Minor mechanics questions
 

I'm a new player and have a couple of minor mechanics questions for the experts out there.

1. Protection seems to be split between Head, Body, and Shield and I'm assuming that the "Protection" attribute on the character description screen is some composite average of the individual Head, Body, and Shield Protection values. I understand how Shield Protection works from the manual. Page 75 of the manual references the "at hit location" and whether the Head or Body Protection value is checked, but I cant find any reference to whether it is a random draw between Head or Body or whether some other factors work in. Is whether the Hit is to the Head or Body completely random or does it depend on something like Size of attacker/defender, Melee vs Range vs Magic, etc?

2. The character description screen gives a value for Attack, Defense etc. If you right click on a character's items (weapons, armor) they also have Attack and Defense values. I assumed that the character description screen already factored in the item values, but page 75 of the manual implies that the character screen values are innate, and the item values are additive. It notes a Jotun axeman with Attack+10 and a Jotun axe of Attack-1 and computes the Attack total of +9. Is this the way people understand it? Do I need to add all of the item attributes to the base attributes on the character screen?

Many thanks in advance.

-Bastiat

Re: Minor mechanics questions
 

The attack added through weapons are not part of the initial value: hence if you equip multiple weapons with different attack values to a commander, the attack values for each weapons varies. Besides that though, the bonuses are already counted in the character screen. So bonuses to attack/defense..heck, protection/precision/magic resistance/encumberance are already counted there (everything from blesses to magic bonuses with the exception of weapon attack (and precision) skill. For example if a Jotun axeman with 10 attack (factoring all other bonuses) has an axe with -1 attack, then the attack will have 9 attack skill. You can determine this simply by right clicking the attack skill.

As for your second question, I believe the hit is random and the percent is 80% body and 20% head (assuming no shield hits), though I might need to check on that. I also think it's irregardless of the mode of attack (though again, I could be wrong on this).

Re: Minor mechanics questions
 

Anecdotal evidence: I have observed that Size 4 or 5 creatures seem to not get hit in the head as frequently as you would expect by regular Size 2 creatures using normal weapons. I have never tested to be sure this isn't just observer bias though.

-Max

Re: Minor mechanics questions
 

That would be interesting, wouldn't it?

Re: Minor mechanics questions
 

Another point:

Shield prot is entirely different from body/head prot and does not show up on the screen at all (you can only find out what it is by clicking the shield itself). Shield Parry is added to Defense value, so to find out the actual defense value you must access the defense breakdown.

Protection/Defense works like this:

Natural Protection (eg, due to a thick hide for a dragon, most humans have none of this) + Spell Buffs + Armor for that slot (head/body) = Protection for that blow.

If the is a shield and the calculated attack value (Attacker's Attack + DRN [2 open-ended dice]) is between (Defense [not inculding parry] + DRN) and (Defense [including Parry] + DRN) than the attacker hit the shield. This works like a normal attack except the shield's prot (which is often not insubstantial) is added.

Re: Minor mechanics questions
 

Total protection (for a body part) works like this:

Protection = natural + armor - (natural * armor/40)

I think LoS adds armor, and other buffs add to (or change) natural.

I'm not sure how protection from a shield is applied in a shield hit, whether it's subtracted from the damage or if it's applied as armor in the above formula.

Re: Minor mechanics questions
 

If you take a melee shield hit, I believe the shield protection value is directly added to protection, so if the shield gives 12 protection and the protection of the hit location is 10, you'd have a functioning protection of 22 for that blow.

Re: Minor mechanics questions
 

It is my suspicion that there are hit locations something like

2-4 feet
6-8 torso
9-10 arms
11-12 head

I suspect that you roll 2d6 and generate a hit location.

I imagine that relative size is added to that, so for example Giant (6) - halfling 1.. you are DRN +5. Hmm, actually if I were doing it it would be relative size + size weight dif(weapon lenght).

I would also give a bonus if mounted.

Finally, flying creatures might either ignore the size penalty or either alway add 3?.

I think the evidence for something like this is fairly strong. The developers *have* to have hit locations: evidence by the wounds we receive, and things like harvest blade (leg chomps), chestbiter.

Plus, I think there are just too many times when fighting hobbits I've ended up lame.....

Re: Minor mechanics questions
 

IIRC, there was supposed to be a set of locational damage rules but many of them fell by the wayside during Dom3 development.

Re: Minor mechanics questions
 

I just skim-read the posts in this thread, but that is indeed the case. I may have said something to that regard on the forums, it is one of the reasons why armors follow strange protection formulas. They're divided into head (1), body (2), arm/leg (3/4), shield (5) and misc (6) armor. The body armor (2) counts double, and the misc armor is being added to the body armor. The only thing that did survive as a separate hit location is the head armor part.