How do "+x, +y vs. z" weapons work in Icewind Dale?

[Angel]

I'm currently looking at using some of my own mods with Icewind Dale (the original, not EE), and ran into something.

 

Icewind Dale has several weapons that are supposed to a special to-hit bonus against a certain creature type, for example Conlan's Hammer (+1, +5 vs. Iron Golems), Giant Killer (+1, +4 vs. Giants), Inconsequence (+4, +5 vs. Good and Evil), The Axe of Caged Souls (+3, +5 vs. Cadaverous Undead) and Pale Justice +4, +7 vs. Evil). However, when I look at the item definitions of such items, I do not see any effects that give such a bonus.

 

So, does anyone know, how do such bonuses for these items work in the original Icewind Dale? Do they even work at all?

[Jarno Mikkola]

Well, maybe they should use the opcodes 178 and 179, but none of the files seem to have them... so ? Maybe they don't actually have any of that. Or it's a .exe thing you need to find about.

In IWD:EE, this is done via the use eff opcode 177..

[Avenger]

I don't have any iwd installed, but don't they have use eff file (177) in their equipping block?

[Jarno Mikkola]

I don't have any iwd installed, but don't they have use eff file (177) in their equipping block?

The Near Infinity doesn't show one up... so I would guess no:

[lynx]

Indeed, it appears to be hardcoded. All the ZZ* weapons lack anything extra, but have the bonus in the description. There are several hits for ZZ in the exe, of course, but it'd be the place to start looking.

[Angel]

Indeed, it appears to be hardcoded. All the ZZ* weapons lack anything extra, but have the bonus in the description. There are several hits for ZZ in the exe, of course, but it'd be the place to start looking.

 

Yeah, that's what I thought too. And .exe hacking is beyond my current skills I'm afraid. (Is there even a guide to it?)

 

No item or spell in IWD uses opcodes 177, 178 or 179, and there isn't a single .eff file in the game so my guess is they won't work at all. But I can give it a try, who knows, maybe they did carry over from BG. :-)

[Avenger]

Right, ZZ filename triggers some hardcode in the exe. It can change the attack roll based on alignment (all the instructions like alignment/race type and attack bonus are coded into the filename after ZZ).

 

The targeting code (3. char) is: digit = alignment, letter = race

The numeric code (4. char) is translated to attack roll by this formula: 0: -5, 1: -4, 2: -3, 3: -2, 4: -1, 5: +1, 6:+2 ... 9: +5 (there is obviously no need for 0).

The rest of the filename is arbitrary.

 

The alignment code is: 0 - lawful, 1 - lcneutral, 2 - chaotic, 3 - good, 4 - geneutral, 5 - evil

The race code is:

A - GOLEM

B - LIZARDMAN

C - TANARI

D - ELEMENTAL

E - ORC

F - SALAMANDER

G - TROLL

H - GIANT

I - YUANTI

J - UNDEAD

K - UMBERHULK

L - GOBLIN

M - ELF

N -DWARF

O - GNOME

P - HALFLING

Q - HALFELF

R -HUMAN

S - SPIDER

T -BEETLE

U - GHOUL

V - MYCONID

W - SHRIEKER

X - WOLF

Y - OGRE

Z - SKELETON

Edited June 2, 2017 by Avenger

[Avenger]

This also means, some descriptions are definitely wrong.

 

ZZG7TS - should have a vs. troll bonus of 3 (which is true)

ZZH8GK - should have a vs. giant bonus of 3 (according to its description), but it in fact is a +4. (over its normal +1)

[lynx]

Thanks for looking it up!

[Angel]

Oh man, thanks Avenger, this is a big help! So, it's the filename that decides what kind of bonus it gets. Kinda messed up if you ask me, but at least that means my little sword +1, +2 vs. Undead is still possible after all.

[lynx]

Did anyone test if this affects the enchantment level and weapon speed as well?

[Jarno Mikkola]

Did anyone test if this affects the enchantment level and weapon speed as well?

That's doubtful as the items are +1 ... +3's and so have a speed factor based on that, and I doubt the player would even notice the very small change against a few types of enemies, that's way too much hassle.

[Avenger]

Did anyone test if this affects the enchantment level and weapon speed as well?

it doesn't.

[lynx]

Thanks!

[CamDawg]

Necroposting a bit, but based on this post from @sirnicklaus I looked into this a bit. While these items provide damage bonuses to match the to-hit bonuses, they only provide the extra damage on on melee (1) and ranged (2) headers, but not on launcher (4) headers. So e.g. the Giant Killer sling gets to-hit bonuses against giants, but does no bonus damage.

It's not explicitly stated anywhere, but you can add your own items in this space--e.g. a zzb9.itm will add an extra +5 to-hit/damage vs. lizardmen.