no penetration/misses... way too many

[ratchild]

so my guys are all lvl 10, and it seems like fully half of the hits i get, when i can get any at all, don't penetrate. I don't remember it being this bad in previous games, and it's getting really bad. i'm in trynton now with my current party, and on monsters that equal my level, i'm not doing dmg (missing/no penetration) at least 50% of the time. anyone seem to have a crippled party like this? one thing i thought was weight... i try to keep everyone in the white, but it's not easy... it seems the items i'm carrying are weighing down a lot more in this game as well. right now, most folks are in blue, but that should affect them all that much should it?

[GenXCub]

It's possible, but I doubt the effect it has would be that dramatic. Why don't you pick a chest (like Antone's) in Arnika to keep all your stuff that you don't really need? A lot of the stuff I carry is for my alchemist when he gets to the right level to merge some powders.

[ratchild]

oh trust me... i have been doing that. i also keep ammo carried down as low as i can w/o constantly running out.. maybe 100 each.. no stones, some arrows.. some quarrels, and musket shot. my party inv. goes like this : ammo, right to potions... nothing extra... and if it's a bug i sure as heck don't wanna patch and ruin all my fun pickpocketing

[Vaprakgruumsh]

Several factors, I believe can lead up to this.

One, what is your skill in the weapon you're using to attack? If it's not that high, you're going to miss - and if you hit - probably not skilled enough to penetrate. I put my points (at that level) for fighters, into whatever weapon they used, and close combat.

Another factor is, what you're fighting. You may need to do Armor Melt to make it easier to hit them.

(For that matter, I just entered the Sea Caves, and came across Adamantium Slimes - where I was normally doing 50 damage, I was suddenly doing 3 damage, if I was lucky!) So some monsters simply have higher density (another good example is the Rock Crabs, same situation - armor melt did no good).

So there's a number of things that could be leading to this. But more than likely, I'd say it's how yer distributing yer points.

[Vaprakgruumsh]

I forgot to add 'Enchant Blade' spell increases chances to hit and penatration.

[MaskedFrog]

Bless also increase the chance of a hit and penetration. If you have fighters you may want to consider not beserking as this reduces hit chance. Using bloodlust can also cause a problem.

Another item is to make sure your dex is reasonably high since dex affects your chance to hit.

[ratchild]

my party is drac sam, dwarf lord, human monk, human ranger, gadget and bard... and dex is doing pretty good on all of 'em.. enchanted blade is always up... i use bless in combat... it doesn't seem to help much...

[slowtrain]

Mostly it just depends what you are fighting. You may hit one monster easily and have a really hard time with another. As long as you raise weapon skill and dex/strength, you will get better at hitting higher monsters. Powerstrike and Eagle Eye also help with melee and ranged attack to hit/penetration.

A common trick is to not level your party immediately, but let them keep training their skills without leveling. Since monster level is directly tied to party level, if you keep your party at level 5, you can run around bashing the snot out of low level monsters for as long as you want. When you feel confident enough, go ahead and level your party through all those levels you've saved up.

[Snowblind]

i have the oppisite problem. I just started my 2nd val in archery and really didnt put much points in for her. Just let her gradually grow on her own. At 11 lvl she maybe has 10 if not less then that and range combat is about same but she is getting good damage and to where my Lizard Lord has been doing since the begining.... Now when did she bypass him ? He's about 60-70+ in both skills... They make the greatsest front line fighters far superior then my samuri. Put him in back(wanting to get rid of him).