Whipier - Ring of Secret Storage - Collar of the Guardian
Monster template: Skeletal Creature
The way the description of the hammer is written it should work as below
Requirements: Gauntlets of ogre strength (sets str to 19). Belt of giant strength (lets go with hill for this example), then sets your str to 21
You can then wield the hammer which boosts it by 4, so should now be 25.
See Sage Advise answer from Jeremy Crawford -
https://www.sageadvice.eu/2016/09/29/does-the-bonus-strength-from-the-hammer-of-thunderbolts-stack-with-your-giants-strength-belt/
but with all 3 items attuned, the strength score is 21
The way the modifiers are coded right now can't allow applying the bonus over the "set". The "set" always win, as far as I understand.
The solution, for now, would be to override the STR score in the editor.
"but with all 3 items attuned, the strength score is 21"
incidentally, he also clarifies that you don't actually need to be attuned to the 2 other items to be able to get the benefit from the hammer, just wearing them.
https://www.sageadvice.eu/2018/03/05/the-scarab-of-protection-hammer-of-thunderbolts-and-belt-of-dwarvernkind/
so with a natural str score of 19, and just attuned to the hammer, my strength is 20, not 23.
Attuning to only the Hammer works fine for me, it adds 4 STR. If you attune to the belt and gauntlets, the Strength is set to 21 (the highest). This is mostly due to the stating: They have no effect on you if your Strength is 19 or higher without them. in both the gauntlets and the belt. I find it odd that you'd not need to be attuned to the belt and gauntlets in order to attune to the hammer, but I guess that's due to the way magic items and attunement work in 5e
With natural 19 STR and attuning to the hammer it should be 23, not 20.
Subclass: Dwarven Defender - Dragonborn Paragon
Feats: Artificer Apprentice
Monsters: Sheep - Spellbreaker Warforged Titan
Magic Items: Whipier - Ring of Secret Storage - Collar of the Guardian
Monster template: Skeletal Creature
Subclass: Dwarven Defender - Dragonborn Paragon
Feats: Artificer Apprentice
Monsters: Sheep - Spellbreaker Warforged Titan
Magic Items: Whipier - Ring of Secret Storage - Collar of the Guardian
Monster template: Skeletal Creature