How do weapon enchantments work?

[Anonymous161]

Say I have a +5 broad axe, which has a base of -2 hit and 13 damage. Does the +5 make it 3 hit and 18 damage?

[Siegurt]

Say I have a +5 broad axe, which has a base of -2 hit and 13 damage. Does the +5 make it 3 hit and 18 damage?

The weapon enchanment for damage is added on at the end, so your stats and skills increase the 13 by a percentage, then the 5 is tacked on to that.

To hit is similarly effected by skills first, then had the enchantment tacked on at the end.

The usual rule of thumb is that base damage is worth 50% more for one handed weapons, and 100% more for two handed weapons than weapon enchantment is. (That isnt exactly correct, but it is close enough.)

[ololoev]

This wiki page is quite correct in tems of melee weapon damage if you remember that STR_WEIGHT is gone in recent versions.
To clarify this calculations, you have to multiply base damage by k = (1 + 0.026 * (Str - 11)) * (1 + 0.02 * weapon_skill) * (1 + 0.016 * fighting_skill) and then add slaying bonus. The result will describe weapon damaging capabilities.
For character with 20 Str, 15 Weapon skill and 15 fighting k = 1.9 and this means that base damage is 1.9 times better than slaying.
For 30 Str 20 Wep 20 Fight char you have k = 2.75.
Bear in mind that with accuracy matters too, especially with low skill. If you have significant buff in terms of damage, you should always lean toward damaging weapon, but if you have to compare 2 weapons with close damage capabilities, you'd better get one with better accuracy.