Weapon ratings?

[Windrider]

Hello All,

I have been playing IWD since my wife got it for me as a present. I have never played any D&D type games before so a lot of the terminology is new to me. I am actually on my second run though and up to the Eye of the Dragon,again, which is where I stalled before, when that danged snake girl kicked my a**. I since updated my hardware and found that I had to reload the game, hence a new start.

Anyway,(sorry for the rambling)my first question is about how the weapons are rated. I have read the book from cover to cover and the way the weapons are rated in it are different from what I see in the game. I have an axe for example that the game says is a 2D8 +2. Now I know that the +2 is a bonus on top of the basic rating, but what do the other numbers stand for? I know that a sword with a 10 rating is better than a sword with an 8 rating, but the 2D?

Also, it seems that there are times when my mage does not memorize spells when he is resting. I *think* this happens when he is recovering from injuries. Is this the typical case?

Thanks all, you have a great site here that has inspired me to keep hacking at this game till the end!

[ZFR]

Welcome to the forums!

the 'd' stands for dice, and is used a lot in IWD, DnD and RPGs in general.

Here is how it works.

if a weapon deals 1d6 damage it means it will deal damage between 1 and 6, like rolling a 6 sided dice.

1d4 means it will deal damage between 1 and four (like rolling a four-sided dice).

now 2d4 means simply rolling 2 independent four-sided dice. and the damage is then the sum of the two. So the highest possible is 8 (both dice roll a 4), the lowest possible is 2 (both dice roll a 1).

the +2 means adding additional 2 to the total like you guessed.

That said, how good a weapon is depends not only on how much damage it deals, but on other attributes as well like damage type, number of attacks per round (apr), and special abilities (the apr and special abilities become far more superior to damage in determining the usefullness of a weapon as the character progresses).

___

As for mages noit learning spells, they should do it always when you rest, unless your sleep is disturbed by monsters... can you post more details on why you think the mage doesnt memorize spells?

[Windrider]

Thanks for the quick and very good response! I have also noticed that some weapons work better with some foes than others.

As to the mage not memorizing spells, there have been a couple of times when I came out of a rest period and check his spell book only to see one or more spell grayed out. I have not spent much time checking this, but I will be from now on.

[Aerich]

Hi Windrider, [img]graemlins/happywave.gif[/img]

When you see grayed-out spells, are you looking at the actual book, or are you looking at the spell icons that show up when you hit the Cast button (stars and moon) along the bottom of the screen?

If you have memorized the Identify spell (question mark icon), it cannot be cast "in combat". Therefore, it will always appear grayed out after hitting the cast button. If all of your spells are grayed out, it means that you are wearing equipment (armor) that prohibits spellcasting; this commonly happens to fighter/mages.

Recovery from injury should not affect the mage's memorization ability. As long as you open your spellbook and fill all the little squares in the book before resting, you should have your maximum spell allowance memorized.

[Raffin]

Just for clarification-the "enchantment plus" is the same as:

a) plus to damage
b) plus to THACO
c) something different (explain, please)

Having played IWD I and II a lot, II lays it out clearly with it's "enchantment" rating in the item description, but I'm not sure where to find this information in I.

To paraphrase, how do I tell which items have a plus 2 or greater enchantment needed to harm you-know-who?

I know with the ones that say, for instance "Bastard Sword +1" as their name, but what about Faith Killer? Spine Sheath? How do you tell their enchantment rating for purposes of hurting certain monsters?

-Raffin

[Kyrvias]

It's usually the extra + to damage they do.

Though, there are some exceptions. Such as the Hammer you can steal from the smithy. It functions as a +4, I believe, when being used against any creature needing a magical weapon to hit it.

[Aerich]

Yes. Look at the damage the enchanted weapon will do and compare it to the damage of a non-enchanted weapon of the same type.

Spinesheath is a bit odd, as is Conlan's Hammer. They don't get the + to damage, but they get a + to attack. I believe the + to attack is the "enchantment rating", so Spinesheath is technically a +5 for the purposes of hitting creatures. I'm not totally certain, so if anybody knows differently, let me know.

[ZFR]

Originally posted by Aerich: Yes. Look at the damage the enchanted weapon will do and compare it to the damage of a non-enchanted weapon of the same type. Spinesheath is a bit odd, as is Conlan's Hammer. They don't get the + to damage, but they get a + to attack. I believe the + to attack is the "enchantment rating", so Spinesheath is technically a +5 for the purposes of hitting creatures. I'm not totally certain, so if anybody knows differently, let me know.

I believe Spinesheath is actually +1 when determining what creatures to be hit.

Also note the 'high quality' and 'finest' weapons are considered non-magical for enchantment purposes.

So I think your best bet is to look at bonus to damage and not bonus to thaco to determine enchantment.
Again though, there could be exceptions. When in doubt I think trial and error is the way to go.

[Kyrvias]

Somebody should test this out.

[Ultra Marine]

Go for special ability weapons like sword of confusion, hammer flail and fast flail. Secondary effects are cool.