TomeNET

(5) Item and flag details, elements                                             
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(5.1) Melee weapons, brands                                                     
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One of TomeNET's features is the "auto-retaliator". This means, if an enemy
enters a field that is adjacent to you, you will automatically attack the foe
with your equipped melee weapon. This is helpful against lags as well as for
preventing RSI ;) - for details about auto-retaliation please see (4.1a).

Melee weapons have at least three stats, it's 'damage dice', 'to-hit' and
'to-damage'. 'To-hit' helps you actually not miss an enemy, 'to-dam' increases
the damage. The 'damage dice' shows how many dice are added to calculate the
random damage you inflict on an enemy as you hit!

Example:  Broad Sword (2d5) (+3,+4)
This means, your chance to hit is a bit increased (+3) and you will inflict
a damage of: 2 dice with 5 sides each, to the result +4 is added.
So the damage you inflict will randomly vary from 6 (1+1+4) up to 14 (5+5+4)
meaning that you do an average damage of 10 per hit with that weapon
([6+14]/2 = 10).

A very important thing about melee weapons is that, depending on your strength
and dexterity as well as the weight of your melee weapon, you might be able to
deliver more than just one blow per round with it!
For example a warrior might be able to swing his "Broad Sword (2d5) (+0,+0)"
one time per round, delivering 2*(1..5) damage. The 'd' means dice, so it's
like throwing 2 dice with 5 sides each and adding their values to estimate the
damage you inflicted on the victim. Now if that warrior equips a light whip
which weighs only 3 pounds (the broad sword weighs 15 pounds) he might get 2
or even 3 swings per round! Since a whip does 1d6 damage, he would deal
(assumed he got 2 hits) 2* 1*(1..6) damage, which in total is more damage per
round than he would deliver using the broad sword! Let's compare what happens
if the warrior magically enchants the damage of both weapons, using "Scrolls
of Enchant Weapon To-Dam" (these scrolls can be bought in shop '5').
One of these scrolls can enchant a weapon so one extra point is added to the
damage dice after they have been added. If we manage to enchant the damage of
the broad sword 9 times, the weapon will look like this:
"Broad Sword (2d5) (+0,+9)"
That means after 2 dice with 5 sides each have been added up, there will be
further 9 points of damage added to the result!

Broad Sword 2d5 (+0,+9) 1 blow per round  -->  1* [ 2*(1..5) + 9 ] damage
  -->  2*((1+5)/2) + 9 average damage which is 15 per round.

Whip 1d6 (+0,+9) 2 blows per round  -->  2* [ 1*(1..6) + 9 ] damage
  -->  2* [ 1*(3,5) +9 ]  -->  2*12,5 = 25 damage per round!
       Far more than with the broad sword.

As you can see, the additional damage caused by enchantment will
be added to the dice result.

If you manage to get your hands on an item that imbues your melee weapon with
an elemental brand (like a Ring Of Ice for example), the dice of your weapon
will be multiplied by 2 if the target doesn't resist that brand.
See (5.3) to get an easy overview.

Characters using weapons have a limited number of melee attacks per round,
depending on the character class. A table showing the blows/round limits
is at section (7.5).

There are four different classes of melee weapons,
swords/daggers, blunt weapons, axes, polearms. (Also see (5.1a) below!)
You may inspect a weapon by pressing 'I' to see its base class.
For items listed in a store, the command is 'x' to examine it.
Those again are divided into four sub-classes each:
Single-handed, forced two-handed, should-be-wielded-two-handed,
may-be-wielded-two-handed. If you inspect a weapon, it will tell you if
it belongs to one of the latter three sub-classes:
"It must be wielded two-handed" (MUST2H)
"It should be wielded two-handed" (SHOULD2H)
"It may be wielded two-handed" (COULD2H)

While smaller melee weapons require only 1 hand to use them, some larger
weapons need 2 hands. Using a shield together with those is not possible.
Some larger weapons that should be used two-handed can also be used
single-handed, but you will receive penalties to to-hit and to-dam bonus if
you use it that way. Look at your character screen ('C') to compare the
to-hit/to-dam boni and see if it's worth it. You'll see a warning message
"Using this large weapon together with a shield makes fighting harder."

Medium weapons which 'may' be used two-handed won't give malus if used
single-handed, but you might get more blows per round if you wield them with
both hands! Again check your character screen ('C') to spot any difference.
You'll see "Without shield, your weapon feels especially easy to swing.".
Depending on weapon weight, your strength and your dexterity, sometimes you
get more blows/round from it, sometimes you don't.

If you try to wield a weapon that is too heavy for your character, meaning
your 'STRength' stat isn't high enough yet, you'll get a warning message:
"You have trouble wielding such a heavy weapon".
This means you won't get any benefits from your 'Weaponmastery' skill, nor
any extra blows per round at all, instead you'll be stuck with 1 blow/round.
Also, you'll be more prone to disarming attacks.

Similar is possible for shields. If you try to use a shield which is too heavy
for you, you'll get another warning message:
"You have trouble wielding such a heavy shield".
That means you will hardly be able to deflect anything with this shield and
won't get get any 'reflection' ability from it, if it provides this.
All other abilities you gain from it are not affected though (eg resistances
or stat boni), you will benefit from these just fine.

Your character might have a chance to parry attacks with his weapon and block
attacks with his shield, provided he uses one.
For more details about class-specific ability to utilize weapons and
shields for parrying and blocking, see (7.5), for more details about parrying
and blocking in general see (7.11).
In general, the bigger a weapon the more you may parry, while the bigger a
shield the more you will block!
Last but not least, training "Weaponmastery" skill will also increase your
parry chance a good deal.