How do combat stats work?

[Estradus]

Hey, I've been playing for a while, and this question's been bugging me... So I thought I would finally investigate the forums! But as they appear to have just exploded, the answers are not forthcoming and I'm not sure to what extent I can just make new posts or whatever as an absolute nobody. Of course, just sitting here doing nothing accomplishes nothing so I'm taking a gamble and asking!

So I've been playing for over a year now and I'm still not sure: how does combat... work? I apparently have really high moral and decent stats, but when I attack in combat I get like, 1d50+ -7. How do I get modifiers that aren't negative? What factors into combat capability? What means can I utilize to be a more capable combatant beyond getting the shiniest weapons I can and spamming medkits?

[sb2]

I'm pretty sure that...

• Morale just effects critical hits,
• Dexterity increases your accuracy (larger bonus to the attack roll), although it also depends on who you're fighting (higher level and possibly higher dex opponents will be harder to hit and find it easier to hit you),
• And Strength increases your damage.

[soul4hdwn]

Level difference is one of the factors of acc. Mostly dex though of both player and foe.

[Blue Bishop]

Charisma affects the likelihood of your pets attacking.
Intelligence affects the efficacy of things like first aid.

[Estradus]

Aha, that all seems fairly helpful- I'll have to look into boosting my dexterity then; once you get access to the power and mayhem feats after finishing the hospital quest, damage is hardly an issue. Also: no wonder my pet is so useless, I usually never get around to putting anything into charisma. Thanks for the help, guys.

[TigerStripes]

Secrets from the combat guy:

Strength increases your damage (at +1 / 2 pts).
Dexterity increases your likelihood to hit, dodge and escape (+1 / pt).
Stamina increases your max health ( +1 each level / 2 pts) with each new level gained.
Intelligence boosts medkits (+1 / 2 pts) as well as escaping (+1 / pt).
Perception increases your max morale (+1 / pt) and hunting/scavenging (+1 / 2 pts).
Charisma increases your max morale (+1 / pt), several social interactions and pet/child likelihood to attack (~+3% / pt - capped).
Level gives you +2 to hit/dodge per level above that of the monster, though if you're under the monster's level, it has the same advantage over you.
Morale increases your chance to critical hit (0.5% / pt) when positive.
Weapons have sizes that may make them less effective if you're too big or too small to wield them with ease, resulting in small combat penalties (-1 to hit / size difference if gap is 2 or more). A few items also have to hit bonuses/penalties.
Armour items for the three armoured areas (head/body/shield) stack according to a complex formula and increase their overall effectiveness the more you're defended.
Your active companion (pet) gains xp from combat victory. As they do, they gain levels, dexterity (every 5th level) and damage (every 3rd level), all boosting their effectiveness in combat as above.