Enchantment Stacking??

[rah_pillage]

Ok I got Merkil's Hammer and it has an Enhancement Bonus vs Constructs +6
and Enhancement Bonus: +3 (I think)

Do they stack against Constructs? I mean do I get the +3 and +6 or just the +6

The reason I'm asking is I was thinking of upgrading the hammer but since I seldom use it, if it doesn't stack then I'll probably pass on the upgrade since its ok now.

And another thing that's puzzling me...

The whole +1 deal, how exactly does that factor in to the damage dished. I mean is it like +1 point extra worth of damage? If so that seems like not much of an upgrade for the price to do it. Or is it some kind of multiplier that I'm missing.

[ 04-16-2006, 01:26 PM: Message edited by: rah_pillage ]

[Legolas]

A weapon +3/+6 vs Constructs like you described will give you a +6 bonus to your To Hit roll, and deal +6 damage to constructs. Against everything else, it deals +3 extra damage and is +3 To Hit compared to a regular weapon of its type (warhammer).
Upgrading it by +1 probably makes it +4/+6 vs Constructs, giving you +1 To Hit and +1 damage against non-construct enemies.

I'm not sure if a +3/+1 vs Undead weapon would count as +3 or would actually give you a relative penalty facing the dead ones though.

[robertthebard]

It would penalize you. The racial bonus overrides the standard bonus, even if it's lower. Which means that the +3/+1 weapon you mentioned would be worthless against more powerful undead.

[rah_pillage]

As always thanks for the input guys. Well that makes it official, no upgrades for a seldom used hammer.

Been rolling with Armands (or something like that) sword with the -4 dex + 8 strength bonus I'm cheap so I haven't done much to it besides give it keen and haste (don't ask me why I save imaginary money like an accountant from the depression era) but it's doing the job big time.

Remember that +4 Ravenger with Sonic/Daze on hit I was "crying" about they stole from me when I started HotU, well that thing is just awesome at +7 and it already had keen to boot, nothing like seeing a halo over the enemys head, kinda reminds me of Minority Report (get the halo) [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Witchdoctor]

The thing to remember about HOTU is that it is generous with the money. You will have a lot of gold pieces and not lots of things you need to spend it on, especially if you imported a character with lots of loot in magic bags and recovered that stuff (to then sell). You will have an opportunity in the end game to spend some big bucks to effect plot outcomes with multiple characters, but it is not absolutely necessary, except for one case. I will leave it at this somewhat cryptic statement so as not to spoil you for plot elements later in HOTU.

The magical weapon upgrades (+1 up to +10 enhancement, keen, permanent haste, true seeing, regeneration, elemental damage etc) are definitely worth the money. In one of the sub-dungeon areas with lots of undead there is even an opportunity to add strength drain. If you have a weapon that is already enchanted, there is a limit to how many upgrades that you will be able to add in addition, but there is a way around that too. It is an exploit, though, which may or may not matter to you. You have the potential to build/upgrade a really over-powered super weapon if you have the gold pieces and the inclination.

Other than weapon upgrades and the above mentioned purchases to effect plot/dialogue choices, there really isn't much to spend money on other than ammo for any ranged weapons you may have or potions, and you will probably find most of the potions you need on corpses or in chests etc. There probably will also be the occasional magic ring, amulet, pair of bracers etc that will meet some need or vulnerability of your particular character, but really you will likely have lots of money left over at the end of HOTU.

[rah_pillage]

Ok I don't want to get cheesy or nothin but I gave my armili's sword a true seeing upgrade too and then thought about upping the +s and it said my weapon was too powerful to mess with. I never upped the + on it though it's still the original +5 and I'm way past the time when I upgraded it and am not going to replay all them hours.

So am I dead in the water on upping the + on that weapon?

BTW, I got those strength drain ups and they were awesome. And I gotta say the most

Watch out (might be considered a ) spoiler:
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The most difficult fight in all the NWN games so far for me has been the Dragon in the cellar of the Cult Temple, that dude killed me like 12 times before I got him...LOL It was big time fun!!

I'd get helmets, boots, glowes, medallions, rings, you name it, they just kept ganging up on me and killing me. I would almost beat him, be an inch from death, hit greater sanctuary, run away, start the rejeuv process with potions and health kits, then my henchies would do something stupid like follow me and bring the Dragon along.. LOL ... Dead

I finally beat him to an inch of his life by running through the mine fields they set up and bashing those skellies protecting that stand and breaking it.

Then when he popped up running through a door and rejuving again, when he popped up I bashed him out.

First time I was actually on egde and shakin when it was over in the whole series...LOL

I wanted to win that one bad.

[Zink Whistlefly]

You might still be able to increase the enchantment of the weapon a little later in the game, although I won't spoil anything for you. The second encounter with Rizolvir generally allows you to push your weapon a little further...

+5 is still a very powerful enchantment so even if you can't increase it further I wouldn't worry too much. I would generally recommend a minimum of +6 however to allow your weapon to bypass most protection spells (such as Stoneskin).

Oh, and if you thought that encounter was difficult, you ain't seen nothing yet

[Zink Whistlefly]

Originally posted by robertthebard: It would penalize you. The racial bonus overrides the standard bonus, even if it's lower. Which means that the +3/+1 weapon you mentioned would be worthless against more powerful undead.

I thought the enchantment vs specific races/alignment were handled something like:

weaponEnchantment = x;
weaponEnchantmentVsSpecificRace = y;

if (currentTarget = SpecificRace) {
if (x > y) {
weaponDamage = d(x) + weaponEnchantment;
}
else {
weaponDamage = d(x) + weaponEnchantmentVsSpecificRace;
}
}
else {
weaponDamage = d(x) + weaponEnchantment;
}

Meaning that the enchantment vs a specific race/alignment is only applied if that enchantment is higher than the generic weapon enchantment.

A good example of this is using an upgraded Nameless Light. Vs evil creatures it is a +5 weapon (that does some bonus electrical damage to evil creatures). If you were to take that weapon all the way up to +10 (so the description says +10, +5 vs Evil creatures), it will not penalise you when attacking evil creatures. You will retain the +10 enchantment, as well as still retaining the electrical damage vs evil creatures. It is only the enchantment enchantment which is overridden.

[ 04-19-2006, 05:10 AM: Message edited by: Zink Whistlefly ]

[robertthebard]

Ideally, if you bypass the vs specific enhancement, it should just eliminate it. However, if you check your char sheet, it will still list it as +10, +? vs...In so far as I have observed, while not actually tested, this is the way it works. Easy enough to check though, just build a module with a specific creature, and a weapon with an enchantment vs it, with a bigger enhancement, and see which value it uses. I'm fairly curious now, and may try that a little bit later.

http://www.robertbard67206.com/files/Theory_Test.jpg

Gotta test the link, but I did try that, and it does override the vs thing.

[ 04-19-2006, 06:49 AM: Message edited by: robertthebard ]