Stat: extra damage modifier [73] - percentage bonus

[Cremo]

Hi dear Anna, how are you?

Hi all

I was thinking of a way to improve in a dynamical way 2h weapons damage.

In D&d 3e 2h weapons give you an extra 50% STR bonus when wielded: the stronger you are the more 2h weapons get better for you, scaling the fact that the gap between the base damage of 1h and 2h weapons would matter less and less with an increased STR bonus (as well as magic weapon bonuses).

To replicate this I first considered to simply edit every 2h weapon, giving them a cumulative STR bonus. Yet not only this would increase the load capacity of the character but it also would not help when a char has already reached 25 STR (e.g. fire giant belt + berserk or other STR improving magic).

 

So I thought about simply editing all the base damage of 2h weapons.. but in this way, if i wanted to keep the same base damage from a normal weapon to a +5 or +6, I would either need to make them OP at lower levels or to make them weak at higher levels (even if, against dual wielding, this could be balanced by the fact that an extra attack per round is a bigger benefit when you have a base APR of 1,5 than when you have a 2,5 one). Also, albeit math would explain the noticeable gap between base damage, I think that seeing such a massive gap between 1d8 battle axe and 4d3+2 great swords (absolutely justified if you consider how much an extra 1d8+STR modifier extra attack is worth with 2wield) wouldn’t look good on the description. Finally, 2h would simply be an alternative to 2w since even a low STR character could simply use 2h weapons instead of spending many proficiency points to learn 2w.

That's why I was thinking to simply edit every 2h weapon to have an extra damage modifier (giving them as an effect: Stat: extra damage modifier [73] with a xx% bonus). This way not only 2h damage would scale with the improving of final damage due to increased STR bonuses, magic bonuses and so on, but 2w (even if damage wise comparable), could be a strategic alternative for low STR chars, who wouldn’t exploit much of a 2h as well as a stronger one but could try to reach the same DPS with 2w (which requires a more intensive training, but also is better against casters due to the increased chance of spell interruption).

 

Yet I have a doubt: does the editing of “stat: extra damage modifier [73]†increase the percentage of the “final†damage? (meaning base weapon damage, magic bonuses, STR bonus) or.. what?

I would check but sadly in the BG engine the feedback on the sources of damage is so poor (simply giving you the final damage )

 

Finally, if my hopes are true, ho much do you think should be that xx% damage bonus on 2h, considering that, unlinke in d&d 3e, not only would the STR bonus be affected, but also the base weapon damage and any magical bonus?

 

I think that this should be decided by analyzing the APR gap between 2h and 2w

- lvl 1: 1,5 vs 2,5 (70% more circa)

- lvl 7: 2 vs 3 (50% more)

- lvl 14: 2,5 vs 3,5 (40% more)

 

and considering that:

- thac0 malusses at lower levels are worth more than at higher (meaning that a greater gap at lower level between 2w and 2h will be a bit counterbalanced by that)

- 2w grants more APR which, even with same damage, means more chance to hit (good against spell casting and, math wise, i think it's still a bonus over having lesser chace to hit especially when rounds are limited and big numbers erode the difference between having the same dps between many or few attacks).

 

So i think that a good balanced bonus should be around 50% (which is the same od d&d 3e for str but consider that in bg2 offhand weapons still retain their full str bonus unless you edit specific off hand weapon that could have no str bonus both on hit and damage... not good)

 

 

What you think?

 

Thanks for the attention