How do magical immunities work?
Alonso
Member Posts: 806
I want to understand how magical immunities work, there are so many cases in which I don't know what to expect. Two examples:
I attack a rakshasa with a wand of frost. The combat log says "Maharajah: spell ineffective". The description of the wand says "Charge abilities: Cone of cold". AFAIK rakshasas are immune to spells up to level 7, so they must be immune to the spell Cone of Cold. However, the game doesn't say this is a spell, it says it's an ability, so it looks like the rakshasa shouldn't be immune to it.
I attack a golem with the flail of the ages and the golem gets slowed. Golems are immune to magic, so why are they vulnerable to the slow effect? Isn't it a magic effect?
I attack a rakshasa with a wand of frost. The combat log says "Maharajah: spell ineffective". The description of the wand says "Charge abilities: Cone of cold". AFAIK rakshasas are immune to spells up to level 7, so they must be immune to the spell Cone of Cold. However, the game doesn't say this is a spell, it says it's an ability, so it looks like the rakshasa shouldn't be immune to it.
I attack a golem with the flail of the ages and the golem gets slowed. Golems are immune to magic, so why are they vulnerable to the slow effect? Isn't it a magic effect?
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Comments
Magic resistance works differently. All effects are coded as either "Nonmagical," "Dispel/Bypass Resistance," or "Dispel/Not Bypass Resistance" (there's also a "Not Dispel/Not Bypass Resistance that's actually identical to "Nonmagical"). Nonmagical effects bypass magic resistance and cannot be dispelled; positive spell effects like a Bless spell generally ignore magic resistance but can be dispelled; negative spell effects generally don't bypass magic resistance and can be dispelled. Having 100% magic resistance only protects you from "Dispel/Not Bypass Resistance."
Golems have 100% magic resistance but no spell level immunities; rakshasas have a ring that grants immunity to level 1-7 spell effects but have no MR. A Wand of Frost will affect neither of them, but for different reasons: it's a level 5 spell that doesn't bypass MR (just like the Cone of Cold spell), so it won't get past a golem's MR or a rakshasa's spell level immunities. All unmodded wands except for certain effects of the Wand of Wonder strike as ordinary spells and can be blocked by either MR or the right spell level immunities.
The Flail of Ages' on-hit effects, like the on-hit effects of many weapons, are nonmagical level 0 effects. Thus, they will bypass both MR and spell level immunities. Not all weapons are like this; Ashideena/Borok's Fist will deal magical level 0 electric damage that won't bypass MR but will bypass spell level immunities, and the level drain and disintegrate effects from Black Blade of Disaster are nonmagical level 9 effects that will bypass MR but not the right spell protections like Spell Turning/Deflection/Trap or a demilich's spell level immunities. The Firetooth crossbow's fire damage does not bypass MR, but its ability to break through spell protections and spell level immunities depends on the game version: in the vanilla game, it's a level 6 effect, but in the most recent EE update, it's a level 0 effect.
It's highly variable whether a given item or a given spell or a given trap bypasses MR or what spell level it strikes as. Usually, weapons inflict level 0 nonmagical effects on hit; wands and offensive spells are level 1-9 dispellable effects that don't bypass MR; defensive spells are level 1-9 undispellable effects that do bypass MR; and psionics and fear auras are level 0 nonmagical effects. But, those rules don't always hold. For supernatural abilities like Death Gaze, Mimic Acid, or a vampire's Domination, and also for traps, there's not a consistent rule.
It could be like Conjuration spells from later editions, which bypassed magic resistance. The logic was that the object or the impact was created by magic, but is itself nonmagical in nature--if you summon a cow to fall on your opponent, the target's MR isn't going to stop the cow from hitting them.