"Divine" Powers

[Ossa]

I'm sure this question has been asked before, and I apologise in respect of that, but it's been quite a while since I played and I'm not sure if this has changed, so I feel obliged to ask to confirm that my build won't be trash.

Exactly how is it that abilities like Charge Weapon and Smite Evil interact with stats? All I've been able to find on them tells me that it's only Spellpower that they care about. But take Smite Evil, for instance. Does it perform a standard weapon attack - thus, Strength - in addition to the spell itself, or...?

That sort of thing is what I'm getting at. Mechanically, how exactly do these powers work?

 

[WolframL]

Yeah, you've got the right idea. When the description talks about bonus damage (as both of those do) what it means is that the damage from your attack is calculated normally and then some amount of extra damage (with the Holy elemental tag in these cases) is added to determine how much you actually hit for.

 

[Ossa]

Thank you for the input. It's good to be certain of it, because otherwise there's not a lot of point in increasing Strength for my character. That's a real build changer.

 

[Malpha]

STR also increases ranged and magical normal attacks as well, so it's not completely useless for a mage or support character.

 

[Ossa]

Well, it's probably obvious, but the sort of character build I'm going for is a Spellblade/Paladin type. Spiral Blade, heavy armour mixed with a bit of light. Attack, Charged Weapon, White Fire, Fireball, Smite Evil. So, he'd be using a sword - albeit a spellcasting one - as opposed to a 'magical' normal attack.