calculations

[Faceman]

There have been several topics about who dishes the most damage, what is the best AC,...
Now I like mental arithmetic and I would like to compute these things myself should I ever come across one of these questions but I'm not familiar with the exact order in which the game calculates.
So my questions are:

• in damage calculations what comes first, i.e. which boni (strenghth, elemental, additional dmg like the Impaler) are flat and which are multiplie by Critical Hit, Backstab and the like?
• does damage (other than Critical) depend on your hit-roll or is it rolled separately?
• which armor supplies which boni (Plate vs. piercing,...) and do the respective spells (Armor, Ghost Armor, Spirit Armor) provide the same additional boni as the actual armor they are simulating
• is poison/bleeding/... dmg and regeneration meant to be increased by haste and decreased by slow or is this a glitch?
• can magical weapons (e.g. Black Blade of Disaster) used for backstabbing?
• why the hell can enemies backstab regardless of their position (i.e. NOT behind)?
• does AC do anything beside determining if hit or not (e.g. reducing damage)
• which save/resistance/... reducing spells stack?
• will this list ever end?? - yes

[ 10-01-2003, 05:21 PM: Message edited by: Faceman ]

[LennonCook]

1. Only physical damage is multiplied into a backstab or critical, elemental damage is *then* applied, and strength damage last. I think. This means: FOA +3, 18/00 Str, backstab x5 critical hit -
1d6 + 3 piercing - average of 6 damage. x10 = 60, +elemental = 63 + Str = 72.

2. Rolled separately - you'll notice that weapon descriptions say "xdn + y" - where x, n and y are integers. x is the number of dice, n is the number of sides each die has, y is guaranteed damage if you hit.

3. Armours generally provide the boni in their description, usually only AC bonuses. Spell armours usually provide some resistance to something.

4. Glitch.

5. Any weapon which is usable by a low level (no UAI) thief can be used to backstab.

6. Because they have no way of telling if they're behind you.

7. No. Damage reduction is covered by your resistances - all bar Magic resistance are percent damage reduction, MR is a percent chance of ignoring most spells.

8. Anything which reduces or raises something will stack with everything. Only the last equipped thing to set a value applies, and it cancels all of the reductions/raises, so equip setting items first. If a given value is absolute, assume it sets. Swords which set a value (such as Carsomyr's 50% MR) reapply that with every swing.

[Faceman]

1.Thx, that was my main question and I see more clearly now.
3.huh?
5.So that would exclude Black Blade of Disaster or Flaming Blade? I mean technically they are one-handed-swords so backstab should be possible. That it won't work with Spiritual Hammer or MMM is obvious but I really thought that the magical blades could bs
6.
7.I'm not talking magical items but more spells. E.g. will Greater Malison stack (I know that LR does), will poison stack (it should), will Chants stack (they should not). Is there any comprehensive list on which spells exclude the other (e.g. Free Action + Haste) and which spells stack for max effect (e.g. Doom+Greater Malison)?

[Seraph]

5.So that would exclude Black Blade of Disaster or Flaming Blade? I mean technically they are one-handed-swords so backstab should be possible. That it won't work with Spiritual Hammer or MMM is obvious but I really thought that the magical blades could bs

Why would what Lennon said exclude the Flaming Blade (I'm not familiar with the black blade of disaster off the top of my head) a pure class low-level thief will have no problem weilding it, so its an option for backstab.

[Lemmy]

Faceman:
5.So that would exclude Black Blade of Disaster or Flaming Blade? I mean technically they are one-handed-swords so backstab should be possible.

(Can Backstab)
Polymorph Self forms
Black Blade of Disaster
Slayer form
Phantom Blade
Chill Touch
Ghoul Touch
Shapechange forms (Iron Golem's backstab is quite nice.)

(Cannot Backstab)
Shocking Grasp

Didn't test Enchant Weapon or Priest Spells. I expect Enchant Weapon should permit backstab only with a suitable weapon. As for Priest Spells, Tiax was perfectly able to backstab with Flame Blade in BG1. I'd be surprised if that changed between games. I don't recall experimenting with Priest's other magical weapons, but testing those should be trivial if you're curious about them.

-Lem

[Faceman]

Originally posted by Seraph: quote: 5.So that would exclude Black Blade of Disaster or Flaming Blade? I mean technically they are one-handed-swords so backstab should be possible. That it won't work with Spiritual Hammer or MMM is obvious but I really thought that the magical blades could bs

Why would what Lennon said exclude the Flaming Blade (I'm not familiar with the black blade of disaster off the top of my head) a pure class low-level thief will have no problem weilding it, so its an option for backstab. [/QUOTE]\

because a low level thief can't cast weapon-making spells

[SillySorcerer]

I have wondered about greater malison stacking, as well. It seems like if it did stack, casting something like GM-GM-Feeblemind in a sequencer would be pretty devastating. Anyone know?

[Leslie]

GM doesn't stack. Doom doesn't stack either.
But GM + Doom do stack.

[andrewas]

Originally posted by Faceman: because a low level thief can't cast weapon-making spells

But a mage(20)->thief(1) can, so if the created weapon is one that theives are proficient in it can be used to backstab.

[Harkoliar]

lemmy ------ Shapechange forms (Iron Golem's backstab is quite nice.)

that is pretty funny.. i mean in a real life PVP... who wouldnt recognize a giant hulk of iron metal walking behind you. as if the giant golem is tiptoeing which is impossible.