Turbine Games Q&A/Combat/Q-41

Original Link (now dead) - http://www.turbinegames.com/qa/view_questions.html?id=7520

So what are our base protections from war magic?

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Asked:	2001.04.12
Name:	Mordechai
Question Title:	So what are our base protections from war magic?
Category:	Combat
Question:	In a previous post you gave us our "natural" armor value of 0 and the varying resistances: http://www.turbinegames.com/qa/view_question.html?id=3741 Then in a follow up you told us that there are 2 sets of stats. One that protects us physically, and one that protects us from war magic: http://www.turbinegames.com/qa/view_question.html?id=7060 So what is this "separate set of values that DO protect you from war spells, as well as from physical attacks"? And why is it separated from "natural" armor??? The way in which I've been looking at life magic (armor and prots) is starting to become extremely muddled, and I'm hoping you'll provide an answer to the above question that will clarify a bit more and try to make a connection between the 2 posts I've referenced. Thanks!!!

Answered:	2001.05.07
Name:	Eric
Answer:	Okay. First I'll clarify, then I'll merge the two answers you referred to. Every player and monster has an armor level on each part of their body. The armor level for each body part is: your natural armor (which is zero for humans, but non-zero for monsters) plus/minus any "armor" or "imperil" spells you have on, plus whatever physical armor you are wearing at that spot. (Your physical armor value is modified by the armor's attribute for the given attack type. For instance, if your armor has Unparalleled protection from cold, your armor's AL is effectively doubled when you receive a cold attack. But if your armor has Poor protection from cold, the armor level is effectively reduced to 1/5th or so against cold attacks.) Armor protects against all types of physical attacks, but it does not protect against any magic spells. (Magic spells do not have a "hit location"; they bypass your armor entirely.) Players (and monsters) also have a set of "Resistances". These are what the Life Magic buff spells like Fire Protection alter. These resistances aren't body-part-specific; there is one number for each kind of damage (slashing, electrical, etc.) for all of your body. These Resistances are multipliers for all types of damage, magical or not. Note that "Resistance" is a little misleading, because these values can also be negative. (Positive Resistances reduce the damage you take, while negative Resistances increase the damage you take.) The various life-magic debuffs (except for Imperil) lower these Resistance values. (Imperil lowers your armor level.) That's why those life magic debuffs help both meleers and mages. (That's also why Imperil doesn't help mages, since mages don't care about armor level.) One reason we use this system is to easily model monster weaknesses. Say we want Flammas to be weak vs. cold. So we give the Flamma a negative cold Resistance. Now any kind of cold attack (magic spell or melee strike) will do extra damage to it. It also adds another variable to damage rolls. This lets armor buffs "stack" with life magic elemental buffs, since one affects your Armor and the other affects your Resistances. Now, the confusion probably comes from the first answer you referenced. The values Stormwaltz gave are *NOT* your default "Resistances". A human's default Resistances are all "1", neither a bonus nor a weakness. The values Stormwaltz gave are your skin's Natural Armor defense modifiers. If you had no gloves on, but you had Armor 4 cast on you, your hands would have an effective armor of 100 (from the Armor spell). Your hands would also have the armor attributes Stormwaltz mentioned; for instance, they would have Average protection from acid melee attacks. The attributes that Stormwaltz gave are directly related to the elemental attributes on a piece of armor. They are the "armor quality" of your skin. So casting Bludgeon Protection does NOT change the damage modifiers that Stormwaltz referenced. Instead, it improves your Resistance for bludgeoning. (This is more useful, since Resistances protect from both magic and melee.) Also, see http://www.turbinegames.com/qa/view_question.html?id=1032 for reasons why armor doesn't protect against magic. (Short answer: it would imbalance the game.)