Hello

As I flip back and forth digesting the intricacies of TOR rules something crosses my mind regarding Damage Rating.

The AB p.79 States;

The emphasis is on the word "Usually", alluding to other possibilities.
Please Illuminate.

Also the next paragraph sort of confuses me at the moment, it seems to relate to the Damage Bonuses, it states;

Going with the first paragraph the basic Body score is used to calculate damage during an attack.
I will understand all this eventually, but where/when are the bonus scores (the ones in the little circles) applied?

Thanks very much for the kind replies!!

Maybe referring to the modified damage received with great and extraordinary successes, and the effects offered by some rewards or virtues?

I was puzzled by the "Usually, a character’s Damage rating is equal to his basic Body score", when I did hero creation for the first time too. As yet, I haven't found a saitsfying answer to this. I think some blessings/virtues/rewards might conceivably amend some of these values but I don't think any of the existing ones really explain the statement. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable about the rules than me has a better answer to this.

The PC's Damage Rating is applied when they roll extra successes on their Attack Test. If they only succeed they do the weapon's damage in END, if they get a GREAT success they do the weapon's damage + 1x the PC's damage rating, if they get an EXTRAORDINARY success they do the weapon's damage + 2x the PC's damage rating.

Hope that's helpful.

Munkerz has half of the answer. Some Virtues/Rewards can increase your Damage Rating. So the "usually" is implying both of these modifiers without sending you off to look them up.

For the second issue, please take a look at this thread: Damage. The terms used through the manuals, and the meaning behind them, were not used consistently enough to prevent confusion.

It's merely alluding to allowing for a PC's favoured Body with the purchase of certain Virtues, etc to be used instead or for other bonuses to potentially be applied.

No, on a standard success attack (ie, meeting the TN but not getting a Great or Extraordinary success) the PC applies the Damage Value/Rating of the weapon they are using.

When they get a Great success they add their Damage value (ie, usually their unfavoured Body rating) to the weapon's damage rating, and on an Extraordinary success they add this value twice.

As above - when you succeed at a Geat or Extraordinary success.

Pleasure!

Ok so (repeating just to make sure)

Normal Success= Weapon Damage score
Great Success= Weapon + (modified) Body score
Extraordinary Success= Weapon + 2x (modified) Body score

Correct?

(thinks I will get a reply of "usually")

Not sure what you mean by "(modified)".

It's just the relevant Body score, be that Unfavoured (for most PCs) or Favoured (if you have an applicable Virtue). Then you may add bonus points for other circumstances (eg, ranged weapon damage) to the Weapon + Body Score you're using if you have purchased other Virtues or Traits.

So the standard is:

Normal Success= Weapon Damage score
Great Success= Weapon + unfavoured Body score
Extraordinary Success= Weapon + 2x unfavoured Body score

... Unless you have anything on your character sheet that says otherwise.

By modified, I mean the score in the little circle.
I apologize for my lack of understanding, my terminology might be in error.

Thanks

Then yes, modified it is!

No need to apologise - better to ask. There are no stupid questions, remember!

Ok I just saw the link Garn posted... my apologies....

It is spelled out there...

This finally makes sense, thank you!

Rich H, absolutely! I want to get this right from the get-go I appreciate your patience and help/

I understand - I'm exactly the same.

We have a great community here - different people naturally specialise in different areas from offering rules advice to clarifications to running the game to Tolkien lore, etc etc. It really is one of the best (if not the best) forum for any RPG I've been interested in.

I am very happy to have this resource. It's value cannot be overstated. It will help accelerate the learning process.

Back in the day when my friends and I were working through ICE MERP we made up some characters and jumped right into the fray half-understanding the intricacies of the system.
We soon mastered it, but not without a few accidents along the way lol

With TOR I want to avoid muddling around at the game table wasting precious game time. We will understand the system (mostly) THEN jump into the fray!

PS. I'm making a Word document with these clarifications to refer to at the table.

You're quite welcome. I know this is going to sound a bit vain, but my post in that thread is probably one of my proudest. It's accurate, clear, concise and has consistently resolved confusion for many readers.

That sounds like an excellent idea. It will be of particular use if you ever have gaps in your gaming schedule - rules can get rusty pretty quickly for many people so something that supports understanding and re-acquainting yourself with them can only be a good thing.

Hello again, another question about Damage Rating aka the DAMAGE box on the character sheet.

As I understand it this box is calculated using the basic Body score.
What I am not sure about is Virtues and Rewards.

For example, In the case of the Fell-handed virtue,

Do I add this bonus into the Damage box as (Body +1) , this makes sense to me,
or should it be noted on the Virtues line and added separately during combat?

After examining this formula;

It would seem that the Virtue Damage bonuses are added separately.

I believe that the spot for damage bonus is your basic body + any bonus you have from virtues already pre-calculated so you don't have to look around your character sheet for all the bonuses. So if I have 5 body I start with 5 for close combat damage rating and for ranged damage rating. If i get the virtue fell handed my close damage rating goes up to 6.

If I roll a great success with my dagger I get 3 damage for the dagger plus 6 for my close damage rating. If I get an extraordinary success I get 3 +6 +6. Because I got 2 "6"s

That's how I see it anyway.

Thanks Cynan, that makes sense to me

As far as I understand, inscribe your "modified" damage rating in this box.

If you purchased the fell-handed mastery, add one to your damage rating, and don't forget to inscribe your unmodified body rating in the range damage circle (unless you also purchased the mastery increasing range damage).

I've been handling it as "5+1" so that I can see the Body value and the fact that their is a modifier and it's value. So this way no matter which angle I look at things, (weapon or rating) I can see where/how things link together.

I like that idea. On the MERP character sheets you could see the breakdown of all mods and a final box for the total so you can see how it all adds up. That makes it easy to find something if its missing or wrong.

Thanks for all the replies