Doom Spell: penalty display not showing?

Ignatius

My cleric has just cast lvl.1 spell DOOM on a wolf.

Wolf attacks and rolls a 5.

Current on-screen display (to-hit rolls): "Wolf- Attack Roll 5 - 0 = 5 : Miss"

Expected on-screen display (to-hit rolls): "Wolf- Attack Roll 5 -2 = 3 : Miss"

Either Doom spell does not reduce target's THACO by 2 contrary to spell description, or the on-screen to-hit rolls display is not properly implemented to reflect such penalty for this spell.

TJ_Hooker

Do you know for sure that a wolf has no other attack roll modifiers? For example, when you look at the attack roll of a wolf that is not under the effects of doom, is it "x + 0 = roll"?

Ignatius

What I know for sure is that he attacked before I doomed him and rolled a 3, and it read "Wolf- Attack Roll 3 - 0 = 3 : Miss". I then re-tested it later on another wolf, and the text of hit-on rolls is exactly the same before than after the doom effect. I can test it on another creature but I do not see why the wolf would have any particularity with regards to that spell - the text said he was doomed alright.

TJ_Hooker

Ignatius said:

What I know for sure is that he attacked before I doomed him and rolled a 3, and it read "Wolf- Attack Roll 3 - 0 = 3 : Miss". I then re-tested it later on another wolf, and the text of hit-on rolls is exactly the same before than after the doom effect. I can test it on another creature but I do not see why the wolf would have any particularity with regards to that spell - the text said he was doomed alright.

Oh ok. I thought maybe wolves had a default attack bonus of +2, so that after you doom them the modifiers cancel out and that's why you're seeing a "-0" to attack roll. I'm not sure what's going on then.

Tresset

Much can be learned by casting harmful spells on your party members. Such as the fact that the penalty that doom applies directly modifies the target's thac0. You see, this means that there would be no penalty to the to hit roll at all; instead the thac0 itself is penalized by 2. So this spell is functioning properly and as intended.

TJ_Hooker

Tresset said:

Much can be learned by casting harmful spells on your party members. Such as the fact that the penalty that doom applies directly modifies the target's thac0. You see, this means that there would be no penalty to the to hit roll at all; instead the thac0 itself is penalized by 2. So this spell is functioning properly and as intended.

Well I think it should still show up when looking at attack rolls. The way attack rolls are displayed is: [unmodified d20 roll] + [THAC0 modifiers] = hit roll
the hit roll is then compared to (base THAC0 - enemy AC). If the hit roll is greater or equal to that, then it's a hit. So I think the penalty from doom should be showing up in the [THAC0 modifiers] section.

Ignatius

@Tresset: thanks for that information, it is good to know Doom works properly. I also think the penalty modifier should be displayed in the to-hit rolls information, as it is for other bonus/penalties (such as when you hold a ranged weapon and are attacked in melee).