Originally Posted By: Niemand
That's not the only random factor, depending on your setup. Armor, for instance, would really add a lot of confusion, since it has both a random chance of taking effect and a random blocking range. Unless you were very careful you will need multiple trials.
I also went ahead and created a bare-minimum creature that wouldn't have natural armor or items ( the default goblin has a chance of having a number of armor pieces ). Try attacking this creature and tell me if you see any change in your damage.
Code:
begindefinecreature 234; clear; cr_name = "Humanoid Dummy"; cr_level = 1; cr_hp_bonus = 1000; cr_which_sheet = 1521; cr_default_attitude = 4; cr_species = 1; //cr_start_item 0 = 445; //cr_start_item_chance 0 = 100;
Also, about armor. You said that it has "a random chance of taking effect". Going solely by your numbers ( since no one including myself has posted any ) Neither of your characters did either 102 ( Gerald ) or 52 ( Harald ) which would be, according to my findings is what they should be doing ( if the creature had no armor ). Obviously one can argue that the random numbers were biased but from my testing ( commented-out item in the above code was a 1-1 damage sword ) my character, wearing only pants, always took one point of damage less than what he should have ( they protect 1-1 ). When I took them off of him ( dirty ), he then always took the full damage. Niemand is correct. I wanted to dump all of the specifics of each race, skill, trait, et cetera but unfortunately there are some random factors I cannot go around and I have not had the time to make a great number of trials for everything. For now, I'm settling on simply providing the effects of the species. HumanNo effect SlithExperience: 20% penalty.
Fire Resistance: 30% added.
Pole Damage: 2 + 1/8 level added dice.
Pole Accuracy: ( 3 + 1/8 level ) * 5% added.
NephilExperience: 10% penalty.
Dexterity: 2 + 1/7 level added.
Missile Damage: 2 + 1/10 level added dice.
Missile Accuracy: ( 3 + 1/10 level ) * 5% added.
While creatures also get these bonuses, I have not checked the other species using one. Now that I think about it, that would be important for any scenario designers ( although I doubt their advantages go beyond what is stated in the scenario editor document ). The experience penalties were easy to figure-out, as was the Nephil's bonus to dexterity since that is one of the few stat bonuses that actually show. The missile and pole bonuses were deducted from again using weapons that do 1-1 damage and no skill points placed into any skills. A human using either a bow or pole weapon will have a forty-five chance to hit against a creature at level one like my dummy creature ( base of forty, plus ten percent because of the two points in dexterity, minus five for the one point of dexterity a level one creature has ). I then used another character of a different race to determine that race's base bonuses, and then leveled them one level at a time using the High Level Party-Maker and noting when that character's accuracy or damage-dealt increased. Also, please remember that in addition to the Nephil's bonus to damage and accuracy, their bonus to dexterity further adds to that. So a Nephil with Natural Warrior who never puts a single point into a missile-related skill could easily maintain decent damage and accuracy with a bow to keep it as a secondary weapon and can then focus on other things. At higher levels accuracy may become a slight issue with the rate that creatures gain dexterity... a level forty-two character ( built as described ) attacking an equally leveled creature would have seventy-five percent accuracy and only an average of eighty-seven damage with a blessed crossbow. Okay, maybe a few skill points would be needed.