both your experience level and your weapon level (if it's a piercing/slicing weapon, then your p/s level... or ranged, or s/s) have to be at least the minimum required for the weapon.  if one or both of these don't meet, than you will do very little damage.
--jason

also, what is "Damage scatter" on wepons??

all weapons have "max damage" and "scatter".  obviously, max is the most you can do to damage a person, but scatter tells you how much below that max is possible.  i.e. max 12, scatter 4 means you can hit anywhere from 8-12.  of course, there are monster weaknesses and strengths, and there are strength bonuses and other things for you.  so it would be very common to be above or below that 8-12 that the weapon alone does.  hope that answers your question.
--jason

hi

I am lvl 25 with a 23 lvl ranged weapon and i am using a star slinger (lvl 21)  yet i cannot make a measurable wound on my opponents - even the ones that are weak to ranged weapons - what am i doing wrong please?

It is quite possible that the monsters you are fighting on lvl 25 (lvl 29 monsters or so) would not be hurt by a lvl 21 star slinger. It is also possible that the monsters you are trying to kill are magical and your weapon is not. lastly, if you have a large amount of paralysis, it can lower your dex rating to the point where it can't "support" your lvl of weapons any more.
malikar

I have a similar problem.

I'm lvl 25, P/S level 26.

Currently trying to get through mission 37.
When attacking (say) a necromancer master (lvl 28, wounded by P/S, not magical) this happens:

- with a lava sword (lvl 24) I make him about 100 damage
- with a wendir sword (lvl 25) I make him about 75 damage!

All other parameters are the same.

Might be that when you are using a weapong for the first time (as my new wendir sword) it doesnÄt inflict so much damage as later?
thx 4 answering

i've heard (though i'm not sure how accurate the source was, since it was a long time ago) that it does take a few tries with a new weapon before you can use it to its proper potential.  so the first few times you use it may in fact give less damage than expected.
--jason

Is it usual for your weapons to 

always

 cause less than even the minimum amount of damage, even with sufficient skill levels, attribute points distributed according to the formulae, no calamities and the monster is susceptible ?

dominie, if you mean you do less damage than (max dmg - scatter), then yes, that is normal.  monsters basically have armour like we do.  so even though you'll hit for a certain amount, not all will damage them because of their armour.
--jason