Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession Weapon Stats
By gibberishh, 2024-09-14
The table below shows weapon damage stats extracted from the game's OBJECTS.DAT file included in v1.2A (bytes 56 to 62 of every item). Most weapons do not have additional damage attached to them. Note that structurally this is not deviant from either Menzoberranzan or Ravenloft: Stone Prophet; in both those games, many enchanted items have zero additional damage in their item definitions.
What is different about Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession is that the other two games automatically add enchantment to the damage upon every successful hit. Thus, a Quarterstaff +2 will have an effective damage range of 3-8. However, experiments (see below) have shown that Strahd's Possession fails to add the enchantment bonus to damage.
These damage stats also demonstrate how arrows are broken in this version of the game. They bounce harmlessly off all targets.
| Name | Damage vs Small | Damage vs Large |
|---|---|---|
| ANCIENT ELVEN SWORD +2 | 1-8, +1 | 1-12, +1 |
| ARROW | 0 | 0 |
| ARROW +1 | 0 | 0 |
| ARROW OF SLAY UNDEAD +3 | 0 | 0 |
| AXE OF HURLING +1 | 1-3, +1 | 1-3, +1 |
| BA'AL VERZI DAGGER +2 | 1-4, +2 | 1-3, +2 |
| BATTLE AXE | 1-8 | 1-8 |
| BATTLE AXE +1 | 1-8 | 1-8 |
| BATTLE AXE +2 | 1-8 | 1-8 |
| BROAD SWORD | 2-4 | 1-6, +1 |
| BROAD SWORD +1 | 2-4 | 1-6, +1 |
| BROAD SWORD +2 | 2-4 | 1-6, +1 |
| COMPOSITE BOW | 1-6 | 1-6 |
| DAGGER | 1-4 | 1-3 |
| DAGGER +1 | 1-4 | 1-3 |
| DAGGER +2 | 1-4 | 1-3 |
| DAGGER OF THROWING +2 | 1-3, +2 | 1-3, +2 |
| HALBERD | 1-10 | 2-6 |
| JAVELIN OF LIGHTNING | 1-6 | 1-6 |
| LONG SWORD | 1-8 | 1-12 |
| LONG SWORD +1 | 1-8 | 1-12 |
| LONG SWORD +2 | 1-8 | 1-12 |
| MACE | 1-6, +1 | 1-6 |
| MACE +1 | 1-6, +1 | 1-6 |
| MACE +2 | 1-6, +1 | 1-6 |
| MAGIC STONE | 2-4, +1 | 2-4, +1 |
| PALADIN'S DAGGER +2 | 1-4 | 1-3 |
| PALADIN'S SWORD +3 | 1-8 | 1-12 |
| QUARTERSTAFF | 1-6 | 1-6 |
| QUARTERSTAFF +1 | 1-6 | 1-6 |
| QUARTERSTAFF +2 | 1-6 | 1-6 |
| ROD OF SMITING +3 | 1-8, +3 | 1-8, +3 |
| SHORT SWORD | 1-6 | 1-8 |
| SHORT SWORD +1 | 1-6 | 1-8 |
| SHORT SWORD +2 | 1-6 | 1-8 |
| SLING | 1-4, +1 | 1-6, +1 |
| SLING BULLET | 1-4, +1 | 1-4, +1 |
| SLING OF SEEKING | 1-4, +2 | 1-4, +2 |
| SPEAR | 1-6 | 1-8 |
| STONE | 1-4 | 1-4 |
| THROWING KNIFE | 1-3 | 1-2 |
| TWO-HANDED SWORD | 1-10 | 3-6 |
| WARHAMMER | 1-4, +1 | 1-4 |
| WARHAMMER +1 | 1-4, +1 | 1-4 |
| WARHAMMER +2 | 1-4, +1 | 1-4 |
Experiment Parameters
- Must be performed by a human Mage, Cleric or Thief (to avoid any undocumented warrior or racial bonuses).
- Who must have 8-15 strength (so that they do not get any strength bonuses).
- Mages can test slashing weapons, clerics can test bludgeoning weapons and thieves can test both.
- Hit 20-30 creatures by clicking on the in-hand weapon being tested to make sure that is the only source of damage, and observe all the damage numbers.
Observations
- Most enchanted weapons do exactly as much maximum damage as their mundane counterparts against the same creatures (e.g., both a Quarterstaff and a Quarterstaff +2 do up to 6 damage).
- Enchanted weapons sometimes do 1 damage, which should never be the case if enchantment was added to base damage.
- The same experiment in the other two games demonstrates that a Quarterstaff +2 does up to 8 damage.
Conclusion
- Unlike other games, Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession (v1.2A) does not add the enchantment value of a weapon to its damage.
- In Menzoberranzan and Stone Prophet, items which have bonus damage in OBJECTS.DAT really do bonus damage on top of enchantment damage. It would be akin to swinging an enchanted weapon that does a little bit of fire damage on top of the physical damage.
- In Strahd's Possession, the bonus damage defined in OBJECTS.DAT is the only additional damage you get, making most enchanted weapons only as useful as their mundane counterparts. Of course, you need enchanted weapons to do more than 1 damage per hit to mundane-resistant creatures (which by itself is yet another bug) so to put it a better way: once you find a +1 weapon, there is no joy in finding the +2 of the same weapon.
- Thus, the damage range displayed when you pick up a weapon in the inventory screen is its real minimum and maximum range. The only additional damage comes from Strength. This would make Potions of Giant Strength quite valuable (see the Strength chart on page 89 of the manual) but only two such potions exist in the game.
- This makes the Old Paladin's quest even more optional than it already is: Paladin's Sword +3 does exactly the same damage as a Long Sword +1!
- A few weapons stand out as being relatively powerful. For a front-line slashing-weapon wielder, dual-wield Ancient Elven Sword +2 and Ba'al Verzi Dagger +2. This will give you total damage range of 5-15 across both weapons vs small creatures. Until you acquire the elven blade, any Long Sword—including Paladin's Sword +3—can be your main weapon (1 less damage per hit). Frontline clerics perform best with Rod of Smiting +3 and Mace +1/+2 (equip a mace and shield until you acquire the rod).
- At the end of the day while this implementation/oversight leaves a bad taste in the mouth, it makes very little difference to actual gameplay. Creatures in Strahd's Possession do not have monstrous HP and if a doom guard is going to take 3 hits to kill, chances are he would still take 3 hits even with the enchantment bonus applied.
A Little Extra
- Counterintuitively, clerics can wield Dagger of Throwing +2 as well as Axe of Hurling +1 though I'd rather give a backliner cleric a Quarterstaff +1/+2.