Attack Modifier?

[Suicide Girl]

Forgive my ignorance, and I'm really really sorry if this has already been answered before (I have used the Search Option!!), but... Just what is an Attack Modifier?

F.I., I've got a lightsaber with, amongst other things, an attack modifier of +7. I went through crystal-testing hell to get a satisfying balance between damage and att.mod. just to realise that I really have no idea how useful an att.mod. really is.

So what does it do?

P.S. Forgive the irritatingly annoying amout of italics used in the first paragraph.

[Caden]

I believe attack is how often you make a successful hit and don't miss. Damage, you of course know, is how much life you take with a successful hit. Adding Attack modifiers will increase your percent chance of hitting your opponent.

[Ripe]

KotoR (like most other RPG's) use something called d20 system.

What that mean is that all results are achived by rolling 20-sided dice (if you play Pen and Paper game) or by randomly generating a number between 1 and 20 (if you play computer games).

In order for your attack to be succesfull you make your attack "roll" and add various modifiers to that roll. That modifiers come in three different group:
Base attack modifier - modifier that depends on your level - for soldier and jedi guardians it is equal to your level (if you are 8th level it is +8), for all other classes it is 3/4 of your level (if you are 8th level it is +6) Take note that modifiers you get from different classes stack (so if you are 8th level soldier and 8th level Jedi guardian your total base attack bonus modifier is +16; +8 from 8 levels of soldier and +8 from 8 levels of guardian)
Ability modifier - modifier that depends on either your strength (vibroblades, swords) or dexterity (blasters, grenades). Lightsabers use whichever modifier is bigger. You can find out how big modifier you get by looking at Character info screen - you will see all of your abbility scores followed by modifier (for example: Strength | 19 | +4 | or Dexterity | 20 | +5 |)
Miscancelous modifier - various modifiers you get by using different weapons, weapon upgrades and crystals

Your goal is to get your total attack modifier as high as possible.

For example lets use 8th level soldier/8th level guardian with 16 strength and 18 dexterity using lightsaber with Krayt Dragon Pearl and Nextor crystals.
Your attack roll modifier is 16 (from your level) + 4 (from ability) + (3 (Krayt Dragon Pearl) + 1 (Nextor) = 24

Your actual attack roll is equal to 24 + random number generated by the game between 1 and 20) which can give any total from 25 to 44.

So let us say that game randomly generated score is 8. That means your attack roll is 32 (24 + 8). If that number is high enough (equal or higher than your targets defense) you have scored a hit and you deal damage to your opponent. Keep in mind that "roll" of 1 is allways considered miss, and "roll" of 20 is allways considered hit regardless of your opponents defense score.

Now for damage breakdown:
When you look at info for a weapon it gives a certain range of damage (for example Lightsabers said Damage: Energy, 2-16) and a critical threat for that weapon (again lightsabers have Critical Threat: 19-20/x2).
Your lightsaber in above example would on succesfull hit dealt:
2-16 (base damage) + 3 (strength modifier) + 2 (Krayt Dragon Pearl modifier) which means anywhere between 7 and 21 points of damage.

All that is left is explanation of critical hits:
If game randomly select number that is equal to critical threat of a weapon (for lightsaber that are numbers 19 and 20) and your attack is succesfull, you're treatening a critical hit on your opponent. Game automaticly makes another attack roll and if that roll is high enough to score a hit it is considered that your attack scored a critical hit so your damage dealt is multiplied by number noted in weapon description (for lightsabers it is x2). Take note that some crystals and weapon upgrades add aditional damage on critical hits. You'll also notice that Nextor crystal (and some other weapon upgrades) lists Keen ability as a bonus. Keen ability doubles the range in which that particular weapon threatens a critical hit (for example lightsabers with Keen ability threaten critical hit on scores of 17, 18, 19 and 20 instead of only 19 and 20).

I know that this is more than you asked for, but I hope that it was helpfull.

[Suicide Girl]

No, thank you very much for going through the trouble of explaining all that. I knew the d20 part of the story but the attack modifier got me stumped. Thanks again, both of you.