THACO, max number of attacks achiveable, improved haste and Kensai's AC.

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1)Why does my char miss his opponents quite frequently even though I have THACO -11 for Main Hand and -9 for Off Hand. I mean how can I possibly miss with such values (besides critical miss)? And it's not a matter of missing main adversaries but common enemies also.
2)Can I get more than just 4 attacks/round? I'm a dual-wielding elf berserker. Even when I have grand mastery in both wielded weapons I still have 3.5 base attacks (+0.5 from those gauntles of extraordinary specialization). I'd like to have 5 attacks and I don't want to install TeamBG attacks fix.
3)As for imrpoved haste. I can cast it with Kangaxx ring but it wears off very quickly. It's duration should be 3rounds+1round/level. Does it ignore all my levels cause I'm not a mage?
4)I wanted to try out Kensai Class but there is one thing that prevents me from making such a choice. It's the inability to wear even bracers. Hence I have a question: how low can single class, dual-wielding Kensai's permanent (ie w/o temporary aid of spells and bardsong) AC get. Right now my dual wielding elf berserker AC is -10 (I could get down to -12 but no lower).

 

1) Your char does not miss that much. The trick is that your avatar swings much more times, than the attack roll is made. The manual describes such swings as "feints". You can easily see what's happening if you turn the "Show To-Hit Rolls" in the Feedback options.

2) Nope, you can't get more than 4 attacks per round without Improved Haste. Even with haste, ultra-spec and all, 4 is the top. I have the same problem with my Dual-Weild R/C. In that case you might want to use a shield or a two handed weapon, bringing the number of attacks to a max of 4 with Haste.

3) Kensais get to be real damage-dealing machines. If you use another tank up front, your Kensai will not need low AC, he'll just cut things in half. My Kensai had a top AC of -10 (Barskin and all other buff spells), but it was in SoA, so in ToB it will be even better.

 

My berserker was dualwielding blackrazor and flail of ages and he had 5 attacks per round in ToB with the gauntlets of extraordinary specialisation in SoA hed 9/2 attacks per round and that was without any spells and stuff. He had 5* in longsword and 3* flails. I dont remember if i have downloaded some fix or something. Sarevok and Korgan had 4 attacks each with twohanded respective axes.

The reason i didnt answer your question is that i dont know but i have had the same experience. Maybe the rings ability is like if a first lvl mage casted the spell or something. But improved haste is as good as whirlwind attack if you have 5 attacks per round and even with the ring of gaxx it lasts longer.

[This message has been edited by joacqin (edited September 04, 2001).]

 

Thanks but please do answer also my 3rd question(the one about imrpoved haste).

 

a natural roll of 1 is a miss (when attacking), no matter what your THAC0 is.

as for the improved haste, it sounds like a bug if it doesn't add the rounds it should. Though a round isn't that much time anyway

 

I don't know if it's true in BG2 for sure or not, but in AD&D level based spell attributes are caster level, not character level. Hence your supposition would be correct.

 

I gave Kangaxx ring to Edwin and still he didn't get more rounds. I noticed something however - when a character is getting IH with this ring he just gets it w/o casting the spell - just like creating Simulacrum with Vhailor's helmet. However when I had Edwin cast IH 'from' some other item (I don't remember exactly which one it was - improved cloak of protection +2 perhaps) there was an animation and voice present while casting a spell. IH cast in this manner remained 'on' Edwin for a LONG time.

Oh, and a round isn't that short - it's 6sec IIRC. And it would feel GOOD to have 8 attacks/round for some 30+ rounds.

 

I think what capstone is saying is whoever created the ring (Kangaxx I would assume) set the level of the spell. Whoever uses the ring makes no difference. The caster level set by the rings creator is what determines the spells duration. Maybe old Kangaxx didn't want to give up the money or experience to set the Improved Haste spell level in the ring any higher than that cast by a low level caster. Who knows. Or maybe the designers just fudged and didn't get the duration correct. Hard to say.

 

I believe that the duration of IH on the Ring of Gaxx is only 2 rounds (or maybe just 1 1/2 rounds). But honestly the ring is powerful enough as it is, if it cast IH at a higher level it would be ridiculous, with 3 castings. And yes it activates as an effect it seems not as a spell (which can be a real pain in the butt when you find yourself waiting for the animation and end up wasting half a round ).

 

Thanks it's finally clear for me now. Guess I'll just have to get some armor which allows wearing improved cloak of protection then.

 

There are a number of ways to increase attacks. The gauntlets of extraordinary specialisation have already been mentioned. I'm not sure why, but wearing boots of haste gives you an extra 1/2 an attack in most cases (I'm not sure why this isn't consistent). When I say sometimes, I mean it won't do it for all characters at all levels. I'm not sure what level it occurs at (can someone remember?) but you get an extra half an attack (or a whole attack - again, I can't remember). Proficiencies past specialised don't help - they only give you bonuses to hit, damage, and weapon speed. Finally, there are items that give you extra attacks (like Belm). I know it would be common sense to assume that the extra attack provided by Belm would actually be executed using it, but is this how it's actually implemented? That is, will having Belm in my off hand actually allow me to swing my Spectral Brand again?

On a final note, the extra half-attack provided by the boots of speed is applied before doubling attacks for improved haste. At the end of one of my games I had Valygar dual-wielding belm and Crom Faeyr, and with imp. haste I'm almost certain he had 10 attacks per round (he certainly had 5 attacks / round without any spells on him).