Well I'm just debating this between my selves. Basically it would mean weakening two characters to make one other character ridiculously strong. Jaheira, who perhaps appropriately wears the Gauntlets of Ogre Power = STR 15 up to 18/00, has been handy at bashing people the whole game. And Jan Jensen, who makes short work of enemies using the Girdle of Frost Giant Strength = STR 9 up to 21 (!), can backstab for massive damage a lot more often. (He needs the THAC0).

Whereas, sacrificing both of these powerful items, Anomen, who has already made smashing use of the Hammer of Thunderbolts, could instead use Crom Faeyr to get 25 STR and whatever else it does. Though how useful is it really? (I had a peak at an Item FAQ, and supposedly it kills a few critters instantly, but I'm not sure that is worth it really? We can already effectively take down Golems, etc). Seeing as this is my first play through, I'm not sure what other items or weapons await us further on in either case.

So, is it two for one, or one for all. Decisions, decisions ... :)

It's a+5 weapon for one, so it can damage basically everything, it does 2d4+5 crushing damage, 8 electrical damage, gives 25 STR, and has a few insta-kill abilities. That gives anyone who uses it a +12 THAC0 (5 from weapon, 7 from str) and a total damage of 2d4+27 (5+8+14). It's without a doubt the strongest weapon in the game, and it can be used as an offhand weapon for dual-wielders to superpower whatever their mainhand weapon is. It can also be used in the offhand by bards and fighter/mages to make Melf's Meteors and Energy Blades hilariously overpowered, as you end up using Crom Faeyr as a thrown weapon as well.

The loss of the two strength-enhancing items is a shame, but there are other strength-boosting items available so the loss is marginal. There's a STR 20 belt later, and a STR 22 belt and a STR 22 weapon in ToB. Jaheira should probably be using the STR 19 belt from the Adventurer's Mart anyway, and you can just pass Jan the belt before he backstabs folks.

The only time I ever refrain from constructing Crom Faeyr is if nobody in my party can use it. It's that good.

Ok, the existence of other STR belts seals the deal then, seeing I was mainly thinking about how effective those two characters have been, and reducing them to mere mortals once again. Though as you clearly point out it is a super powered weapon.

No one in my party is dual-wielding though and I have little experience with that (other than a brief stint with Valygar), but what is this about it super powering the main weapon and thrown weapons? Not sure why it would. I've never heard of that.

At any rate, to the forge!

As long as Crom Faeyr is equipped, you'll have 25 STR. So if you put it in the offhand, your mainhand weapon will also get the +7 hit and +14 damage bonuses. This makes it an excellent offhand weapon, because your offhand only ever gets one attack per round, as opposed to your mainhand weapon which gets your usual attacks per round and can be boosted by haste or oils of speed. So having an offhand that gives passive bonuses like Crom Faeyr (or Belm, etc) is very useful, especially if you can use a mainhand weapon that has a useful on-strike effect like Celestial Fury or a Mace of Disruption.

It works well as an offhand with magically created melee weapons like Phantom Blade and Black Blade of Disaster for fighter-mages because of the strength bonus. So your magical melee weapon will deal lots of extra damage due to the above reasons, which is pretty spiffy.

If you use any offhand weapon along with ranged magically created weapons like MMM or Energy Blades though, the offhand weapon gets an extra attack each round like normal, except it can hit enemies at range like a projectile attack. This is particularly good for CF because its damage is so high, so you get an extra very damaging trollslaying projectile every round. The "thrown melee offhand" thing is technically a glitch, though.

Yeah, I should think a melee weapon being thrown is a glitch alright - holy smoke! ;) Thanks for all the info though, I was not aware dual-wielding could be quite so powerful in these ways. Anomen is now closer to his god (in a good way) with CF equipped, and if we off-hand it, the god-like STR is actually keeping the THAC0 penalties at decent levels from not having Two Weapon Style (yet), and getting more attacks per round. I'm not sure when he gets another proficiency point to spend, but I like this setup.

Meanwhile, Jaheira just nabbed her first high-level ability, and I picked Earth Elemental Transformation (and already using the Improved Shapeshifting tweak) - now she can turn into a monster at will and get 25 STR as well! :D

(In short, this game is freaking awesome!)