Let's say that your characters have a Speed stat of 25 and you're facing an opponent. Your Expert Ranking / Level 5 Swordsperson, slowed down by Normal Plate, is matching your foe blow for blow. Your Expert Dagger-user, who has had fewer Weapon and Armor choices on which to spend Skill points, is wearing Master Leather. He/she is getting in twice as many Attacks as your Swordsperson and your foe.
I hope you're saying, "OK, but the Damage from each Dagger Attack is less than that of the sword Attack, and the Dagger is less likely to hit." Actually, the total Damage from the Dagger Attacks will be very close to the single Sword Attack over time, but let's stay on topic. We're talking about the importance of Attack Times, and here comes the kicker.
Let's say that you gave both characters Weapons of Swiftness. The Attack Time of both would drop by the same amount, but the Dagger-user's Attack Time will drop proportionally more. He/she is now Attacking more than 3 times faster than your foe and more than 2.5 times faster than your Swordsperson. So, remember this Rule of Recovery: Faster is better and faster gets better faster. |
1) Weapon Time
All Weapons are governed by the values labeled Attack (for Attack Bonus) and Damage (for Attack Damage) on the stat screen. Every class of Weapon has an intrinsic speed and requires a pre-determined amount of time for its use. This is what NWC means by a Weapon's Recovery Time, or what I refer to as Weapon Time. Below are tables of the base Weapon Times of Weapons and their combinations expressed in time units, but first we need to discuss...
Weapon Class | From This Hand | |
Blaster | ||
Dagger | ||
Spear and Mace | ||
Sword | ||
Axe | ||
Staff, Club & Fists |
Weapon Class | From This Hand | |
Blaster | ||
Dagger | ||
Spear and Mace | ||
Sword | ||
Axe | ||
Nothing |
Weapon Class | From This Hand | |
Blaster | ||
Dagger | ||
Spear and Mace | ||
Sword | ||
Axe | ||
Nothing |
Ranking | |||
Novice | |||
Expert | |||
Master |
|
a) Enchantments8) Readiness
Items of Speed, of the Sky and Rogue's directly increase the Speed stat. If the increase causes a breakpoint increase, Attack/Shoot Time decreases.
Bows of Swiftness and of Darkness directly decrease the Shoot Time by 20 breaks. These enchantments on Weapons are the other contributors to the Weapon Bonus and will decrease the Attack Time by 20 time units but only if carried on a Weapon held in the specified hand, as denoted in the Weapon Time tables above.
Items of Recovery reduce Attack Times, Shoot Times and Casting Times by 25 time units, but only in Real-Time mode. You can read a bit more about this bug here.
b) Spells
All Spells and their affiliated Scrolls and Wands will trigger the Turn-Based Attack Time Bug. The character who casts the Spell will be affected, hence these Spells are most useful in Turn-Based mode if they are cast on another character.
Speed (Body #8 - 10 SP) increases the character's Speed stat by 10 plus 2 per level of Skill in Body Magic. If the increase causes a breakpoint increase, Attack/Shoot Time decreases.
Haste (Fire #5 - 5 SP) directly decreases Attack and Shoot Times by 25 time units. This Spell was also intended to reduce Casting Times, but it does not.
Note: Some opponents can cast the Slow Spell against your characters. If it acts the same way that our Slow (Light #4 - 35 SP) is supposed to work, then I'd assume that the affected character's Attack, Shoot and Casting Times would be doubled.
c) Potions
All Potions also trigger the Turn-Based Attack Time Bug. The character who drinks the Potion is affected, even if it was done during another's turn.
Energy (yellow) adds 10 to all stats temporarily and Extreme Energy (white) adds 20 to all stats temporarily. In Real-Time mode Attack and Shoot Times decrease by one time unit for every breakpoint increase in Speed. Only the decrease in Shoot Time is meaningful in Turn-based mode.
Haste (white) reduces Attack and Shoot Times by 25 breaks in Real-Time mode. It successfully reduces Shoot Times in Turn-Based mode. Casting Times were also intended to be reduced but are not in either mode.
d) Certain Wells, Fountains and NPCs can also affect Attack and Shoot Times. Both the Diseased and Drunk Conditions decrease the Speed stat. The Weak Condition has no affect on Attack and Shoot Times.
a) Assuming that your game is clear of the Armor Penalty Corruption, don't wear Plate during physical exchanges until you've trained up to Master status. Wear your Expert Chain until then.
Regardless of corruption, do wear Armor when opening traps. Also, every character attacking solely with magic should be wearing their strongest body armor since there is no Armor Penalty for Spell-casting, but that's really off our topic.
b) Except for very fast Dagger users, Weapons of Swiftness seldom perform better than the Weapons of additional Damage they'd replace. Weapons of Darkness with their additional Vampiric qualities are better, but whether your character needs to regain the hit points or do the extra Damage is your call. (If you haven't already noticed, extra Damage does not show up on the stat screen.)
c) Consult the Breakpoint Table as well as your character's stats when allocating items with stat-boosting Enchantments. Do the same before casting a stat-boosting Spell, drinking a stat-boosting Potion, or committing a Beacon slot to a temporary stat-boosting well or fountain. As your characters develop, any given stat boost becomes less advantageous. That's why you find more potent boosts as you progress though the game.
d) If you're playing in Real-Time, take advantage of items of Recovery and the Haste Spell or Potion. Whereas increasing Speed decreases Attack & Shoot Times in Breakpoint fashion, of Recovery and Haste do that directly. This is especially useful later in the game when it becomes progressively harder to reach higher and higher Breakpoints.
The Haste Spell and Potion are not additive. Your character will get only the benefits of the one applied most recently. The Haste Spell's 5 spell point cost is a real bargain, especially at Master Ranking. It cannot be cast on a Weak character, so try to renew it before it lapses.
Even if you're playing in Turn-Based mode, Haste can be very useful when using Bows. Faster is always better.
e) Spears, as a class, used two-handed with Master status, are the most damaging single Weapons until the time that skill gets up to around level 15. At that time two-handed Sword begins to deliver more Damage, assuming 1) the most potent Weapons with equivalent enchantments are used, 2) a Speed stat of 40, 3) no Armor Penalty, and 4) no significant effect from the difference in Attack Bonus carried by the Weapons. Two-handed Axe becomes better than Spear at around level 25, but it never overtakes two-handed Sword. These threshold levels drop as the Speed stat increases and rise as it decreases. Of course, only using Spear gives you that skill point Armor Class bonus.
f) If you're in a physical encounter where you need to trade the amount of Damage delivered (Offense) for added protection (Defense), Shields can be very effective. The two best Shields take up only 6 and 9 squares of inventory space, but with Master status you can quickly add at least 54 points to your Armor Class. The Damage you're dishing out might drop due to a Shield Penalty. You might have to use less potent single-handed Weapons. You'll have to decide when it's the right thing to do, but it's safe to say that your Master Dagger/Master Leather characters should always use shields.
Recommendations concerning the use of Weapon combinations require the consideration of your character's Chance to to Hit and Potential Damage in addition to his/her Attack Time. You'll find my current thoughts in the Recommendations section under the Offense heading.
© John C. Macaulay (Bones) Updated May 2, 1999