"So what if it sold horribly? It was a darn good game, so we're making sequels!!"

[A Black Falcon]

First, I'm basing all of this on Baldur's Gate II/ToB, so it's D&D2.0. or 2.5 if you prefer, it kind of is... from what I've seen in Icewind Dale II (my only third edition game -- Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance does NOT count!), 3.0 changed things quite a bit. That whole new Feat system, for instance... the removal of THAC0, retooling of saving throws, etc, etc... it's still recognizably D&D, but some of the mechanics are different.

You read the description of the item, and look at the detailed list of all its stats of course! Since they generally have different effects (when they aren't just standard enchanted weapons, which are easily recognized by their generic 'Longsword +1' names), you really have to read the descriptions (and then do some arithmetic, in some of these games, to see what it will actually do for damage) to see what the weapon really does. That one line name will give no hint that the Daystar shortsword has three or four special abilities (a bunch of pretty cool fire attacks, usable once a day each... quite a nice sword for that, if not for it's super high enchantment...) it gives you when it's equipped until you right click and read the description. :)


Oh, and remember, this is D&D. The base damage, with the die roll, is normal damage if it's just a normal weapon. If it's an enchanted weapon -- with a damage bonus like +2 -- then it does magic damage. That means that you will hurt people who have spells like Protection from Normal Weapons cast on them, but on those rare high level guys who have Protection from Magic Weapons you could have a bit of trouble... :D

Anyway, the ones that have additional bonus damage, namely fire, cold, acid, etc, then after rolling (and hitting, if you hit) for the main damage do a completely different check to see if it does the extra damages. Instead of against AC those are acid, cold, etc. so they check against your resistances/protections, not really your AC... and it's generally a +1 bonus for each so it checks to see if the resistance (it might be a a saving throw, but I think it's the resistances -- like Fire Resistance, Acid Resistance, etc. Most people don't have much, so most people take all of these hits.) blocked the hit, and then either hits the guy or doesn't. :)

I have only one weapon that does elemental damage of more than one point, which is one axe that does 1-4 cold damage. So instead of just taking off 1 point if/when the guy fails his resist cold save (resistances ONLY come from equipped items, BTW. You have no innate resistances to anything. In that way they are different from saving throws, THAC0, Armor Class (which is partially affected by your armor but also by things like your class and Dexterity)... so most enemies don't have any, unless they're some kind of magical creature or they are a powerful foe.) I'd assume that the game will do the virtual equivilant of rolling a d4 to see how much damage that cold damage will do.