C++ Determine if class can use an object - text RPG game

Question

I\'m facing with the following design problem:

TL;TD need to determine if Hero(class) can use specific object while there\'s many heroes implementations

I have

Answer 1

I have simplified the example by removing everything that isn't necessary and generalized to the concept of Item. A weapon is a subclass of Item, as is a potion, a wand, a flux capacitor, whatever. The use method does whatever the Item does to target. A weapon will attempt to hit and damage target. A healing potion will heal target. A flux capacitor will either send target back in time or zap the expletive deleted out of them with 1.21 gigawatts.

But everything is seen through the lens of Item. The invoking classes doesn't know what the item is, does, or what it did to target. target doesn't even know what was used on it, they just feel the effects. Nobody knows nothin' about the other objects outside of a simple, generic interface.

class Item
{
public:
    enum types
    {
        whole lot of types go here.
        They are fairly broad categories, like knife, sword, two handed sword, 
        healing potion, wand, etc.
    };
    types getType()
    {
         return type;
    }
    virtual bool use(Entity * target) = 0;
private:
    types type;

};

class Hero: public Entity{

public:
    Hero(std::set & usable): usableItems(usable)
    ~Hero();
    bool use(Item* item,
             Entity * target)
    {
        // this is the magic. If the item's type is in the list of usable items,
        // the item is used on the target. They exact type of item or target
        // is not known. Polymorphism will take care of everything from here
        if (usableItems.find(item->getType()) != usableItems.end())
        {
            return item->use(target);
        }
        return false;
    }
private:
    std::set & usableItems;
};

The point is the main classes are incredibly stupid. They simply provide a framework for much more detailed objects to do the detailed work. VorpalSword uses generic methods inherited from Weapon and Item to see if it hit target, not knowing that target is in fact a HugeRedDragon instance, and if it hit assigns damage and then does the specific things a VorpalSword does like checking for lopped off limbs.

And all Hero saw was item->use(target).