Ye Olde Inn

This ancient dwarven weapon is a bit underwelming as writen:
Sognirstane allows you to roll 2 Combat Dice in attack.
You may also throw Sognirstane. If you throw the hammer
at a monster and it dies, the hammer ends up in the square the monster died. It cannot be used again until you
Spend an attack turn on that square picking up the hammer.

If the monster attacked is not killed, Sognirstane returns to your hand automatically and may be used next turn.
Elemental magic spells have no effect on a Hero who possesses Sognirstane (good or bad)

Is only a hand axe that you wont lose and you can use it sometimes consecutive turns. But it is just 2 dices, heroes will probably use a sword or a crossbow to attack. Is OK for starting heroes but as soon as they can buy or find some gear its clearly a secondary weapon as best. And the anti magic thing is a big drawback and more now because it sais Elemental magic, no Dread Magic so you can't be healed or boosted by your firends magic but you can eat all spells from Zargons minions.

I was thinking on tweaking it:
-If you roll two skulls in a attack roll they count as three.
- Every time you are affected by spell (good or bad) roll two Combat dices. If you roll two white shields the spell is wasted and has no effect.

I've made a few different versions of Sognirstane over the years for the UK/EU version of the game.

Eventually I settled on the following:

- 2 attack dice.
- You may throw it, but if you do, you can't use it next turn. After that, it flies back to your hand. (Like Thor's hammer... probably taking the long way around the dungeon. )
- It makes you immune to ALL spells.
- As with other Quest treasures, no restriction on who can use it.

This way there's no need to keep track of which square it lands on, so no separate counter or anything. You can just turn the card sideways or flip it over once you throw it to remind yourself that you can't use it next turn.

I've changed the spell immunity to 'all spells' because, at the time this quest was written, as far as I know, the only spells in the UK game were the elemental ones. There were no Chaos/Dread spells, no UK Wizards of Morcar spells, or anything like that. Bosses used the elemental spells on the rare occasions they got to use anything at all (such as Balur the Fire Mage having the Fire spells). Therefore the elemental immunity made more sense at the time.

The thing about Sognirstane is that it's fairly easy to get hold of, because Halls of Durrag-Dol isn't very difficult and you can potentially play this quest at any time (since it's not part of an official quest progression). I'm OK with the hammer being a fairly mediocre treasure, like Orc's Bane. Using my version, a two-dice ranged attack you can use every other turn is pretty strong.

Yes, and I suppose not every QT has to be strong or a Quest winner.
I think I changed mine 3 die attack, so it's benefit is being a utility weapon in as much as it's melee and ranged together, so no need to waste time changing weapons.
I kept the Elemental magic rule as is, as a slight nerf, but also includes evil elemental magic not working.
Mine returns unless the target is destroyed, then it ends up on that square.
I have made a Dwarf Troll slayer Hero who can only use axe or hammer weapons, so it's natural weapon for him.

This quest is so easy it would be ideal as the first quest of a new party. Sognirstane is then a useful ranged weapon. And as the Wizard is not prohibited from using it, it will remain a useful weapon.

The magic resistance was clearly included to protect against any spell cast by the Seer. Protecting against elemental magic is weird as the owner could not benefit from the Wizard's and Elf's spells which I don't think was intended. Protection from all Chaos spells is also massive. My solution to this would be to simply amend the protection to Elemental magic spells cast by the Evil Wizard player.....

Though the EU game doesn't address transferring artifacts, NA rules could also provide a solution to the "good" elemental magic dilemma. Allow the Hero to "un-possess" the hammer by temporarily handing it to another Hero. This should then allow the usual owner of Sognirstane to be healed. (Correct me if I'm wrong--I may have overlooked some bonding detail about specifically possessing Sognirstane, such as interaction with the belt.)

Another solution could be for the Hero possessing the hammer to set it down like one of the chests in Prince Magnus' Gold. (At least, I'd allow a carried chest to be set down if a Hero needed to escape at full speed.) A Hero bleeding out could drop the hammer, get healed, and pick it up in a few turns, even allowing for a couple of attacks as dropping and retrieving an item isn't an action. This may be a bit too cheesy for some tables, of course.

Well, I found and read the old AHQ adventure, and it’s a magic hammer with +1 Damage. Period. I can’t understand why they changed it so much and gave it that random throwing and anti magic power.
I´ve housruled this way:

Sognirstane
Artifact. This Dwarven war hammer allows the wielder to attack with 3 combat dice. If no skulls are rolled when making the attack roll, the bearer may reroll one of the combat dice.
It cannot be used by the Wizard.