Weighting
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
There are two types of weighting: critical weighting and damage weighting. A damage weighted weapon increases the amount of damage dealt by the weapon without increasing the severity of the critical. A critical weighted weapon, however, possibly increases the level of the critical caused by an attack without increasing damage beyond that dealt by the increased critical.
Critical Weighting
Critical Weighting (crit weighting) is a property of weapons that adds "phantom" damage to an attack for the purpose of determining the severity of the critical injury. The actual weight of the weapon seen by use of the WEIGHT (verb) is completely unrelated to critical weighting.
Example
The amount of phantom damage added is equal to the critical weighting points of the weapon. A heavily crit weighted weapon (which has a numerical value of 9 to 11 points, but for these purposes we'll say 10) adds 10 extra phantom damage. The full weapon weighting is added to each attack. It is NOT halved and it does not randomize. This includes DEX bonus weighting and Sigil of Major Bane.
E.g., a character attacks and hits a creature wearing soft leather armor for 15 raw damage. Since the critical divisor of soft leather armor is 6, it would normally be, without any weapon weighting, a level 2 [trunc(15 / 6)] maximum crit rank. An attack with a heavily crit weighted weapon will increase the total damage used to calculate the crit rank. Bear in mind that this damage is not actually hitpoint damage, it is only used to determine the maximum critical rank. To determine the max crit rank divide the sum of the raw and crit damage by the armor crit divisor and truncate the result. In this example it is trunc[(15 raw + 10 crit) / 6]. Therefore, the actual maximum crit rank possible has increased from 2 with a non-weighted weapon to 4 when weapon crit weighting is added.
Critical weighting cannot increase the rank of a hit that would have been a critical rank 0 otherwise. Characters have natural crit weighting derived from DEX bonus. GILCHRISTR's research indicates that 1 potential phantom damage is added for each 4 bonus.
(Note: There is some variation on critical hits. See critical randomization.)
Damage Weighting
Damage weighting is a property of a weapon that causes the weapon to inflict additional hitpoint damage on a target. Damage weighting does not apply when calculating the critical outcome of an attack. The additional hitpoints from damage weighting are added at the end of the combat resolution calculations. There is no special messaging to indicate that damage weighting is a factor in the attack resolution. In order to determine the amount of weighting added to a particular attack requires calculating the non-damage weighted outcome and comparing this theoretical value to the actual result.
As with crit weighting, there is both a numerical value and a corresponding descriptive message associated with the level of weighting a weapon possesses. However, unlike critical weighting, which requires that the initial raw damage be sufficient to cause a minimum Rank 1 critical before activating, there is no such requirement for damage weighted weapons. Damage weighting will activate with all successful (endrolls greater than 100) attacks.
The amount of damage weighting added to an attack is either fixed or variable depending upon the level of weighting. Weighting levels from Lightly to Somewhat will always add the weapon's actual weighting. Weighting levels higher than Somewhat will add a variable amount of HP damage but will never be less than Somewhat equivalent weighting.
Adding damage weighting to weapons is NOT available through the premium point system. Damage weighted weapons are often available in player run shops, through special merchants or events, or from private sales by other players. Because of their desirability weighted weapons can be quite expensive. High level weighted weapons can sell for tens of millions of silver or more.
Although not an intrinsic property of a weapon, damage weighting can also be added to melee, ranged and bolt attacks by members of the Guardians of Sunfist society by activating the Sigil of Minor Bane.
Damage Weighting Calculation
In order to determine the amount of weighting added to an attack it is necessary to know the weapon damage factor and the critical damage result. These values can then be used to determine the total theoretical damage (raw damage + critical damage). The amount of damage from the weapon weighting is simply (actual damage - theoretical damage).
Example 1
You swing a vultite longsword at a hill troll!< AS: +246 vs DS: +84 with AvD: +42 + d100 roll: +91 = +295 ... and hit for 128 points of damage! Massive blow punches a hole through the hill troll's chest! The hill troll is stunned!
In this example, the weapon damage factor is .275 (longsword vs. light leather: Armor Group 2). The raw damage from the attack is (weapon DF * (endroll - 100) which results in (.275 * 195) 56 raw damage. The critical damage can be found by looking up the messaging on the appropriate critical table. In this case, the critical messaging Massive blow punches a hole through the hill troll's chest!, which can be found on the crush critical table, indicates a Rank 8 Chest critical with 65 points of damage. The total theoretical damage is (56 raw + 65 critical) = 119. The actual damage as shown in the combat messaging is 128. Therefore, the amount of damage weighting added to the attack is (128 actual - 119 theoretical) = 9 points of weighting.
Example 2
In this example there is no critical damage. The messaging Light slash to the hill troll's abdomen! Barely nicked., that is found on the slash critical table, corresponds to 0 critical damage. Therefore, the only theoretical damage is the raw damage (weapon DF * (endroll - 100). In this example the raw damage is (.225 * 21) = 5. The difference between the weapon damage factor from examples I and II is due to the different armor worn by the hill trolls, as reflected in the different AvDs. The troll in Example II is wearing a leather breastplate (Armor Group 3). The weapon weighting is (actual damage - theoretical damage) which in this example is (13 - 5) = 8 points of weighting.
You swing a vultite longsword at a hill troll! AS: +163 vs DS: +113 with AvD: +43 + d100 roll: +28 = +121 ... and hit for 13 points of damage! Light slash to the hill troll's abdomen! Barely nicked.