Luck and Chant

[aVENGER_(RR)]

Cross post from here. I've done some tests with effects #22 (Cumulative Luck Bonus), #133 (Luck Non-Cumulative) and #131 (Positive Chant). Apparently, they all pretty much do the same thing in Baldur's Gate 2:

 

 

a) Both Luck effects as well as Chant increase the minimum damage of a weapon by the specified amount. However, this amount can never exceed the natural damage range of a weapon. For example, a character with 10 Luck wielding a Dagger (damage: 1d4) will still do 4 damage (the dagger's maximum) per each hit. OTOH, if he was wielding wielding a 2H Sword (damage: 1d10) then he would always do 10 damage (the 2H Sword's maximum) per hit.

 

 

b) Both Luck effects as well as Chant magically increase the Attack Roll Modifier by the specified amount. However, the total result can not exceed 20+Natural Attack Roll Modifiers. For example, a character with 17 Strength (Natural +1 to Attack Rolls) and a Longsword +1 (Natural +1 to Attack Rolls) with 10 Luck (Magical +10 to Attack Rolls) will never get more than an 22 on his total result (20 +2). If he rolls a 10 or lower on the dice then he will receive the full +12 bonus on his Attack Roll (+2 Natural, +10 Magical from Luck). Otherwise, the total result will be 20+(Natural Attack Roll Bonus - Dice Roll). So, on a roll of 20, the total Attack Roll Bonus would still be +2 i.e. the Magical bonus from Luck would be ignored. Note: the Attack Roll Bonus is not visible on the character sheet, it can only be seen in the combat log after an attack is attempted.

 

 

c) The THAC0 bonus derived from high Strength, the THAC0 bonus from a magical weapon and the +4 to hit bonus from being invisible/stealthed apparently all count as a Natural Attack Roll Modifiers. So, if an invisible character (Natural +4 to Attack Rolls) with 17 strength (Natural +1 to Attack Rolls) wielding a Longsword +1 (Natural +1 to Attack Rolls) and with 10 Luck (Magical +10 to Attack Rolls) gets a 10 or higher on his dice roll, then he will get the total Attack Roll of 26 until the invisibility is broken. However, on the next strike, when he becomes visible, he can at most have an total Attack Roll of 22 once again.

 

 

d) A few notes on state handling:

• Effect #22 (Cumulative Luck Bonus) - doesn't flag STATE_LUCK as true
  
• Effect #133 (Luck Non-Cumulative) - flags STATE_LUCK as true
  
• Effect #131 (Positive Chant) - flags STATE_CHANT as true
  
• Effect #137 (Negative Chant) - flags STATE_CHANTBAD as true
  

[aVENGER_(RR)]

More findings:

 

Applying effect #22 (Cumulative Luck Bonus) to a creature with a Permanent timing will modify the base Luck stat (offset 0x006d) of that creature. Apparently, this will persist even after death and resurrection via CTRL+R.

 

OTOH, applying effect #133 (Luck Non-Cumulative) with the Permanent timing will not modify the base Luck stat. It will attach an EFF to the creature instead. Chant also adds an EFF and does not modify the base Luck stat either.

[Avenger]

Yes.

 

The basic luck/cummulative luck stats simply improve to hit.

 

Damageluck is a bit different.

[aVENGER_(RR)]

Erm, no, in BG2 Luck (both #22 and #133) and Chant (#131) also improve the minimum damage of a weapon as described in the a) section of my initial post. (Ninja-edit FTW! ).