Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site burl.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!wjb From: wjb@burl.UUCP (Neutron Dog) Newsgroups: net.games.rogue Subject: selective weapon enchantment Message-ID: <560@burl.UUCP> Date: Thu, 25-Oct-84 15:23:24 EDT Article-I.D.: burl.560 Posted: Thu Oct 25 15:23:24 1984 Date-Received: Fri, 26-Oct-84 08:56:03 EDT Organization: AT&T Technologies; Burlington, NC Lines: 107 The bug missed--More-- Most netters seem to realize that the two-handed sword is the most formidable unenchanted weapon in the dungeon. From reading net.games.rogue, I get the impression that most people also seem to think that the two-handed sword is therefore the best target for enchantment. This article will show that this is not necessarily true. First, let me state an assumption. If my assumption is wrong, all bets are off; hit your break key and ignore the rest of this item. When you read an enchant weapon scroll, sometimes it enhances the number of dice thrown and sometimes it enhances the number of the sides of the dice. My assumption is that that the odds of getting the increase on either aspect is independant of how many increases I've gotten on the other. Next, a review. Tables are often circulated on the net showing the damage caused by the different weapons available to the adventurer. I have reproduced such a table for super-rogue 9.0. The notation for the damage caused is given by XdY. This means that your computer is pretending that it has X dice with Y sides each. It rolls the dice for you; the sum of the faces is the number of hit points taken from the monster (assuming that you hit). I have calculated the expected damage caused by each weapon as the the sum of the possible faces, divided by the number of sides, multiplied by the number of dice. Weapon Wielded Damage Expected Damage ______ ______ _______________ two-handed sword 3d6 10.5 bastard sword 2d7 8.0 trident 3d4 7.5 halbred 2d6 7.0 pike 1d12 6.5 bardiche 3d3 6.0 spetum 2d5 6.0 long sword 1d10 5.5 mace 2d4 5.0 spear 1d8 4.5 dagger 1d6 3.5 rock 1d2 1.5 crossbow bolt 1d2 1.5 short bow 1d1 1.0 arrow 1d1 1.0 dart 1d1 1.0 sling 0d0 0.0 That means in the long run, if you swing your weapons a million times each, the average damage caused by each hit will approach what I've posted in the table. As you can see by the table, the two-handed sword has the highest expected damage. No surprises there. Now suppose I enchant a weapon. If I enchant a long sword, and discover that it is now a +0,+1 long sword, that means that instead of having a weapon that causes 1d10 (or 5.5 expected damage) I now have a weapon that causes 1d11 (expected damage 6.0). If I enchant it a number of times, eventually it will be something like a +3,+7 long sword. Let's assume for the sake of arguement, that you are a seasoned adventurer and can expect to survive long enough to make good use of several enchant armor scrolls, or equivalently, you got a lucky start in the game and start off with a +1,+0 (or anything like that) pike. A pike isn't worth much; its expected damage is only 6.5. But look! A +1,+0 pike is better than a two-handed sword. Big deal, somebody says, if I hadn't wasted a good enchant weapon scroll on a pike, I could have had a +1,+0 two-hander. But enchant it again. I'll grant you that you will enchant it a few times before you get another increase in dice thrown, but assume that you will eventually hit +2,+something status. A +2,+something pike is MORE DEADLY than a +2,+something two-hander. That's because of the "12" in "1d12". Any increase in the number of times you roll that 12-sided die is going to have a dramatic increase in the amount of damage you do when you hit. The following table shows the relative expected damage of a two-handed sword vs. a pike under varying enchantments of XdY. Enchantment table Expected outcome of +Xd+Y (two-handed sword/pike) +Y --> 10.5/6.5 12.0/7.0 13.5/7.5 15.0/8.0 16.5/8.5 14.0/13.0 16.0/14.0 18.0/15.0 20.0/16.0 22.0/17.0 +X 17.5/19.5 20.0/21.0 22.5/22.5 25.0/24.0 27.5/25.5 21.0/26.0 24.0/28.0 27.0/30.0 30.0/32.0 33.0/34.0 | 24.5/32.5 28.0/35.0 31.5/37.5 35.0/40.0 38.5/42.5 | 28.0/39.0 32.0/42.0 36.0/45.0 40.0/48.0 44.0/51.0 V 31.5/45.5 36.0/49.0 40.5/52.5 45.0/56.0 49.5/59.5 35.0/52.0 40.0/56.0 45.0/60.0 50.0/64.0 55.0/68.0 38.5/58.5 44.0/63.0 49.5/67.5 55.0/72.0 60.5/76.5 42.0/65.0 48.0/70.0 54.0/75.0 60.0/80.0 66.0/85.0 In super-rogue, if I'm playing to win, I can be sure that if I have a pike, I'd do well to enchant it twice, then wield it as the weapon of choice. A corollary is that if I'm waiting for a good weapon to use my enchant armor scrolls on, I now know that I can not only make do with a two-handed sword but I can also wreak havoc with a pike as well. -- --Neutron Dog