That aside, perhaps a solution rests with the repair (hammer) tool itself. The trick with durability is that there has to be a consequence preventing you from repairing your gear whenever you want. Otherwise, skills like Lockpicking lose their usefulness as getting through locked doors and containers only requires patience and multiple clicks of the Repair function on the weapon you use to bash these obstacles with.
You can also use magic spells and things to knock down doors too. I used a Summon Wolf spell to chew through one. That would also make Lockpicking useless, regardless of what is done to Repair.
I essentially agreee with the idea of the repair hammer needing durability. My suggestion on that front was to give the hammers a number of uses equal to your Repair skill, after which they break. In fact... why not make the amount of durability that the Repair Hammer does equal to 20% repaired per use?
Sample Item with 0/100 Durability:
With Repair 1, you can use a Repair Hammer once, bringing it up to 20/100. The Hammer breaks.
With Repair 2, you can use a Repair Hammer twice, bringing it up to 20/100, and then again to 40/100. The Hammer breaks.
...
With Repair 5, as a bonus for getting it that high, your items get, say, +50% durability. You can use a Repair Hammer five times, bringing it up to 150/150, The Hammer breaks.
If you do it that way, then deciding which stuff to use the hammer on could be another choice the player has to make - do they restore 20 points to two things, or 40 points to one thing?
