Damage research & theories

[Slawbug]

I've been doing some testing to try and figure out how relevant different stats are in calculating damage done. I have only been testing PC attacking monster with melee, but presumably the formulas should be very similar for the reverse, and for other attack types (including magic), substituting stats and resists where appropriate.

 

Getting exact results has been frustrating, because the algorithm seems to involve

* random fluctuations based on several stats, and

* stats which are not directly recorded in the scripts

Here, however, is what I HAVE been able to figure out.

 

Attack strength depends on these things:

1) Weapon or spell multiplier

2) Weapon or spell base damage

3) Weapon or spell level

4) PC skill

5) Extra damage from Anatomy, Lethal Blow, and Demonslayer (I am ignoring this part)

6) Luck (Luck's role is extremely unclear to me, but it definitely increases damage, and inconsistently)

 

Weapon level can be found by examining a weapon, it will be the first number given under the "base damage" listing. Weapon multiplier is the number of times that number goes into the following number -- in other words, the number of sides on the die used for rolling that weapon's damage. Weapon base damage can only be found by looking at the scripts.

 

To calculate PC skill, depending on the attack type, add together:

Melee + Blademaster + Strength

Pole + Blademaster + Strength

Bows + Sharpshooter + Dexterity

Throws + Sharpshooter + Dexterity

Mage Spells + Spellcraft + Magery

Priest Spells + Spellcraft + Magery

 

* Contrary to what I suggested previously, there is NO penalty on any of these numbers if one of them is over 10. Thus melee, blademaster and strength of 15 each will give 45 PC skill. I think there may still be an over-10 reduction-of-benefits for purposes of to-hit %, but haven't tested it.

* Blessing increases PC skill, I'm not sure by how much -- seems like by a lot.

* Besides damage and hit %, PC skill also increases the effect of weapon abilities like acid drip.

 

The basic damage formula is:

Attack level = (? * PC skill) + weapon/spell level

Damage = base damage + (Attack level) d (multiplier)

 

In other words, base damage plus a random number somewhere between attack level, and attack level * multiplier, likely to be close to the middle.

* One level of PC skill has less influence than one level of the weapon or spell. I'm not sure how much less. I suspect it may be worth 75% as much, based on the relative impact of Tool Use and spellcasting skill on Unlock Doors, hypothesizing that Tool Use replaces spell level for that spell.

* The "+X to levels of damage" ability, rarely found on equipment, I suspect adds to the weapon/spell level.

 

The multiplier is often the most important factor in determining damage. For weapons, multipliers and base damage are as follows:

Mult = 2, Base = 3 -- Short Swords (and daggers)

Mult = 2, Base = 4 -- Bows

Mult = 3, Base = 4 -- Broad Swords (and wave blades)

Mult = 3, Base = 4 -- Longbows

Mult = 3, Base = 12 -- Spears

Mult = 4, Base = 8 -- Javelins

Mult = 4, Base = 15 -- Halberds (and fine slith spears)

Mult = 5, Base = 8 -- Razordisks

 

There are also two special weapons:

Mult = 4, Base = 5 -- Stick (a melee weapon)

Mult = 7, Base = 20 -- Heartstriker (a bow)

 

For spells we have:

Mult = 3, Base = 10 -- Bolt of Fire, Icy Rain

Mult = 4, Base = 8 -- Smite

Mult = 5, Base = 6 -- Divine Fire

Mult = 5, Base = 14 -- Fireblast

Mult = 5, Base = 20 -- Lightning Spray

Mult = 6, Base = 20 -- Divine Retribution

Mult = 6, Base = 30 -- Arcane Blow

Mult = 8, Base = 15 -- Repel Spirit

 

Mult = 3, Base = 4 -- Mass Healing

Mult = 3, Base = 8 -- Minor Heal

Mult = 5, Base = 12 -- Heal

Mult = 8, Base = 8 -- Divine Restoration

 

* Amusingly, the stick is potentially the strongest weapon for someone skilled in melee combat. Thankfully the special abilities and to-hit bonuses of the best swords more than make up for this.

* The Heartstriker is an amazingly good weapon.

* Weapon levels are comparable across weapon types, so a halberd will typically do about 25% more damage than a broad sword.

 

However, all this multiplier-love is somewhat misleading, because of the confusing effects of defense power. At least three stats contribute (in unique ways) to defense power:

1) Resistance of the appropriate type (many monsters have some melee resistance)

2) Hardiness (many monsters have this stat as well)

3) A hidden stat that all monsters have, which I THINK may be based on monster level

 

* Hardiness seems to work much like it has always worked for PC's in Jeff's game, that is, it contributes a RANDOM amount of defense to every attack between 1 (or 0?) and its value.

* One of these stats may reduce the multiplier, or each individual die roll, but not the actual rolled damage -- against some monsters, although actual damage was reduced heavily, each point of attack level I added resulted in no less than 1 extra point of average damage. I'm not sure.

 

IMPLICATIONS:

1) Building up skills past 10 is worthwhile, which also means DT + EW and DT + DE are perfectly good trait combinations

2) A good weapon is generally speaking a lot more important than high weapon skill

3) Melee support skills like Quick Action and Anatomy are probably *a lot* more worthwhile to pump than melee, blademaster, or strength

4) Bows are perfectly good

5) At any given time, whether melee or pole skill would be a better choice probably has more to do with what weapons and shields are available than with anything else

 

Any observations that don't line up with the above are very welcome, btw, as I am far from certain about the details of this theory. Phew!

-- slarty

[*i]

A bit off topic: Where does on locate the bow Heartstriker? I have not found it.

[Delicious Vlish]

Yes, we need a unique item location list to go with all these damage tables.

[Slawbug]

I still haven't finished the chitrach caves. At some point I really do need to play the game...

[Dallerdin with a custom moniker.]

Quote:

Originally written by Slartucker:
* Amusingly, the stick is potentially the strongest weapon for someone skilled in melee combat. Thankfully the special abilities and to-hit bonuses of the best swords more than make up for this.

I made it through Avernum III with a singleton who fought only with a stick (and spells in some special cases). This suggests I'll have at least a small chance of doing so with A4.

[Slawbug]

Heh. Cool.

Though frankly, not using bows and spells (or even not using them much) may be rather more of an obstacle than not using broadswords.