My team starts with wxm101 Colossus and Kitty Pryde then splits into wxm003 Shadowcat and wxm002 Colossus. I am using The Book of Skull. A hammer is equipped on both of them.

If they merge back into wxm101 Colossus and Kitty Pryde, does wxm101 Colossus and Kitty Pryde get to use both hammers?

Please no comments on how I spelled Duo. I had a garden moment.

If there are four or more hammers equipped then sure. If less hammers have been equipped the merge can't happen as that would create an illegal situation in having two hammers equipped on the same character.

I assume you are referring to the line in bold above.

But what happens if I only have 4 characters when the duo is split? What I mean is I have 4 characters. A hammer is equipped to all of them. If they merge back into wxm101 Colossus and Kitty Pryde, does wxm101 Colossus and Kitty Pryde get to use both hammers?

As well as the bolded part of this section:

OK you have answered the first question but not the second.
Does the fact that I only have 3 characters when merged negate the fact that I equipped 4 different characters (allowing 2 hammers to be equipped to one character)?

The team I am about to play is 300points

WKM-008 Obnoxio the Clown
WXM101 Colossus and Kitty Pryde
WXM017 Jean Grey
FIR100C The Book of the Skull (24 points 5 Hammers)

I don't think it would, because it's been ruled that if you have 4 hammers equipped to different characters and one is KO'ed, you would still be able to double equip.

But, this is definitely a corner case. But that's how I would rule it.

Yes

Four hammers have been equipped to different friendly characters. This isn't an ongoing condition. You just keep a tally of how many hammers have been equipped to different characters. Once it reaches 4, you can equip characters with 2, no matter how many are actually currently equipped.

So, if a character has two hammers, do they get a +4 to their Attack, or does it end up being a +3 to their Attack, due to the Rule of Three?

Is there any reason why the Rule of Three wouldn't apply here?

It modifies the attack value so rule of three do apply.

It does make it harder to perplex your attack down, as one would still put you at +3, so the +4 is still somewhat of an advantage.

Rep for getting it

I have explained to many people that the rule of 3 does not apply to modifiers in general, it applies when they are used. You could have total modifiers of +10 to a combat value and that is fine but the moment you use the value the Ro3 kicks in and limits it to 3 max

Think of modifiers as hovering above the value, waiting to change it. If I have +5 waiting and you modifiy it down by -1, I still have +4.

Thank you for the explanation, guys...I'm foggy on some of the rules of Heroclix and trying to get better!

So what happens if I only have 2 characters, like Iron Man and Iron Patriot, who each have a hammer. If I merge them into Iron Man/Iron Patriot, do they get access to use both hammers even if I don't have 4 hammers equipped? Or would they be forced to pick one.