I am somewhat new to D&D 5e and had a question about attack bonuses of the pre-gen characters in the Starter Set. I was under the impression that attack bonus for a sword is strength bonus plus proficiency bonus (if the character is proficient with that weapon) and for something like a crossbow it would be dexterity bonus plus proficiency bonus.
What I am struggling with are the attack bonuses listed for the pre-gen characters. They don't seem to make sense all of the time.
For instance, the wizard has a +4 attack bonus for the shortsword even though their strength bonus is +0. Should it not be only +2 for proficiency (they are proficient in short sword)?
Or take one of the fighter's longbow bonus. They have +3 dexterity and +2 proficiency bonus, yet their attack bonus is listed as +7.
I feel like there is a simple explanation. What is it?