Curiosity on attack rolls...

st_live418

I'm currently playing through BG2 with a Blade as my main. I like to see my attack rolls, mostly for curiosity's sake. But as I've been looking at the attack rolls of my Blade, I notice that on his main hand, every attack is made with a + 0. (i.e., 13 + 0 = 13). I have a +2 weapon in that hand and get a +1 from his STR bonus. I do have a few mods installed, but more than anything I'm just curious if this is normal behavior, or if its a bug of some sort. I had thought that I understood the mechanics of all of this but apparently not.

It should also be noted that the other two members of my party (Aerie and Nalia) are getting their appropriate bonus with the ranged attacks they are making.

reedmilfam

Sounds like a bug, or unintended consequence of a mod. Do you see your THAC0 bonuses on the inventory screen? You should see STR and the magical weapon.

st_live418

reedmilfam said:

Sounds like a bug, or unintended consequence of a mod. Do you see your THAC0 bonuses on the inventory screen? You should see STR and the magical weapon.

Yes, on my inventory screen is shows all of the appropriate bonus' which is where my confusion was primarily coming from. Thank you for the quick response. I am a little relieved to know that I at least did have the proper understanding of how this particular aspect of THAC0 is supposed to work.

joluv

What enemy were you attacking? There are other factors, like the enemy's armor type, that go into the roll bonus. So for example, if you're attacking an enemy wearing plate main using a longsword, then the armor's -3 bonus to AC vs. slashing attacks would cancel out the +3 you're getting from your weapon and strength.

st_live418

I've noticed it on nearly every enemy I've gone against recently. Whether they wear plate mail or studded leather armor doesn't seem to matter much to my attack roll. Most recently on a group of muggers that came at me in the Docks district of Athkatla.

Jarrakul

That's normal behavior, I think. As I understand it, most bonuses modify the THAC0 the roll is compared against, rather than the roll itself, and therefore do not appear in the feedback window. The modifiers that appear on the roll itself are things like the opponent's armor modifiers, and the penalty for using ranged weapons at melee range.

I don't know why Aerie and Nalia would get their normal bonuses, though. Are you sure you're not just attacking enemies that are weak to missile weapons?

st_live418

Shouldn't be. The enemies I'm fighting have all primarily been human with different armor. Some in plate, some in leather and some casters without any armor equipped. Against all of them my attack rolls come with a 0 bonus. Even against enemies where the bonus should be less. As @joluv mentioned about the added defense with plate mail, in theory that should mean I'd be attacking with a -3 penalty, but it still shows as 0.

lunar

You dual wield and have appropriate two weapon fighting style points, right?
Other than that you may post your save game here and someone may check it in their game.

st_live418

lunar said:

You dual wield and have appropriate two weapon fighting style points, right?
Other than that you may post your save game here and someone may check it in their game.

Indeed I do. 3-points in Two-Weapon style, in fact. Again, I do have a few mods installed. BG2Tweaks, aTweaks, and Rogue Rebalancing. Later today when I have a bit more time I'll probably upload the save file. Thanks again everyone for the quick responses!

DregothofTyr

I tested this, and the penalties to certain attack types modify the enemy's AC and not your THAC0, so it does not show up in the feedback window. What does show up, as far as I could determine in my quick test are the bonuses and penalties that are directly applied to your THAC0, which includes all (or at least most) of the modifications in the THAC0 window of your character sheet, as well as the penalty for being in melee range with a ranged weapon.