Attack Bonus vs Enhancement Bonus

[Rufio]

As most people know, all the magical weapons here in NS4 receive Enhancement Bonuses, but all weapons also receive bonus physical damage die which don't stack with the bonus damage from the enhancement bonuses. All weapons have more physical damage die than enhancement bonus, so the bonus damage die will always take precedence. It would make more sense to give weapons Attack Bonuses as they are exactly the same as enhancement bonuses, except they do not give bonus damage, which is redundant in ns4 anyways. I believe mining once told me that attack bonuses do not penetrate damage reduction such as stoneskin and epic warding, but as the wiki states, and after some testing in a single player module, I found this to be incorrect. Weapons with equivalent attack bonuses to the required enhancement bonus do still penetrate damage reduction. Therefore it would make more sense if attack bonuses were used instead of enhancement bonuses in NS4

Now, it might not seem like this matters much if the damage bonus from enhancement bonuses are overridden by the bonus damage die anyways, but there is one particular balance issue that this would solve. At the moment, the enhancement bonus of dual damage type weapons stacks with their physical damage die, making all dual damage weapons not only superior in damage penetration, but superior in damage dealt before damage resistance entirely. Changing these weapons to attack bonus would eliminate this unplanned damage bonus and help improve weapon variety of players. Especially with two-handed weapons, single damage type weapons are at a huge disadvantage at the moment. There is a similar quirk associated with shifters where wielding the proper weapon while unshifted allows the enhancement bonus to stack with the damage die of the weapon when shifted that this would fix.

I know nothing of how difficult this would be to fix (I imagine it would have to be fixed with a script of some kind rather than changing all the weapons individually), but it would be nice to see more weapon variety in pvp.

[Koniption]

I believe mining once told me that attack bonuses do not penetrate damage reduction such as stoneskin and epic warding, but as the wiki states, and after some testing in a single player module, I found this to be incorrect.

A someone looking to make a monk I was researching the various gloves on the ns4 wiki and notice they have an Attack Bonus. Are you suggesting that for example the +7 Attack Bonus on the Glimmerhands does indeed bypass the respective numbered damage reduction or does it only provide an AB bonus?

[mining]

I believe mining once told me that attack bonuses do not penetrate damage reduction such as stoneskin and epic warding, but as the wiki states, and after some testing in a single player module, I found this to be incorrect.

A someone looking to make a monk I was researching the various gloves on the ns4 wiki and notice they have an Attack Bonus. Are you suggesting that for example the +7 Attack Bonus on the Glimmerhands does indeed bypass the respective numbered damage reduction or does it only provide an AB bonus?

I'm so so so sure that can't be right, but I have nil evidence- so I bow to your superior evidence gathering skills. Hrmm.

[Rufio]

Attack bonus does penetrate the respective numbered damage reduction. I created some test weapons off-line and tested them against an opponent buffed with stoneskin before making this post to be sure.

[Bargeld]

I remember something about glove enhancements only breaking DR at a max of +5. So +7 AB gloves should not work against epic warding, egen DR, but will work vs stoneskin/greater.

At least that's how I remember it. Never actually tested it. Ever.

[Rufio]

a +7 glove doesn't work against epic warding or earth gen dr because no +7 weapon works against those. You need a +8 weapon to break those.

I do seem to remember that a +7 monk glove will penetrate the 15/+7 construct shape damage reduction. That can be easily tested if someone has the time.

[Daltian]

It definitely penetrates construct DR. Tested.
I actually tested the attack vs. enhancement issue extensively first time I heard about it not penetrating the damage reduction. It was way before any nwn expansions were out and then I retested it few more times after that when this kind of arguments were brought up. And every single time attack had same penetrating properties and enhancement. Last time i tested was 2 years ago at most, which was after 1.69 was out so no change from then.
I even exploited the thing on first server I ever played. It was low magic server and highest weapon was +3. At that time stoneskins and premonitions were really effective and also lots of monsters had different level of +5/xx DR. I got the possibility to get an item of my choice of value 15k in toolset and I made a weapon with attack bonus which costed a lot less then enhancement and added various other properties. And it penetrated all DR that was existent on the server.
Also, bows also have attack bonus instead of enhancement and they go trough DR without any problems.

[Lokey]

Attack bonus is the same as enhancement up to 5 (1 attack bonus penetrates dr 1/whatever, but not higher). Possibly 6 or higher works on 6 or even at all, I'm hazy on that. Whether it's only gaunts or all weaps...forget.

Whether changing gloves to take enhancement works properly v dr, haven't tested (can be done server side alone).

[Rufio]

Attack bonus is the same as enhancement up to 5 (1 attack bonus penetrates dr 1/whatever, but not higher). Possibly 6 or higher works on 6 or even at all, I'm hazy on that. Whether it's only gaunts or all weaps...forget.

Nope, this isn't correct. I just loaded up a test module this and was able to penetrate 50/+20 damage reduction with a +20 attack bonus longsword. There doesn't seem to be any upper limit to what damage reduction attack bonus can penetrate.

[Lokey]

The problem was specific to gaunts iirc. Remember it was addressed in a patch but something else broke because of it.

[Daltian]

There is a thing with unarmed mobs going trough all kinds of damage resistance and immunity. Example of those are barons in plane of water which go trough EDR, barbarian DR, item DR even if you have all 3 and probably trough DwD DR too but I am not 100% sure about that.
I am pretty sure they don't go trough damage reduction.