Please help a Newbie!

I am fairly new to RPG's and need some help. I am playing Icewind Dale and I dont understand the differance between weapons that are 1D8, 2D4, etc. Also when I have completed this game, is it possible to take the party I created into other games such as Balders Gate? Thanks in advance for any help.

I believe it has to do with dice. 1D8 would equal a single roll of one standard six sided dice, plus 8. Usually 2D4 would be heavier hitting weapons, but not always because you never know what the computer will roll for you. I mean a 1D8 roll of 6+8=14, but a roll of 1+3+4=7. So you just never know what your guy and his weapon are going to get. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong but I believe I'm right.

AS for taking your IWD party into BG or BG2, you can't "officially". You can though "unofficially". You'd need to rebuild the characters in a character editor and have to substitute some of the items from IWD to something equivalent if it's not available in the other games. Then you'd need to start a multiplayer game *I think* and import you new characters and then start a single player game from the multiplayer saved game. I'm not too sure how to do this though since I haven't done it myself yet.

[Swanhild]

Actually, the 1D8 refers to an eight sided dice rolled 1 time. D&D uses several polygonal dice from 4 sided up to 20 sided. Damage is calculated as, for instance, 1D8, 1 is the number of dice rolled and 8 is which dice to roll. So a weapon doing 1D8 does from 1-8 points of damage. A weapon doing 2D4 means that two 4 sided dice are rolled giving a range of 2-8 points of damage.

Hope this helps.

[Leafy]

a 1d8 equals 6+8? you're mistaken there.

A 1d8 weapon means when you hit, it does damage between 1 and 8.. it gets 1 roll on an 8 sided dice for a minimum of 1 damage and a max of 8. a 2d4 weapon, however, gets 2 rolls on a 4 sided dice. that makes its damage hit for a minimum of 2 and a max of 8. you can see how this increases your odds for better damage, however these weapons have typicaly slower speed factors.
if you really want to know how it works, try picking up a player's handbook at a used bookstore. 2nd edition rules should be fine. (i hear the new HoW will be 2nd and 3rd edition? i'll bet they just use the BG2 engine though)

OK, Thanks for all of your help