This came up in a conversation today, and I honestly don't think I've ever known the "right" answer to this question. I'm not too interested in the specifics, just a general idea of what I should prioritize.

For as long as I've MUD'ed, I've assumed damage works something like this....

Weapon rolls for the base damage (which most of us just go by the general average of a weapon), then damroll is added as a pure bonus to whatever you just did. Then somewhere in there, enhanced damage is applied to either increase the base weapon ability, or after the damroll is applied to increase the final damage.

Now the problem is...I've never really known which is more important for me to pay attention to. Most every other stat is a pretty simple "I want more of X". More HP, Mana, Saves, etc, and you're just playing a balancing game of WHICH stat you feel is more important. This one, I know I want to hit harder, but I don't know the best way of going about it.

So...the short version is...if I'm comparing weapons, do I want to get my higher average, or do I want my higher damroll?

1. Check to see if you actually hit
2. Roll the dice for the damage of your weapon (8d6 = avg 28)
3. Scale the damage based on your knowledge of the weapon
4. Scale the damage based on your level vs. level of the weapon
5. Scale the damage based on enhanced damage
6. Add damroll to the damage
7. Do damage

There are other things that can happen in there based on other skills, legacies, edges, etc. That is really it at a high level.