ATTACK.SPO, version 1.13, for Angband 3.0.5 Release Date : November 11, 2004 Author: Leonard Dickens (leonard dot dickens at verizon dot net) Based on version 1.12, by Stephen S. Lee, with help from myself and John Lame. Please notify the author of any errors in this file. Or fix them yourself. I intend to provide complete information rather than easy-to-understand information, so this spoiler is necessarily verbose. Suggestions to improve the format of this spoiler are welcome. +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | ATTACKING WITH MELEE WEAPONS | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ CALCULATING THE NUMBER OF BLOWS PER ATTACK ------------------------------------------ If your character has high strength and dexterity, and is using a light enough weapon, he or she may be capable of hitting an opponent several times in one turn. Each blow has a separate chance to hit, damage roll, etc. The number of blows your character gets per attack is dependent upon strength, dexterity, class, and the weapon wielded. It is *not* dependent on character level (as is the case in many other games). If your character is attacking with bare hands, he or she can never have more than one blow per attack. Otherwise, to find the number of blows per attack, use the following procedure. First, find the strength-weaponry index (SWI). To find this, first determine the character's adjusted strength for blows (ASB) value. The ASB equals your character's Strength, if it is below 18. Otherwise, start with the appropriate value from the following table: Strength ASB Strength ASB Strength ASB ----------- --- ------------- --- ------------- --- 3-17 * 18/70-18/79 90 18/150-18/159 170 18-18/09 20 18/80-18/89 100 18/160-18/169 180 18/10-18/19 30 18/90-18/99 110 18/170-18/179 190 18/20-18/29 40 18/100-18/109 120 18/180-18/189 200 18/30-18/39 50 18/110-18/119 130 18/190-18/199 210 18/40-18/49 60 18/120-18/129 140 18/200-18/209 220 18/50-18/59 70 18/130-18/139 150 18/210-18/219 230 18/60-18/69 80 18/140-18/149 160 18/220+ 240 Next, divide the ASB by the weight (in pounds) of the weapon currently in use. This divisor has a class-dependent minimum value, the MWW (min weapon weight) shown below; if the actual weapon weight is below the MWW, use the MWW instead. Then, multiply by a class-dependent weapon speed modifier (WSM): Class MWW WSM Max Blows ----- --- --- --------- Warrior 3.0 0.5 6 Mage 4.0 0.2 4 Priest 3.5 0.3 4 Rogue 3.0 0.3 5 Ranger 3.5 0.4 5 Paladin 3.0 0.5 5 Finally, round down to the nearest integer. This is your character's SWI. Now, index your character's Dexterity and the SWI in the following table to find how many natural blows your character gets in one combat round. Mages and priests have a maximum of four natural blows per attack. Warriors alone can get six; the other classes have a maximum of five. | SWI (Strength-Weapon Index) Dexterity | 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11+ ---------------+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ 3-9 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 10-18/09 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 18/10-18/49 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 18/50-18/69 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 18/70-18/89 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 18/90-18/99 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 18/100-18/109 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 18/110-18/119 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 18/120-18/129 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 18/130-18/139 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 18/140-18/149 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 18/150+ | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | ---------------+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ Finally, some weapons magically provide extra blows when wielded. These include Weapons of Extra Attacks and some artifact weapons. Add the blows provided by these weapons to the character's natural blows calculated above; the resulting number is the actual number of blows that character will receive with that weapon. This number is indicated on the character data screen labelled "Blows". CALCULATING MELEE COMBAT ABILITY -------------------------------- Many factors are taken into account when considering your character's skill in successfully landing a blow in hand-to-hand combat. The outline for calculating the numerical rating of this skill is as follows: base class ability + racial modifier + level modifier ------------------------------- base melee combat skill strength modifier + dexterity modifier - armor encumbrance penalty + equipment bonuses/penalties - heavy weapon penalty - edged weapon penalty + temporary spell bonus - stunning penalty ------------------------------- bonus to combat skill Overall melee combat skill = base melee skill + (3 * bonus to combat skill) Here follows more detail on each item in the outline: I. Calculating base melee combat skill Use the following table. Begin with the base skill for your character's class. Add your character's experience level times the melee bonus per level. Finally, add or subtract the appropriate race modifier. Base Bonus per Class skill level Race Modifier Race Modifier ------------------- ----------------- ----------------- Warrior 70 4.5 Human 0 Dwarf 15 Mage 34 1.5 Half-Elf -1 Half-Orc 12 Priest 48 2.0 Elf -5 Half-Troll 20 Rogue 60 3.0 Hobbit -10 Dunadan 15 Ranger 56 4.5 Gnome -8 High-Elf 10 Paladin 68 3.0 Kobold -5 II. Calculating the bonus to combat skill The bonus to combat skill appears as the first number of the pair shown for "Melee" on the character statistics screen. The number appearing there may be inaccurate if your character is using unidentified magical equipment. The bonus is calculated as follows: A. Strength modifier Begin by taking the bonus to-hit corresponding to your character's strength. +to +to +to Strength hit Strength hit Strength hit ---------------- ------------------ ------------------ 3 -3 18/90-18/99 4 18/150-18/159 10 4 -2 18/100-18/109 5 18/160-18/169 11 5-6 -1 18/110-18/119 6 18/170-18/179 12 7-17 0 18/120-18/129 7 18/180-18/189 13 18-18/69 1 18/130-18/139 8 18/190-18/199 14 18/70-18/79 2 18/140-18/149 9 18/200+ 15 18/80-18/89 3 B. Dexterity modifier Add in the appropriate dexterity modifier from the following table: +to +to +to Dexterity hit Dexterity hit Dexterity hit -------------- ------------------ ------------------ 3 -3 18/50-18/89 4 18/150-18/159 10 4-5 -2 18/90-18/99 5 18/160-18/169 11 6-7 -1 18/100-18/109 6 18/170-18/179 12 8-15 0 18/110-18/119 7 18/180-18/189 13 16 1 18/120-18/129 8 18/190-18/199 14 17 2 18/130-18/149 9 18/200+ 15 18-18/49 3 C. Armor encumbrance penalty Heavy body armor restricts your character's movement somewhat and can impair combat ability when worn. The negative number enclosed in parentheses before the brackets in the inventory description of heavy body armor describes this impairment; penalize your character's bonus to combat ability accordingly (the penalty may range from -1 to -8). D. Equipment Bonuses Many magical items affect your character's chance to hit when they are equipped. In general, any item that, when identified, shows a pair of numbers in the same manner weapons do (i.e, "(+3,+4)") provides a bonus. The to-hit bonus is the first of the two numbers. (The second number is the to-damage bonus.) Equipment which has a bonus to both to-hit and to-damage include all weapons (and diggers), Handwear of Slaying/Power/Combat, Gloves of Thievery, Rings of Slaying, Amulets of Weaponmastery, and some artifacts. Rings of Accuracy provide a to-hit bonus but no to-damage bonus. E. Heavy weapon penalty Your character is heavily penalized for attempting to equip a weapon (either melee or missile) that is too heavy for him or her to use without difficulty. The following chart gives the upper limit (in pounds) on how heavy a weapon a given strength enables a character to wield without great effort: Str. Limit Strength Limit ----------- -------------------- 3 4 17 28 4 5 18-18/19 30 5 6 18/20-18/29 35 6 7 18/30-18/39 40 7 8 18/40-18/49 45 8 10 18/50-18/59 50 9 12 18/60-18/69 55 10 14 18/70-18/79 60 11 16 18/80-18/89 65 12 18 18/90-18/99 70 13 20 18/100-18/149 80 14 22 18/150-18/199 90 15 24 18/200+ 100 16 26 If your character has equipped a weapon that is too heavy, the bonus to combat skill is reduced by two points per pound that the weapon is overweight. The penalties for wielding both a heavy melee weapon and a heavy bow are cumulative; wielding an overweight bow will adversely affect melee combat skill, and vice versa. F. Edged weapon penalty The gods of the world of Angband generally dislike the shedding of blood. Hence their priests are uncomfortable with the use of edged weapons or polearms, with the exception of blessed weapons which are approved for holy war. (Apart from generic Blessed Weapons, blessed weapons also include Holy Avengers, weapons of *Slay* Evil, and some artifacts.) If a priest is wielding an unblessed edged weapon/polearm, subtract 2 from his or her bonus to combat skill. G. Temporary spell bonus Several spells and enchantments can provide a temporary boost to one's skill in fighting. Here is a table of these magics, and their numerical effects: Spell +to hit --------------------- Blessing +10 Heroism +12 Berserk Strength +24 H. Stunning penalty If your character is stunned, he or she will be less able to successfully inflict damage in combat. If your character is heavily stunned (the stun counter is between 51 and 100 inclusive), subtract 20 from the cumulative total of the bonus to melee skill. If your character is stunned but not heavily stunned (the stun counter is between 1 and 50 inclusive), subtract 5. III. Calculating the overall melee combat skill To calculate your character's overall melee combat skill, simply add three times the total bonus obtained in section II above to the base melee combat skill obtained in section I. CALCULATING THE PROBABILITY OF SUCCESSFULLY LANDING A BLOW ---------------------------------------------------------- Once you have made the calculations in the previous section, you can now calculate the probability of hitting any monster whose armor class is known. First of all, your character will always miss a monster 1 in 20 times, and will always hit a monster 1 in 20 times. This is true regardless of the skill of the character or any armor protection the monster may possess; it reflects the randomness of combat and the fact that (un)lucky breaks can and do occur. In the other 90% of cases, begin with the rating for overall melee combat skill. (If this is non-positive, then your character can only hit a monster (any monster) the minimum 1 in 20 times.) It is much harder to hit a monster that you cannot see (which can occur if you are blind, if you have no light, or if the monster is invisible); if this is the case, divide by 2, rounding up. Call the resulting visibility-modified rating K. Then the chance of successfully hitting the monster is: (K-(3/4 of the monster's AC)) in K. For example, say that your character's overall melee combat skill is 150, and he is trying to hit a Drolem (AC 130). The possible outcomes are: 5% - automatic hit 90% - hit (150 - 97.5)/150 = 35% of the time, else miss 5% - automatic miss The net probability to hit is thus 36.5%. CALCULATING THE PROBABILITY OF A CRITICAL HIT --------------------------------------------- Occasionally, your character will be able to skillfully land a critical hit on a monster, doing extra damage. (This can only be done if your character is using some weapon other than his or her bare hands.) To calculate the chance of a critical hit in melee combat, first calculate P, the sum of the following three numbers: (1) The weight of the wielded weapon in pounds, multiplied by 10. (2) Your character's bonus to combat skill, multiplied by 5. (3) Your character's experience level, multiplied by 3. The chance of getting a critical hit is equal to P in 5000. To find out the type of critical hit, add 1d650 to 10 times the weight of the wielded weapon, and match the resulting sum in the following table: Sum | Type of Critical Hit ---------+--------------------- 1-399 | good 400-699 | great 700-899 | superb 900-1299 | *GREAT* 1300+ | *SUPERB* CALCULATING THE DAMAGE DONE BY A HIT ------------------------------------ To find the damage done to a monster by a successful blow, follow this step-by-step procedure. (When calculating damage done with bare hands, begin with a base damage of 1, and skip to the last step, step 5.) (1) First roll the base damage for the wielded weapon; this appears as an expression of the form XdY in parentheses in the description of the weapon. The notation "XdY" indicates a number obtained by rolling a Y-sided die X times. (I.e. "4d6" indicates rolling four six-sided dice, thus generating a number from 4 to 24.) (2) Some powerful magical weapons do extra damage against certain types of creatures. If your character's weapon is an ego-weapon or artifact, it may get extra damage depending on its powers. Multiply the weapon's base damage by the highest applicable multiplier from the following list. Weapon Power Multiplier Applies when ... -------------------------------------------------------------- Slay Evil 2 Monster is evil Slay Animal 2 Monster is a natural creature Fire Brand 3 Monster does not resist fire Frost Brand 3 Monster does not resist cold Acid Brand 3 Monster does not resist acid Lightning Brand 3 Monster does not resist lightning Poison Brand 3 Monster does not resist poison Slay Demon 3 Monster is a demon Slay Dragon 3 Monster is a dragon Slay Giant 3 Monster is a giant Slay Orc 3 Monster is an orc Slay Troll 3 Monster is a troll Slay Undead 3 Monster is undead Execute Demon 5 Monster is a demon Execute Dragon 5 Monster is a dragon Execute Undead 5 Monster is undead (3) Next, if the hit was a critical hit, apply the following operations: Type of critical Operation --------------------------------------------------- good Multiply by 2, then add 5 great Multiply by 2, then add 10 superb Multiply by 3, then add 15 *GREAT* Multiply by 3, then add 20 *SUPERB* Multiply by 3.5, then add 25 (4) Finally, add the melee damage bonus. This is shown on the character screen as the second of the pair of numbers labelled "Melee". The melee damage bonus is similar to the melee to-hit bonus in being a sum of several sub bonuses coming from several places. These are as follows: (a) Strength Bonus: High strength permits the character to hit monsters harder. Use the following table to find the appropriate modifier: +to +to +to Strength dam Strength dam Strength dam ---------------- ------------------ ------------------ 3-4 -2 18/80-18/99 5 18/160-18/169 12 5-6 -1 18/100-18/109 6 18/170-18/179 13 7-15 0 18/110-18/119 7 18/180-18/189 14 16 1 18/120-18/129 8 18/190-18/199 15 17-18/19 2 18/130-18/139 9 18/200-18/209 16 18/20-18/69 3 18/140-18/149 10 18/210-18/219 18 18/70-18/79 4 18/150-18/159 11 18/220+ 20 (b) Equipment bonuses/penalties: the same equipment that can have to-hit bonuses also provides a to-damage bonus, which is the second of the two numbers shown. Exceptions are the Ring of Accuracy, which has no to-damage bonus, and the Ring of Damage, which has a damage bonus but no accuracy bonus. (c) Stunning penalty: Being stunned reduces the damage inflicted in melee combat. If your character is heavily stunned (i.e. the stun counter is between 51 and 100 inclusive), subtract 20. For non-heavy stunning (stun counter between 1 and 50 inclusive), the penalty is minus 5 points of damage. (d) Edged weapon penalty: This is similar to the penalty priests get to their bonus to combat skill for wielding an inapprorpiate weapon; if your character is a priest who is wielding an unblessed edged weapon or polearm, subtract 2 from the damage total. (5) Negative damage cannot be inflicted upon an opponent; if the total is negative, no damage is done. Otherwise, the damage is inflicted on the monster. +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | ATTACKING WITH MISSILE WEAPONS AND THROWN OBJECTS | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ To attack with a missile weapon, you must equip the weapon and fire the appropriate ammunition. When you use the "fire" command, only the appropriate ammunition can be selected. Slings use pebbles and shots as ammunition; short bows and long bows use arrows; light and heavy crossbows use bolts. Normally, your character requires the same amount of time to fire a missile as it takes to attack (one set of blows) or do other actions (i.e. move one square). However, in some circumstances shooting is faster -- that is, it requires less "energy" than other actions. There are two ways that firing rate may be increased. Rangers using either a short bow or a long bow get an extra shot at 20th level, and a second extra shot at 40th level. All classes using a missile weapon of Extra Shots get one extra shot. To see if your character is currently firing at an enhanced rate, check the "Shots" item on the Character screen. A character with a higher shooting rate uses less energy per shot, which means that he fires faster. The energy required per shot is 100/#shots; i.e. a character firing two shots requires 50 energy per shot. (See ability.spo for more detail on how speed and energy work.) As a vestige from Moria, characters can also throw just about anything for damage. This ability is not used much in Angband because it is ineffective beyond the very early game. However, you are likely to see references to "damage" for unexpected objects such as suits of armor in some spoiler files; "damage when thrown" is what they are talking about. (It *is* useful to know that you can throw flasks of oil for 2d6 damage - an expensive but half-decent attack for weak starting characters.) CALCULATING SHOOTING WEAPON ABILITY ----------------------------------- Overall skill at using missile weapons is calculated in a manner similar to that used for melee skill. To calculate your character's base skill at using missile weapons, begin with the base skill for the appropriate class in the following tables, add or subtract the appropriate race modifier, and the product of your character's experience level and the class bonus per level modifier to missile weapon skill. Base Bonus per Class skill level Race Modifier Race Modifier ------------------- ----------------- ----------------- Warrior 55 4.5 Human 0 Dwarf 0 Mage 20 1.5 Half-Elf 5 Half-Orc -5 Priest 35 2.0 Elf 15 Half-Troll -10 Rogue 66 3.0 Hobbit 20 Dunadan 10 Ranger 72 4.5 Gnome 12 High-Elf 25 Paladin 40 3.0 Kobold 10 Then, calculate the bonus to combat skill in exactly the same manner as for the bonus to melee combat skill, except using the to-hit bonus from the equipped missile weapon in place of the to-hit bonus from the equipped melee weapon. The net bonus to missile skill is shown on the character information screen as the first item in the pair labelled "Shoot". The overall missile weapon skill = base missile weapon skill + (3 * bonus to missile combat skill). CALCULATING THE PROBABILITY OF HITTING A MONSTER WITH A MISSILE --------------------------------------------------------------- To calculate the probability of hitting a monster with a thrown or shot object, first calculate K with this procedure (similar to that for melee combat): (1) Begin with your character's overall missile weapon skill. (2) Add 3 times the ammunition's to-hit bonus, if any. (3) Subtract the distance (in terms of squares) between your character and the target monster. (4) Divide by 2 if the monster is not visible (which can occur if your character is blind, if the monster is not in a lit area, or if the monster is invisible); round up any fraction. One time in twenty, the missile will always strike and inflict damage; one time in twenty, the missile will always miss. (This applies regardless of visibility, distance, character skill, etc.) In the other 90% of cases, if K is non-positive, your character has such poor skill that he or she can never hit any target. Otherwise, the chance of successfully striking the monster is (K-(3/4 of the monster's AC)) in K. CALCULATING THE CHANCE OF A CRITICAL HIT WITH A MISSILE ------------------------------------------------------- Occasionally, your character can shoot a missile so that it will strike a monster in a vulnerable spot for extra damage. This is handled in a way similar to the way it is handled in melee combat. To calculate the chance of a critical hit with a missile, first calculate P, the sum of the following three numbers: (1) The weight of the wielded weapon in pounds, multiplied by 10. (2) Four times the sum of your character's bonus to combat skill (as calculated above; do *not* include base distance weapon skill here) and the to-hit modifier provided by the missile (only if it is a weapon; otherwise the modifier is zero). (3) Your character's experience level, multiplied by 2. The chance of getting a critical hit is equal to P in 5000. To find out the type of critical hit, add 1d500 to 10 times the weight of the thrown weapon, and match the resulting sum in the following table: Sum | Type of Critical Hit --------+--------------------- 1-499 | good 500-999 | great 1000+ | superb CALCULATING THE DAMAGE DONE BY A MISSILE ---------------------------------------- To find the damage done by a missile to a monster, use the following procedure. (1) Begin with the base damage of the ammunition. (For weaponry, this appears as an expression of the form XdY in parentheses. For other objects, base throwing damage may be found in ITEMLONG.SPO; base throwing damage for some objects is zero.) (2) If the missile is a weapon, add any appropriate bonus to damage. (This appears as the second of the pair of numbers in parentheses.) If your character is throwing an object that is not a piece of ammunition, or is using ammunition inappropriate to the equipped missile weapon, skip to step 5 now. (3) Add the damage bonus provided by the equipped missile weapon. (4) Multiply by the multiplier provided by the equipped distance weapon. The base multiplier is 2 for slings or short bows, 3 for long bows or light crossbows, and 4 for heavy crossbows. Some ego-weapons and artifacts have "Extra Power" of 1 or even 2 units; this increases the base multiplier. (5) If the ammunition has the power to do extra damage to the target creature, multiply by the highest possible applicable modifier. (This works in exactly the same way as it does for melee weapon damage; see step 2 in "Calculating the damage done by a hit" in the melee weapon section.) (6) Finally, if your character is fortunate enough to have scored a critical hit with the missile, apply the following operations: Type of critical Operation --------------------------------------------------- good Multiply by 2, then add 5 great Multiply by 2, then add 10 superb Multiply by 3, then add 15 Note that there are some important differences between damage done by a melee weapon and by a missile; no equipment bonuses apply except that from the equipped missile weapon, and bonuses to damage for missiles apply *before* multipliers are taken into account, unlike bonuses for melee weapons. MISSILE BREAKAGE ---------------- Objects are fragile, and throwing or shooting them may break them with the exception of artifacts. The percentage chance of missile breakage is shown on the following table. (If a missile hits either a monster or a wall less than 3 squares away from the player, the chance of breakage doubles.) Type of object Chance of breakage ----------------------------------------------- Flask of oil 100% Potion, bottle, or food item 50% Arrow, scroll, light source, or skeleton 30% Bolt, sling ammo, wand, or spike 20% All other non-artifact objects 10%