Raising hit point damage to the badies.

[Storm Shadow]

How do you manage to raise the damage your characters do to the bad guys? Is it done as you ascend the line of advancement or some other way?

[Bungleau]

A couple of different things factor into it...

First off, your stats. By Brimloch Roon, you should be at least 20 in all your primary stats (str, int, wis, dex, agl). Those help tremendously.

Second, your weapon. Are you using a rusted small sword, or a wizard's blade or nightblade? The better the weapon, the more the damage.

Third, blessings and enchantments. A follow-on to the weapon, but important nonetheless. I bless weapons with as much damage as they can hold. I ignore the elemental enchantments; if I want a flamestrike, I'll cast one

Fourth, your weapons skills. Are you at least level 5 in your weapon? Or are you fumbling along at level 2? By Brimloch Roon, I'm usually at level 12 in my chosen weapon(s).

Fifth, your ancillary skills. Things like Prowess and Gallantry can really do a lot of damage. I mean, they do a lot more damage.

Sixth, are you hiding or not? Using the stealth ability and hiding in shadows greatly increases your damage through backstabs.

Does that give you a start? I hope so. And now, Professor Radek, you may take over and enhance everything I've said

(side note: I greatly respect Radek and his in-depth knowledge of the technical aspects of the game. I wish I knew half as much; I just try to remember the basics and go from there. So note that every comment I make about Radek is simply because I'm jealous [img]smile.gif[/img] )

[ 05-05-2003, 11:19 PM: Message edited by: Bungleau ]

[Olli Kalma]

Hello my old ninja! [img]smile.gif[/img]

Or was it you, in that comic book?!?
Well anyway, I don't have more to add ( Bungleau: now I could say I jealous to you! ), but let's talk about weapons....

First of all, best weapons you find in the game are swords!
Enchanted nightblade and little Wakitachi ( spelling ) are doing serious damage
when you know 2nd hand weapon-skill and critical hit etc...

Next comes daggers...
Skull Dagger and Wizard's Blade! What a combination in good assassin's hand!

I founded quite few good staffs ( Spear/pole skill ), and not really good
bow's either. Well you might use bow's in early game, but further in the game, they are useless...
And there are not enought good Axe's nor Maces.
Enchanted Priest's Mace is quite good...

Don't ever throw knives! They look good when they hit, ( I like knive throwing games, and this ain't game for that! ) but they weight way too much and do minor damage... Use enchanted throwing stars and then enchanted darts...
I'm talking about that 'Kiss Of Death' dart... enchanted ofcource...

Now I let others to say they oppinion too!

[Radek]

Add magic. If you fight under Heroic Might + Frenzy + Haste and if you have the Fury trait then the damage caused by your weapons can be about four times the maximum damage caused by the weapon. Examples:
Wizard's Blade, blessed, damage 20 - 74. Maximum damage seen: 287. Usual damage: 130 - 170. Hits below 100 have to be considered bad
Assassin's Dagger, blessed, damage 18 - 60. Maximum damage seen 217. Usual damage: 100 - 140. Hits below 90 have to be considered bad.
Also, I have found that the damage depends on your level somehow. Even if you have Dagger 12 and 2nd Weapon 12, you will not be able to reach the results above at low levels. As your level goes up, your score will improve gradually.

[LiOnHe@rT]

whoa! radek, how did u manage to get ur damage up to so high?! mine is still at 2-digit numbers only [img]graemlins/crying.gif[/img] ! but maybe it's coz i nv use all those frenzy and heroic might spells, afraid that my weapon might break if i did [img]graemlins/blush.gif[/img] ...
Gallantry and Prowness sure does lotsa damage. my priest converted to a paladin and SHE was really sucky, but once i had those 2 skills i was doing a good amt of damage to enemies, so without gallantry and prowness, what could u do?

[Radek]

Your weapon will not break it it has some toughness. Here is experience of my solo characters fighting under Heroic Might + Frenzy + Haste all the time:

Toughness 20% - Suffices in Valeia. Completely unsufficient otherwise. You will have to repair your weapon after every fight in Brimloch Roon, moreover, you will have to repair your weapon during fights against such enemies like Mother of Crabs or Mystic Sphinx.
Toughness 40% - Much better but not enough. You will have to repair the weapon frequently.
Toughness 50% - Good. Well, you will need the Forge skill and you will repair the weapon but reapiring the weapon will not be your main occupation.
Toughness 60% - More than good. You will repair the weapon only rarely.
Toughness 80% - Luxury. Not needed. You can almost forget the Forge skill.

Let us note that some weapon do not have the toughness stat. These weapons try to disintgrate at every possible occasion and are completely useless (with one exception, see below). Most likely, these weapons have toughness 0% and need blessing for toughness (Artifact of Vines). An example of such weapon is the Witch's Stick. Almost unusable but if you bless it for toughness thrice (toughness 60%) and if you bless it for damage 8 times, then you get a nice weapon with damage 10 - 20 and the Sleep bonus attack. Such Witch's Stick is more than enough for Valeia and Ishad N'Ha.
There is one exception from this rule - the Assassin's Dagger. It has no toughness stat but it seems to be unbreakable! I've never seen a damaged Assassin's Dagger! What's the toughness of the dagger I don't know. In order to avoid surprises, I bless the dagger to toughness 40%.

[bsftcs]

On top of that I might add a side note on how to raise hit points (and not just hit point DAMAGE) to the bad guys:

The toughen spell actually works on enemies as well. I have managed to raise roaches and glowflies to over 100 hit points. One thing I do not remember, however, is if the extra amount of hit points has any effect on the amount of experience points they yield when killed. I have not tried to use healing spells on enemy vampire characters either. I have a feeling that might actually work.