New to DD. How to calculate damage

[directorguy7]

Seeing damage expressed as, for example "1d10 (1d8 + 1)" How exactly should I interpret this with regards to a dice roll? 1 dice with 1 through 10? How does it relate to a weapon that as a 4-10 damage stat?

Is it possible to encounter enemies who dice is a d20, who would then have way better chance of getting above my roll?

[I gurgle for Nurgle]

Damage is weapon/spell die + wepon bonus + attribute bonus (attribute bonus calcualted as (attribute value - 10)/2).
A character with a +1 longswod and 16 str will deal 1-10 (1-8 if holding it in one hand) + 1 + (16-10)/2 = 5-14 damage.

[Drake]

Note that for multiple dice rolling there is a bell curve (because that's how dice work). So a greatsword doing 2d6 will very rarely hit 2 or 12, you're more about 4-10 than 2-12. And a fireball doing 8d6 will pretty much never go into the 40-48 range (it's one chance over ten thousands), so your effective damage with it caps at 39.

[directorguy7]

Originally posted by I gurgle for Nurgle:

Damage is weapon/spell die + wepon bonus + attribute bonus (attribute bonus calcualted as (attribute value - 10)/2).
A character with a +1 longswod and 16 str will deal 1-10 (1-8 if holding it in one hand) + 1 + (16-10)/2 = 5-14 damage.

Thanks for the help!

It does look like when I equip weapons the damage number is calculated through to give a final result? So the weapon die doesn't affect rather or not I flat out miss, and more a part of the damage calculation? What determines a miss vs hit. I am finding I am missing quite a lot. I have Karmic turned OFF as from what I am reading that will swing BOTH ways (you win too many times it will start making you lose some.)

Sorry for dumb questions, have plenty of RPG experience, but this is totally new to me.

[Drake]

An attack is divided into 2 parts, an attack roll, and a damage roll.
The attack is 1d20+bonus (your str or dex bonus + the weapon magic bonus if applicable + your class attack bonuses + buffs). If the roll is greater or equal than the enemy's armour, it's a hit.
If it's a hit you roll your weapon damage.

Foe spells it's pretty much the same. If it's an attack spell, above applies, if it's not, instead it's the enemy that rolls a save (defence, depending on the spell it can be a dex, wis or constitution roll) roll against you spell DC (which is usually 10+ class level/2 + your class stat, like int for wizards). If they miss, they take the damage.