
>
> Here's a question for all of you who have had experiences with HA's.  Is a
> dagger a better weapon than say, a war hammer or an axe?  I've found a
> bodkin [+8,+8] and a war hammer [+7,+8], and found that the dagger sold
> for more in the stores.  Why?  Just because it is one up on To-Hit??  To me,
> it would seem like the war hammer is a way better weapon...  Well, the
> difference between the prices is about 1000 gp.
>



ok, here are some spoilers.


1) dont trust what the store will buy or sell things for as being a
   good indicator of its true value.  they basis it only on the base
   value of a weapon, the to-hit and to-damage, and the special
   abilities it has.  these are _not_ always what makes a weapon
   really good, and what might be good for one character may be bad
   for another.

2) when in doubt, keep the dagger.  daggers are probably best for all
   types of characters (mages, warriors etc) until you get your
   strength and dexterity up real high.


a detail explanation of how things work follows...


the amount of damage that a weapon will do is based on the following things:

   * the weight of the weapon.  the lighter it is the more likely you
     will get two hits in for each attack.  on the other hand, the
     heavier the weapon, the more likely you are to get a critical hit
     (good, excellent, great hits).

   * the basic amount of damage the weapon does.  most daggers do 1d4,
     two handed swords (Zweihander) do 4d6.

   * your total to-hit.  this includes the pluses that come with your
     weapon, the minuses that your armor does, any rings of to-hit or
     slaying, etc.  the higher your total to-hit is, the more likely
     you are to get a critical blow.

   * your total to-damage.  like your total to-hit, this includes
     everything.  when you get a really good character, this will
     usually dominate over the weapons basic damage.

   * your current strength.  the stronger you are the easier it is for
     you to get several hits per attack.

   * your current dexterity.  the more dextrous you are the more hits
     per attack you are capable of.

   * the level of your character.  the more experience you have the
     more likely you are to get a "good (x2)" or "excellent (x3)" hit.


all of these things are mixed together in a rather complicated way.  i
had to write a program that takes all of these factors into account
and gives a true indication of which weapon is better.  (i had two
HA's that i couldnt decide between.  it turned out that depending on
my current strength and dex either one could be much better than the
other.  i ended up keeping both of them until both my str and dex were
18/100.)


the chance that you actually hit the monster is based on:

   * your "base to hit".  this is based on what race your character is
     and ranges from -10 for Halflings to 20 for Half-Trolls.  it also
     depends on what "class" your character is and these bonuses range
     from 20 for mages to 70 for paladin's.  (warriors arent much
     behind with a bonus of 68).  a human mage will have a "base to
     hit" of 20, a half troll warrior will have a "base to hit" of 88.

   * your current level.  the more experience you have, the more likely
     you are to hit the monster.  going up one level is equivalent to
     enchanting your weapon's to-hit by one.

   * your total to-hit.  the higher your total to-hit, the more likely
     you are to hit the monster

   * the monsters ac (armor class).  the higher the monster's ac, the
     less likely you are to hit the monster.  this varies a lot from
     monster to monster.  most worm masses, mushrooms, jellies and
     stuff have ac's under 10.  most of the ancient dragons have ac's
     in the 80-100 range.  the balrog has an ac of 125, the highest of
     any monster.  iron golems have an ac of 99, which can give you
     some idea of how hard it would be to hit a ancient dragon without
     taking too many risks.  most of the other monsters seem to to be
     in the 30-60 range.

   the formula for this is:

      val = bth + 3*level + 3*tohit

      if a random number between 1 and val is greater than the
      monsters ac, then you hit, otherwise you miss.

   you will always hit one out of 20 times, even if your weapon is too
   heavy for you to wield.

i dont have anything to calculate calculate your chances to hit
monsters because there are just too many different cases.  a level 40
half-troll warrior with a total to hit of 30 would have a two out of
three chance of hitting a AMHD.  everyone else is going to going to be
well under 50-50.



The program "calc_hits" can help you figure out which weapon is better
for you now, and as your strength and dexterity goes up.  it is based
on the source code to moria so it should be basically correct.
calc_hits isnt a fancy program and it handles errors by stopping the
program.  it is designed to be used by the person who wrote it. :->


probably the best way to explain how to run the program is simply to
give you an example run comparing a bastard sword, a dagger (stiletto)
and a two handed great flail.  all of them will be (+3,+4) giving you
a total to-hit of 2 and a total to-damage of 4.

the results are given in a table form with the following field:

Mblow is the maximum number of blows you can get per attack.  it is
      based only on your dex.

Blows is the number of plows you can get with your current strength
      based on the Mblows, and strength/weight ratio.

wt ratio is your strength to weight of weapon ratio.  a ratio above 10
      doesnt do you any more good than a ratio of 10.  if the ratio is
      under 2, you can only get one blow no matter what your dex is.

dam   is the amount of damage that you get, on the average if you hit
      with every blow and dont get a critical hit.

w/ critical is the amount of damage you get on the average if you
      include the possibilities of getting a critical hit.  for low
      level characters, this rarely makes a difference.  for high
      level characters, this can make a real difference.

(wayne 6) % calc_hits
Enter level of your character: 12
Enter number of weapons: 3
Enter weight, weapon_dam, to_hit, to_dam for weapon #0: 140 3d4 2 4
Enter weight, weapon_dam, to_hit, to_dam for weapon #1: 12 1d4 2 4
Enter weight, weapon_dam, to_hit, to_dam for weapon #2: 280 3d6 2 4
Enter cstr, cdex: 11 14
| Weapon | Max blows | Blows | weight ratio | hp of dam | w/ critical |
|    0   |      2    |    1  |        0     |     11    |       12    |
|    1   |      2    |    2  |        9     |     13    |       13    |
|    2   |      0    |    0  |        0     |      0    |        0    |

Enter cstr, cdex: 17 18
| Weapon | Max blows | Blows | weight ratio | hp of dam | w/ critical |
|    0   |      2    |    1  |        1     |     11    |       12    |
|    1   |      2    |    2  |       14     |     13    |       13    |
|    2   |      0    |    0  |        0     |      0    |        0    |

Enter cstr, cdex: 18/20 18/10
| Weapon | Max blows | Blows | weight ratio | hp of dam | w/ critical |
|    0   |      3    |    2  |        2     |     23    |       25    |
|    1   |      3    |    3  |       31     |     19    |       19    |
|    2   |      3    |    1  |        1     |     14    |       17    |

Enter cstr, cdex: 18/100 18/100
| Weapon | Max blows | Blows | weight ratio | hp of dam | w/ critical |
|    0   |      6    |    4  |        8     |     46    |       50    |
|    1   |      6    |    5  |       98     |     32    |       32    |
|    2   |      6    |    3  |        4     |     43    |       52    |

Enter cstr, cdex:
(wayne 7) % exit





there is a second program called "mk_all_weapon" that generates a list
of how much damage all weapons will do given a certain character.  it
is useful for getting a feel of which weapons are good and why.


for low level characters, the following are the top 5 weapons:

character level of 12
total to-hit and to-damage of +7
strength of 11.  these numbers wont change much until you get above 18
dexterity of 17.  these numbers will be the same unless your dex is
                  above 18/01 or below 10.

          Name                | Mblow | Blows | wt ratio | dam | w/ critical |
Dagger (Stiletto)             |   2   |    2  |    9     |  19 |       19    |
Dagger (Misercorde)           |   2   |    2  |    7     |  19 |       19    |
Dagger (Bodkin)               |   2   |    2  |    5     |  19 |       19    |
Morningstar                   |   2   |    1  |    0     |  14 |       15    |
Katana                        |   2   |    1  |    0     |  14 |       15    |

the bottom 5 for a low level character:

Fauchard                      |   0   |    0  |    0     |   0 |        0    |
Executioner's Sword           |   0   |    0  |    0     |   0 |        0    |
Beaked Axe                    |   0   |    0  |    0     |   0 |        0    |
Battle Axe (European)         |   0   |    0  |    0     |   0 |        0    |
Battle Axe (Balestarius)      |   0   |    0  |    0     |   0 |        0    |



for high level characters, the following are the top 5 weapons:

character level of 36
total to-hit and to-damage of +20
strength of 18/100.
dexterity of 18/100.

          Name                | Mblow | Blows | wt ratio | dam | w/ critical |
Katana                        |   6   |    5  |    9     | 137 |      161    |
War Hammer                    |   6   |    5  |    9     | 130 |      153    |
Lucerne Hammer                |   6   |    5  |    9     | 130 |      153    |
Two Handed Sword (Claymore)   |   6   |    4  |    5     | 122 |      151    |
Two Handed Sword (No-Dachi)   |   6   |    4  |    5     | 120 |      149    |

the bottom 5

Two Handed Great Flail        |   6   |    3  |    4     |  91 |      120    |
Ball and Chain                |   6   |    4  |    7     | 100 |      120    |
Awl-Pike                      |   6   |    4  |    7     |  98 |      118    |
Lance                         |   6   |    3  |    3     |  87 |      117    |
Fauchard                      |   6   |    4  |    6     |  84 |      102    |



the katana tends to be at or near the top for all characters at all
times.  if you get even a poor katana (HA) or (DF), keep it and enchant
it.


one of the biggest mistakes people do is get rid of the weapon that
the start with and try to get a "bigger meaner" weapon.  dont.  just
enchant your original weapon until you get something really good.  i
dont consider the (FT), (FB), (SD), (SE) and (SU) as "really good".  i
consider the "(SM)" good, only if i dont already have something of see
invisible.  (HA) and (DF)'s i keep if they are better than the ones i
already have.


-wayne
