Melee damage calculation

[Dorikas]

In Blades of Avernum, and I assume all titles in the 2000's Avernum remakes, some items appear with a stat bonus '+ x level of melee damage'.

What exactly is the effect of a 'level of melee damage' on a character's melee damage output?
I'll expand the question by asking what the effects of 'Strength', 'Melee/Pole Weapons' and  '+ x level of melee damage' each have on the final melee damage output.

[Dorikas]

Really ... nobody?

[Kelandon]

Haven't had time, will respond later if I'm able.

 

EDIT: Actually, heck with it, I'll do it now.

 

The docs say: "A blow with a weapon does a number of dice of damage equal to the attacker’s strength plus the skill in the weapon plus the bonus." So an additional level of skill or an additional level of damage adds one die to the dice already used.

 

The size of dice is determined by the item's inherent properties (strictly speaking, the it_damage_per_level characteristic). 

[Ess-Eschas]

Ah, looks like I couldn’t get in before Kel! Still, here’s a slightly more wordy answer – which I put up just in case you’re not familiar with how dice rolls are handled in games like these.

 

This question is probably best answered by a little reminder of how weapons work in Blades of Avernum. If you load up the game and hover your mouse over a weapon, underneath its name you’ll see a description that looks something like this (where I’m using arbitrary numbers for the purposes of demonstration):

 

5-25 dmg. + 1-5/level

 

What this means is that there are two contributions to how much damage you do. The first number is a flat amount of damage. Whenever you successfully hit an foe, a number is selected at random from within this range. So, in this example, the first contribution will be somewhere between 5 and 25.

 

The next number in the list is what’s important here. This contribution adds some extra damage that is multiplied by the ‘level’ of your character. This second contribution will add to your damage output a number randomly chosen within the range as multiplied by your ‘level’.

 

So, let’s say, for this example, that you have a character who is ‘level’ 10. This second contribution will therefore add to your damage output a number between 1x10 = 10 and 5x10 = 50.

 

We already know that the first contribution will add a number from between 5-25. This means that the range of damage you can do with your character is:

 

Low: 5 + 10 = 15
High: 25 + 50 = 75

 

Now, the situation is actually a little more subtle than this – this is why I put ‘level’ in quotation marks. This parameter is actually made up of a combination of factors:

 

Level = Strength + Weapon Skill + Item Increases

 

where ‘Weapon Skill’ is a shorthand for Melee Weapons / Pole Weapons / Bows / Thrown Weapons, basically the skill associated with whatever weapon you are using. ‘Item Increases’ refers to what you’re asking about. If an item adds X levels of melee damage, then it adds X to your ‘level’ value. So, using the example above, it will add between X and 5X to your total damage output.

 

If you’d like a little more information about the various skills, here’s a post that you might find helpful:

 

http://spiderwebforums.ipbhost.com/topic/2523-the-abominable-party-building-topic/?do=findComment&comment=22575

[Dorikas]

Thanks alot, both of you!
Ess-Eschas, that was exactly what I needed. Also, thanks alot for the link.