Melee and Shooting To-Hit Values

[epatton]

Hi guys,

I don't understand what the To-hit values on the character sheet represent.I'm used to the old-school THAC0 values in DND, but these don't seem to be like that, as they increase over time. How do I read this information, and is it useful for judging my attack effectiveness against opponents?

[Grotug]

I'm not familiar with DND but the To-Hit in Angband represents how often you miss when melee or shooting.

Unlike to-dam, small increases in to-hit have a negligible effect on your hero's overall damage output. +15 to-hit will make a very small difference, only slightly noticeable, therefore rings of accuracy are not nearly as exciting as they sound. A ranger will almost always take a ring of damage over a ring of accuracy.

[Werbaer]

I don't understand what the To-hit values on the character sheet represent.I'm used to the old-school THAC0 values in DND, but these don't seem to be like that, as they increase over time.

They are like THAC0. But your fighting skill improves a bit each time you level up, so the numbers increase, even without changing equipment.

To judge the effect, don't look at the numbers. Look at the monster memory of an enemy. It will tell you how likely you are with your current equipment to hit the monster. For example, a level 1 Half-Troll warrior with +31 to hit will hit a Battle-scarred veteran 73% of the time, while an Elf Mage with +10 to hit only hits 23% of the time.

[wobbly]

Its pretty much:

1d(to-hit * 3) > (ac * 2 / 3)

but yeah easier to just check the chance in monster memory.

[DavidMedley]

There are minimums that are important as well. IIRC it's a min 12% to hit and min 5% to miss.

[luneya]

I'm not familiar with DND but the To-Hit in Angband represents how often you miss when melee or shooting.

Unlike to-dam, small increases in to-hit have a negligible effect on your hero's overall damage output. +15 to-hit will make a very small difference, only slightly noticeable, therefore rings of accuracy are not nearly as exciting as they sound. A ranger will almost always take a ring of damage over a ring of accuracy.

IIRC, ring of damage only works for melee damage, whereas accuracy applies to both melee and shooting. A ranger is the one class that might conceivably prefer accuracy over damage, or perhaps stat rings over either attack modifier. (In melee classes, rings of accuracy are only useful until you find something better, but there are times when a ring of strength or dexterity outperforms ring of damage by pushing the player into a higher blows/turn tier.)