Firebolt base damage?

[Phasma Felis]

Anyone know what the base damage for the Firebolt spell is? Is it any better than the basic thorn baton? I'm just starting my first game of Geneforge, playing a Shaper.

 

BTW, tell me if I understand this correctly: each level of appropriate Attribute and Skill adds one die to weapon damage, correct? So if a javelin is base 4-24 (4d6), with 2 Dexterity and 2 Missile it does 8-48 (8d6)? The manual is a bit unclear...

[Lilith]

Quote:

Anyone know what the base damage for the Firebolt spell is? Is it any better than the basic thorn baton?

The in-game instructions give you the damage formula of all spells: in the case of Firebolt, it's 1d4 base damage plus 1d3 per point of Battle Magic and Spellcraft. So it's the same die size as a thorn baton. On the other hand, as a Lifecrafter it's easier to put points into battle magic and spellcraft than missile weapons.

Quote:

BTW, tell me if I understand this correctly: each level of appropriate Attribute and Skill adds one die to weapon damage, correct? So if a javelin is base 4-24 (4d6), with 2 Dexterity and 2 Missile it does 8-48 (8d6)? The manual is a bit unclear...

Correct. The die size of a weapon tends to be more important than the base number of dice, especially at higher levels.

By the way, there's basically no reason to ever use an ordinary thorn baton; you find enough javelins just lying around that you can use those until they become obsolete.

EDIT: Wait, are you sure you meant to post this in the Geneforge 4 forum and not the Geneforge forum? I'm pretty sure the answers to your questions are the same either way, though.

[Micawber]

Depends which Geneforge game. In GF1/GF2, Firebolt does 1-4 damage per level of spell strength. In GF3 it does 1-4 base plus 1-3 per level.

[Randomizer]

As a Shaper it's better to use javelins until you find venom batons. Thorn batons are only useful to sell even though they can kill the low level creations you fight in the beginning of the game. Agents/Infiltrators are better off using firebolt since they tend to do more average damage at the starting statistics.

[Archaeolagent]

Actually, Firebolt did 1-6 in G1, 1-4 in G2, and 1-3 in G3. Most of the damage numbers for G1-3 are available at Rebalancing between games .

 

It's also worth pointing out the obvious fact the Firebolt does fire damage while thorn batons and javelins do physical damage. In G1, resistances in general were uncommon so it didn't matter much. In G2+, many enemies have mild resistance to physical damage. Fire resistance isn't rare, but it's definitely less common.

[Micawber]

I have done a brief test - 24 reps with spell strength 15, average damage 52 - which supports Slarty's claim of 1-6 damage (avge 3.5). However, when I looked at the GF1 scripts earlier, they seemed to indicate that Firebolt does 1-4 damage.

 

Can anyone explain what is going on?

 

From gforscen.txt:

Code:

begindefineability 3;    // Basic missile for importation    ab_name = "Firebolt";    ab_abil_type = 2;    ab_graphic_type = 0;    ab_graphic_template = 1;    ab_graphic_sheet = 0;    ab_stat_ability_linked_to = 40;    ab_stat_for_ability_bonus = 9;    ab_effect_type = 0;    ab_effect_per_level = 4; ////  look here    ab_range = 8;    ab_speed = 72;    ab_turn_rate = 1;    ab_impact_sfx_effect = 0;    ab_random_effect_shift = 0;    ab_ability_sound = 132;    ab_impact_sound = 9;    ab_damage_type = 2;    ab_energy_cost = 4;    ab_essence_cost = 0;    ab_accuracy_adjust = 60;

[Phasma Felis]

D'oh, didn't mean to put this in the Geneforge 4 forum. Sorry. Is it possible for a mod to move it to the correct forum?

 

So the base damage for Firebolt in Geneforge 1 is 1d6, meaning it's superior to the thorn baton's 2d5 at all but the very lowest skill levels.

 

I do realize that javelins are superior to thorn batons; I'm using the baton anyway for the moment because (a) javelins are heavy and my poor Shaper is weak and puny, and ( geeky roleplaying reasons--in my head, a cloaked wizard should prefer wielding a precision biorifle to chucking spears around. It doesn't matter too much, I don't guess, as creations are my primary damage dealers and I've got crystals to fall back on in a jam.

 

Oh, do skills affect crystal damage at all, or is it set?

[Nioca]

Both crystals and wands are affected by the Missile Weapons skill, if I remember correctly.

 

Don't worry, a mod can move this topic if they so choose.

[Randomizer]

In Geneforge 3 and 4, dexterity also helps with crystals and other missle weapons.

 

You can always cache javelins to keep your encumberance down to a manageable level. Just retreat along a cleared route to go back and get more as you need them. It makes a difference when the creation you face goes down after one or two attacks.