Do bonuses to damage rolls apply to each attack in a round?

Question

In D&D 4e, if you don't move, you can attack twice per turn. My question is pretty simple: if I attack twice, do I add my bonus twice (which seems logical, since it's two separate attacks), or just once.

Example: my rogue attacking with a rapier deals 1d8 + 4 damage. Is that +4 added to my second attack? So can she make two separate attacks, 1d8 + 4 and 1d8 + 4?

Also, that bonus is added only once if an attack is, for example, asking me for 2[w]? In this case, I would roll 1d8 twice, and then add +4 just once?

Help is much appreciated, as our group has been fighting over that for ages.

Answer 1

You cannot (usually) attack twice in one turn in D&D 4e.

On your turn you have 3 actions, a Standard, Move, and a Minor. Generally your Standard is your attack, your Move generally involves moving, and your Minor is something like Cursing your enemies. You can downgrade actions from a Standard to a Move or a Minor, and a Move to a Minor, but you cannot go the other way (making a Move a Standard).

There are some attacks like the Ranger's Twin Strike that allow you to make 2 different attacks as part of the same Standard action. In this case you will apply your bonus to damage on each hit (Twin Strike doesn't get your Str or Dex bonus to damage, but it gets any others like feat bonuses).

It is also possible to have a Minor action attack such as the Rogue's Low Slash, in this case it is an entirely separate attack, so you apply all appropriate bonuses to each attack. This works the same as if you used an Action Point to gain an additional Standard Action for the turn.

For attacks the deal 2[w] damage the [w] just means your weapon damage (in the case of the rapier 1d8), you would then add whatever bonuses are appropriate once, only the rolled weapon damage is multiplied.