FAangband 1.0

[Nick]

I got myself a shiny new magestaff of slay demon 1d3 (-2,-20). If I'm not mistaken that -20 to dam equates to a 100% damage reduction. With my 14 STR the description states that I'm able to muster 2 blows at 14 per blow vs. demons. Incidentally, that's the exact same blows/damage as my magestaff of slay evil 1d3 (+12,+6) vs. evil.

There are two things going on here:

1. Deadliness is not a straight x5% - it tails off at higher values. So the -20 deadliness actually reduces damage to about 30%.
2. Slays actually add to the damage as well as multiplying it. So a Slay Demon weapon is really much better against demons than other things - and it's especially striking in this case with a small damage weapon..

The attack code is quite complicated, but I think the damage calculations are (approximately) correct.