magic fights

[aynama]

hey,
just a bit silly question perhaps

offensive magic that a mage zaps at the player character, successfully,
what are the stats that protect against this attack?
perhaps, DEX is useful, for it helps to improve Defence?
or is there something more complicated involved?

[sehnsucht]

only resistances can protect you.

[aynama]

alrighty
thank you

[Doctornull]

It would be neat if Defense could protect you, but it doesn't.

[0player]

It is hard to evade the instant magic homing bolt. Or the FIRE EVERYWHERE (any other aoe spells). Or the magic exploding gem from the sky.

[Doctornull]

It is hard to evade the instant magic homing bolt. Or the FIRE EVERYWHERE (any other aoe spells). Or the magic exploding gem from the sky.

It'd be a neat way to distinguish bolts & beams from AoE spells.

AoE: you better have the right resistance, buddy. They'd have lower overall damage, but no way to avoid the damage. Never crits, or crits are less effective.

Beam: can be dodged; mid-range damage, can crit.

Bolt: can be dodged; highest damage, can crit, does extra nasty stuff on crit.

---

Obviously that won't make it into the game any time soon, but it would be cool.

[Infinitum]

I agree that having a somewhat elaborate system to simulate physical combat (attack, evade, armor, AP etc) only to have a major part of the game completely ignore it is disingenious and arbitrary. Then again, the logical reasoning behind the D&D school of high magic tend to fall apart if given more than a cursory glance so its probably best not to think too hard about it.

Still, coming up with a system that includes both whacking things with sharp implements and changing the very fabric of reality to bear upon your foes would be welcome (albeit not really feasible what with the game being built around what we currently have). DG?

[Doctornull]

I agree that having a somewhat elaborate system to simulate physical combat (attack, evade, armor, AP etc) only to have a major part of the game completely ignore it is disingenious and arbitrary.

The "physical" side of the game does interact with magic, somewhat. Like your Bulwark can use the right kind of shield to Block magic spells, for example, or your Archer can use the new tree to shoot down a Fireflash projectile and cause it to detonate prematurely right next to the caster -- this has happened to my caster, and it was hilarious even if it did force me to temporarily retreat.

So allowing a Defense-based character to avoid some of the effects of a spell is not unprecedented, since a Block-based character can do just that. It would just require tuning the mechanics so all the spells worked in a balanced way.

[EatThisShoe]

There really are a lot of interactions with spells, it's just that many of them are limited to projectiles, or persistent AEs like inferno. And mostly anything that works on beams is passive and luck based misdirection skills. It might be nice to see fewer skills which ignore everything, and instead have say some 1000%+ projectile speed penetrating projectiles, something that might function the same as a beam but be impacted by projectile slows and speed bonuses. Or maybe some AEs like Boil Blood could expand outward like Tidal Wave only at a much faster rate.

That said consider also that you can reduce damage through debuffs, stuns and dazes for example effect spell damage. Also wards and torques can absorb elemental damage. Also I think spell save helps prevent being spellshocked which debuffs your resists.

[Sradac]

saves / immunities can help with "extra" effects like being frozen, pinned, stunned, dazed, etc. Just depends on the spell and what it does.