Weapon questions

[Effidian]

There seem to be quite a lack of short-bladed weapons in game (or I'm really getting unlucky finding them). Is there some reason to go with short-bladed weapons over swords? I'm playing a Rogue, and took short-bladed, but it isn't clear to me if that was a good choice. From the weapons I've been finding (level 11 now), it seems swords or cleaving would have been a better choice.

For that matter, do any of the melee weapon types have advantages or disadvantages over the others? They all list Strength and Speed as their attributes.

Also, what are the mechanics behind critical hits? What skills/attributes affect getting them and do you ever get more the x2 damage for them?

[swapoer]

Yes.I think it is better the manul can tell us more about the game machine.Most of my choice is from experience of the other game rather than knowledge of this game.

[VPeric]

Well, there's that short bladed weapon-like thing you can get from a certain flying monster from a certain cave (in a certain forest, of course). It poisons.

But yeah, I haven't noticed any particular difference between weapon types - my staves and maces break just as easily as swords. Admitably, though, I've only used swords for longer than a couple of fights, so I might be missing something.

[BasiliskWrangler]

Critical hits are based on your Skill with the weapon you are using. If you have a 9 in Short-Bladed Weapons, then on every attack you have a 9% chance of scoring a critical hit.

Short-Bladed Weapons were designed to allow Magic Users & Rogues to have a lightweight weapon available to them, since Strength was not going to be their first priority. There are some nice high-level daggers, and Magic Users and also cast "Enkindled Weapon" and/or "Enchanted Weapon" to temporarily imbue the weapon with more damage. You can also imbue permanent bonuses into the through Alchemy.

They are great when you are trying to limit the weight in your caster's hands but still need a weapon.

[swapoer]

Critical hits are based on your Skill with the weapon you are using. If you have a 9 in Short-Bladed Weapons, then on every attack you have a 9% chance of scoring a critical hit.

Short-Bladed Weapons were designed to allow Magic Users & Rogues to have a lightweight weapon available to them, since Strength was not going to be their first priority. There are some nice high-level daggers, and Magic Users and also cast "Enkindled Weapon" and/or "Enchanted Weapon" to temporarily imbue the weapon with more damage. You can also imbue permanent bonuses into the through Alchemy.

They are great when you are trying to limit the weight in your caster's hands but still need a weapon.

I think you could put this and more of this in the manul.It help when we creat a pc.And we know where the skill points shold go,and what it will bring foth.

[BasiliskWrangler]

I agree...the manual is under-developed. Our priority was getting the game done, but we will work on the manual a bit more in December.

[Sakar]

I agree...the manual is under-developed. Our priority was getting the game done, but we will work on the manual a bit more in December.

In the meantime, a wiki would be excellent.

[Effidian]

I see, so the advantage to short bladed is the weight. I've got a Mithril Dagger right now (4 base damage) that I've imbued. It isn't bad, but when I see other weapons with 9 base damage, I'm a little envious.

And it sounds like you get 1% crit chance per skill level. Am I interpretting that correctly?

Cleaving v.s. Bludgeoning v.s. Swords would be just preference then? (Other than bashing duties.)

One more thing. The manual says Throwing weapons will do more damage than bows, but so far, I have found much better bows+arrows than Throwing weapons. Is there something I'm missing with those?

[nonameform]

I'm using only short-bladed weapons, so it's a big problem for me to actually kill anyone. I went the extreme way - no magic or alchemy, but I've heard that there are places later in the game which you can't pass without magic. I still need to get there to see : )

The weapon from flying creature is just a bit better than the one I was using before it. Guess I'll need to invest more scores in Speed, because I have trouble fighting with two creatures at a time. Some monsters have a really big ToHit % - about 87, while I only have 37% chance.

[Madmarcus]

Does a high level of unarmed skill ever make up for the lack of a weapons base damage? I'm guessing no. My martial artist is starting to have problems at level 10.

[BasiliskWrangler]

Unarmed Combat gives you the same effect as holding a Bludgeoning Weapon with a base damage of zero. A weaponed skill will always give more damage than the Unarmed Combat skill, point-for-point.

But, Unarmed Combat lets you:
- Carry less weight, free up more inventory slots.
- No dependency on a weapon, no worries over a weapon breaking or being destroyed by acid.
- Sell any awesome weapons you come across, because you don't need to keep any, meaning more gold in your pocket.

[Madmarcus]

[quote="BasiliskWrangler"
- Sell any awesome weapons you come across, because you don't need to keep any, meaning more gold in your pocket.[/quote]

That's why I took it. On the other hand I've backed it up with magical arrows.

[Claw]

Short-Bladed Weapons were designed to allow Magic Users & Rogues to have a lightweight weapon available to them, since Strength was not going to be their first priority.

(...)

They are great when you are trying to limit the weight in your caster's hands but still need a weapon.

I see what you mean, but the ability to switch weapons - not to mention opening the inventory and reequipping - makes this pretty much a moot point, and I really don't see myself worrying about my overall encumbrance even with low strength. I play a Magicker myself, using swords as secondary weapon.

Maybe reequipping any items manually should take a round at least. Also, you should really consider giving weapons unique traits for Book II; maybe give the dagger an attack bonus for surprise attacks, something like that.

[Greyloch]

Critical hits are based on your Skill with the weapon you are using. If you have a 9 in Short-Bladed Weapons, then on every attack you have a 9% chance of scoring a critical hit.

Short-Bladed Weapons were designed to allow Magic Users & Rogues to have a lightweight weapon available to them, since Strength was not going to be their first priority. There are some nice high-level daggers, and Magic Users and also cast "Enkindled Weapon" and/or "Enchanted Weapon" to temporarily imbue the weapon with more damage. You can also imbue permanent bonuses into the through Alchemy.

They are great when you are trying to limit the weight in your caster's hands but still need a weapon.

That's cool, good to know. Is it possible to cast those damage buff spells on your fists also, or does it require a weapon?

[Effidian]

I restarted my Rogue and went with swords. I have to say that the weight difference of short-bladed v.s. swords (or cleaving/bludgeoning) isn't really an issue. A few pounds isn't worth giving up more damage for. If the higher level swords weighed 20 pounds, then that would be quite different.

In Book II, it might be nice to have short-bladed based off dex+speed and possibly give some kind of sneak attack bonus when using them (doesn't have to be insane damage, but maybe a +1 tohit and +1 damage per 5 skill levels type thing). However, if mechanics change and you allow us to bring our character over, please allow a respec (could be a minimal respec, like allow us to swap one weapon skill for a different one).