7th August 2004, 10:39 PM
Okay, in D&D you weapons have names. Like 'Frostbite' the Long Sword. This is a magical sword. So, it gets a 'plus rating' or 'bonus rating' or whatever it's called -- the level of enchantment on the sword. +1 through +5, generally. Higher than that is extremely rare. So, if in a store you see 'Long Sword' and 'Long Sword +1', and you know the dice, you'd know that the Longsword attacks with 1d8 and the +1 longsword attacks with 1d8 + 1. As in, roll a d8 and then add one. So 2-9 damage. :) This sword will also give you a +1 to your THAC0 -- To Hit Armor Class Zero, that statistic that they dropped in D&D Third Edition and replaced with the all new armor/to-hit system. I know I've explained the D&D 2nd edition combat system before to you, though...
But when they are special magical weapons and not just normal 'Long Sword +1', the level of enchantment does not necessarially always represent the exact bonuses the sword gives. Instead, it's supposed to represent the CLASS of magical weapons it is in -- like Plus-One Weapons. So that weapon may have a actual damage of 1d8+2. Or maybe a '+2' bastard sword may do 2d4+1 with some additional bonus -- like + 1 fire damage (as in, after doing that base damage roll and adding the point do a test against their fire resistance and see if you will add one more damage on top of that -- since this is tested seperately, it'll show up seperately on screen as a different attack. Same for each one for the instance of the weapon that does +1 fire+1cold+1acid+1lightning. That stupid thing takes up five lines to show each hit... :))
Anyway. So the rating said in the name (or description) for special (as in unique) magical weapons isn't the absolute decider of what actual bonuses it does. It only denotes which class the weapon is in.
As for the thing about magic weapon rating determining which enemies it can hit, this only occurs at upper levels... before the 10th, 12th, or higher level you will not be fighting guys who require much of anything. But eventually you'll hit some guys who can only be hit with enchanted (even +1 weapons)... you can tell when your people try to hit and always fail. :) In those cases you need to find weapons with the correct rating, not a damage bonus of that number. Which in some cases can be a pain if a great weapon can't hit someone tough.
But when they are special magical weapons and not just normal 'Long Sword +1', the level of enchantment does not necessarially always represent the exact bonuses the sword gives. Instead, it's supposed to represent the CLASS of magical weapons it is in -- like Plus-One Weapons. So that weapon may have a actual damage of 1d8+2. Or maybe a '+2' bastard sword may do 2d4+1 with some additional bonus -- like + 1 fire damage (as in, after doing that base damage roll and adding the point do a test against their fire resistance and see if you will add one more damage on top of that -- since this is tested seperately, it'll show up seperately on screen as a different attack. Same for each one for the instance of the weapon that does +1 fire+1cold+1acid+1lightning. That stupid thing takes up five lines to show each hit... :))
Anyway. So the rating said in the name (or description) for special (as in unique) magical weapons isn't the absolute decider of what actual bonuses it does. It only denotes which class the weapon is in.
As for the thing about magic weapon rating determining which enemies it can hit, this only occurs at upper levels... before the 10th, 12th, or higher level you will not be fighting guys who require much of anything. But eventually you'll hit some guys who can only be hit with enchanted (even +1 weapons)... you can tell when your people try to hit and always fail. :) In those cases you need to find weapons with the correct rating, not a damage bonus of that number. Which in some cases can be a pain if a great weapon can't hit someone tough.
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