Defense, or Armor, is a unit property indicated by a row of Shield icons in the unit statistics window. It signifies the unit's ability to block or reduce incoming Conventional Damage, such as caused by most Melee Attacks, Ranged Attacks, and a variety of offensive spells. Each point of Defense has a base chance of 30% to block a point of the incoming raw damage, although a few effects may increase or reduce this chance.
Concept[]
A unit's Defense score indicates its ability to block, dodge or otherwise avert incoming damage. Both armor and agility are factored into this score, so both nimble and well-armored targets may have a high Defense score. Naturally, in a world filled with magic, enchantments and Magical Items can also further enhance one's ability to defend themselves.
Conventional Damage[]
- Main article: Conventional Damage
Conventional Damage is the most common Damage Type in the game, and is dealt by Melee Attacks, Ranged Attacks, and direct damage spells like Ice Bolt or Fire Bolt. Other sources include Thrown Attacks, Breath Attacks, and occasionally a few others.
Conventional Damage is distinguishable from other types of damage because it forces the attacker to make an Attack Roll in order to determine the accuracy of the attack. This is done using a number of 10-sided dice equal to the Attack Strength. Each successful roll registers one "hit" on the target, and will potentially cause 1 point of damage if it goes unblocked.
Fortunately, Conventional Damage also allows the defender to make a Defense Roll, in an attempt to block, dodge or otherwise avert any successful hits from the attacker. This is also done using 10-sided dice, this time equal to the Defense score. However, each successful roll made by the defender will avert only 1 point of damage, so a unit requires a high Defense score to completely block any powerful or particularly-successful attack.
Defense Rolls[]
- Main article: Defense Roll
As noted above, each Shield allows the target unit to make a single roll which - if successful - will avert 1 point of damage to the unit. Therefore, a unit with 10 may use 10 separate dice - potentially averting up to 10. However, due to the random nature of these rolls, it is more likely that the unit will block somewhere between 0 and 10.
A unit's chance of success with each die is called the chance "To Block". By default, it is exactly 30%, and only a scant few effects can alter it. For each die, the program randomizes a number between 1 and 10. If it comes up equal to or higher than 8, the roll is considered "successful" and will block 1. If the roll comes up lower than 8, that particular roll is failed and will not block damage.
Example[]
- During a Physical Damage attack, the attacker registers 10 successful hits, or "raw" damage on some target. If no Defense Roll was allowed, that target would suffer exactly 10. Assuming that no special conditions apply however, the normal rules of Conventional Damage allow the target unit to make a Defense Roll. This particular target possesses a Defense score of 10, and has no modifiers to its Block chance.
- The target therefore rolls 10 random numbers, each between 1 and 10. Any roll that comes up 8 or higher will negate exactly one hit. If, for example, three rolls are successful, then the number of incoming hits is reduced by 3. Therefore, the target will only suffer 10 - 3 = 7 points of damage.
- If all 10 rolls are successful, the target unit suffers no damage - having averted all hits! Conversely, if all 10 rolls fail, the target will suffer all 10 hits, translated into 10 points of damage, the exact same result as if the Defense Roll was not made at all.
Multi-Figure Unit Defense[]
A Multi-Figure unit may be able to make more Defense Rolls against a single attack. This occurs only when one of the figures in the unit is killed off during an attack - allowing the next figure to step up and make a whole new series of rolls.
The process goes as follows:
- The attacker makes the Attack Roll to determine its accuracy, resulting in a number of hits registered against the target unit, also called "raw", or unmitigated damage.
- The first figure in the target unit makes a Defense Roll using an amount of dice equal to the number of Shields possessed by the unit.
- Any damage that has not been averted will hurt this specific figure.
- If sufficient damage has been caused to this figure, it will die. The next figure then becomes the first one, and can try to avert the remainder of the damage.
- This new first figure now makes a new Defense Roll, again using an amount of dice equal to the number of Shields possessed by the unit.
- Any damage that has not been averted will now hurt this specific figure.
- And so on and so on, until all remaining damage has either been applied or averted.
In short: with each figure it loses, the unit can make more and more Defense Rolls, repeatedly reducing the incoming damage.
The common result of this process is that Multi-Figure units are significantly more durable than their Defense score might indicate. They can be quite hard to kill using a single, powerful attack - often requiring several attacks to destroy the entire unit. This gives them great survivability comparable to heavily-armored Single-Figure units. Of course, the caveat is that with each figure the unit loses, it also becomes much weaker offensively. This means that while the unit is more survivable, just a few lost figures can make it ineffective. It might survive overall, but will no longer contribute as much to the battle.
Confusingly, the game uses two different mechanics to determine when the first figure has taken "enough damage" to be slain for the purpose of proceeding with the next Defense Roll. Unit attacks, such as Melee- or Ranged Attacks, are always considered to be directed at a healthy figure, meaning that the second figure's roll can commence only after a figure's full Hit Points' worth of damage has been recorded by the unit. This is true even if the unit no longer has such a figure.
On the other hand, Spell Damage allows for a second Defense Roll as soon as the unit has taken enough damage to destroy the actual "top figure", whose current Hit Points and damage are visible in the unit statistics window. This makes direct damage spells somewhat less effective against Multi-Figure Units with an injured "top figure", especially if the target unit has a high Defense score.
In any case though, the rules converge after the second roll, so a third or any subsequent Defense Rolls will always happen after recording an amount of damage equal to the defending unit's Hits per figure value - the maximum Hit Points of a single figure. It's worth noting though, that these mechanics remain in place even if a unit gets destroyed in the process. In fact, they even extend to Single-Figure Units. They also get to make further Defense Rolls against excessive amounts of damage the exact same way, even if they are technically already slain by that point. However, this fact can only ever become relevant for units that have recorded Irreversible- or "Create Undead" Damage Points, as it may alter the resolution of their effects. In all other scenarios, "overkill" damage will have no practical effect.
Example[]
- A High Men Cavalry unit is being attacked. Lets assume that this unit is undamaged, meaning that it still has all 4 figures present. Each figure in this unit has 3 Hit Points. The unit's Defense score is 2.
- The attacker gets 7 successes on the Attack Roll, scoring a total of 7 hits. Potentially, this should cause 7 to the High Men Cavalry, killing two of the Cavalrymen and slightly injuring another one.
- The "lead" figure in the High Men Cavalry unit makes its Defense Roll. Since the unit has a Defense score of 2, this cavalryman may roll 2 separate dice. Each roll has a 30% chance to avert one hit.
- The cavalryman rolls two numbers: 9 and 2. Only one of these rolls is higher than or equal to 8, so we can say that the cavalryman achieved one success on its Defense Roll. This means that the number of inflicted hits is reduced to 7 - 1 = 6.
- Since the poor cavalryman only has 3, 3 Damage points are inflicted on him, killing him on the spot. The next cavalryman then steps up, ready to absorb the remaining 3.
- This next cavalryman then gets to roll 2 Defense dice of his own! He rolls better than the previous man: 8 and 10. Both of these rolls are equal to or higher than 8, so he can be said to have made two successes on his Defense Roll, blocking exactly 2 of the remaining Damage Points. This leaves 1 Damage unblocked, which is now inflicted on this cavalryman.
- Therefore, despite having a Defense score of only 2, the unit has rolled a total of 4 Defense dice. 2 were used by the first cavalryman, who failed to protect himself and died valiantly. The second cavalryman then got a fresh chance, using an additional 2 Defense dice and saving himself. Had this cavalryman also been killed, the next one would also have been able to use 2 Defense dice.
- As a result of this mechanism, Multi-Figure units are often considered to be significantly more resilient than Single-Figure units. The more figures are present, the more damage can potentially be blocked from any attack, thus increasing the number of attacks required to destroy the whole unit.
- On the other hand, each Cavalryman the unit loses will reduce its offensive strength by 25%. Therefore, although the High Men Cavalry unit survived this powerful attack relatively intact, it did lose 1 figure and with it a significant chunk of the unit's combat effectiveness.
Block Chance Modifiers[]
As noted previously, there are only a few effects in the game that can alter a unit's chance To Block. The first one of these is the Lucky ability. This is one of the racial traits of Halfling units, and is also a Random Ability for Heroes. It improves all rolls of a unit by +1, or +10%, with the exception of Attack Rolls made for Spell Damage. That is, it grants +1 To Hit, +1 Resistance, and +1 To Block.
A similar effect is available in combat through the Prayer spell, that also improves all rolls by +1. This Combat Enchantment affects all friendly units. It also has a more powerful version called High Prayer. However, while this latter spell also gives other benefits, the roll improvements from the two are not cumulative. On the other hand, they do stack with Lucky, which results in the highest possible block chance per die in the game: 50%.
There is also one way to reduce the chance To Block. This is only a conditional modifier however, and applies only during the resolution of certain attacks. Its source is the Eldritch Weapon Unit Enchantment, which can only be cast on Normal Units and Heroes. Whenever the enchanted unit makes an attack that the game considers to be a "weapon attack", the effect is triggered, and the target temporarily loses 10%, cumulative with any other modifiers. The only Attack Types this works with are Melee- and Counter Attacks, Thrown Attacks, and Ranged Missile Attacks. Nothing else will activate the effect, and the penalty is strictly only present while resolving the attack that triggered it.
Invulnerability[]
Invulnerability, and its Item Power version provide an effect that, while does not increase Defense directly, provides analogous damage reduction nonetheless. This effect is triggered every time the unit is allowed to make a Defense Roll. Regardless of the outcome of the roll, the enchantment reduces the incoming damage by an additional 2. Although it doesn't work against Doom Damage since no Defense Roll is possible there, the effect does trigger if the unit's Defense is otherwise reduced to 0. During Multi-Figure Defense, it also activates with every Defense Roll, not just the first one, making it one of the most potent defensive enchantments in the game.
Anti-Armor Damage Types[]
Some attacks have an easier time getting through a target's Defense. That is, they possess a Damage Type, or modifier, that changes the resolution of Defense. There are three such Damage Types in the game, although one of these (Doom Damage) also alters the "Attack" stage of Conventional Damage mechanics, and is significantly different than the other two. Illusion Damage and Armor Piercing Damage simply reduce or eliminate the target's Defense score temporarily, just long enough for the attack to get through and severely hurt the target.
Illusion Damage[]
- Main article: Illusion Damage
Illusion Damage can be added to a Conventional Damage attack in one of two ways: Either the attacker has to possess the Illusion ability, or it must be a Hero holding a Magical Weapon imbued with the Phantasmal Item Power. The result is the same in both cases. In addition, the Psionic Blast spell deals this type of damage by default.
Illusion: 0 Sources: Illusion ability: Phantasmal Item Power (6 - 1,500 - Axe, Mace, Sword, Bow, Staff, Wand) Psionic Blast
When an attack delivers Illusion Damage, it reduces the target's Defense to 0. As a result, even the most heavily-armored targets (i.e. targets with very high Defense) are helpless against this kind of attack, and will suffer as much damage as the attack manages to deliver successfully (based on the Attack Roll made by the attacker).
This effect can only be averted if the target possesses Illusions Immunity. This ability negates the effect of the Illusion Damage Type, meaning that the target is allowed to use its normal Defense score to avert the incoming damage.
Illusions Immunity: normal Sources: Illusions Immunity ability:
Undead units (from the Unofficial Patch 1.50 onwards)Black Channels (Unommon Death Unit Enchantment - R 500 - C 100 - U 1) True Sight (Uncommon Life Unit Enchantment - R 300 - C 100 (20) - U 2) True Sight Item Power (6 - 500 - Jewelry only) Works against: Illusion Damage attacks (all)
Armor Piercing Damage[]
- Main article: Armor Piercing Damage
Armor Piercing Damage is sometimes also called "Lightning Damage", because most lightning-based effects deliver it (particularly the Lightning Bolt spell), but many units also possess the Armor Piercing ability which does the same thing. That is, it temporarily halves the target's Defense, allowing the damage to get through more easily. In other words, the target may only use half as many dice for its Defense Roll as it normally would.
Armor Piercing: halved Sources: Armor Piercing ability: Lightning Breath ability: Lightning Item Power (5 - 800 - Axe, Mace, Sword, Bow, Staff, Wand) Lightning Bolt, Warp Lightning, Magic Vortex (adjacent unit Damage)
Chaos Rift, Call Lightning
There is no unit ability, save for an immunity to another type of the damage being dealt, that will negate the effect of Armor Piercing Damage. Given that it cuts the target's Defense by exactly 50% (rounded down), it can be seen as more effective against heavily-armored targets than it is against lightly-armored units.
Doom Damage[]
- Main article: Doom Damage
Doom Damage alters the resolution of Conventional Damage to a greater extent than most other Damage Types. It completely removes the Attack- and Defense Rolls from the process. Instead, Attack Strength is translated directly into raw damage (all dice succeed automatically), and no reduction is possible. However, "nullifying immunities" still work, meaning that if the attack deals Spell Damage, it is still blocked entirely by Magic Immunity and Righteousness. Other than this however, nothing else can avert this damage.
Doom: Automatic / None Sources: Doom Gaze ability: Chaos Item Power (6 - 2,000 - Axe, Mace, Sword, Bow, Staff)
(Attack Strength is halved)Doom Bolt, Magic Vortex (same tile Damage), Call the Void
Doom Bolt Spell ability:Black Sleep (Common Death Unit Curse - R 100 - C 15)
(modifies all Conventional Damage attacks made against the affected unit)
Area Damage[]
- Main article: Area Damage
Area Damage is another Conventional Damage type that significantly modifies the resolution mechanics. It is delivered by a variety of spells and effects, most of which are available only to Chaos Wizards. Its name stems from the fact that instead of executing a single attack against a target unit, it performs as many as there are figures in that unit. Each one gets its own Attack Roll, and must be defended against separately, with each figure making its own Defense Roll, using as many dice as the unit's Defense.
However, Area Damage has one serious limitation. It can ultimately only deal as much damage to each figure as they have actual Hit Points. That is, each "sub-attack" is targeted at a specific figure, and any damage above their current Hit Points is discarded instead of carrying on to hurt other figures. This means that in the outline above, the process always ends step #4, recording only the damage done up to that point. Naturally then, the worst case scenario is the figure dying, which yields damage equal to its Hit Points. If the unit already has a damaged figure, its current Hit Point total will be used, not the maximum.
Once each separate attack is evaluated, the game tallies up all of the unblocked hits to all figures in the unit, translates these hits into damage, and applies the damage to the unit as a whole - killing figures one by one in order. Because of this, the same amount of final damage will always have the same result, regardless of how the points were originally distributed among the figures.
Area: & separate for each figure Sources: Immolation ability: Immolation (Uncommon Chaos Unit Enchantment - R 740 - C 150 (30) - U 2) Ice Storm, Fireball, Fire Storm, Flame Strike, Meteor Storm, Wall of Fire
Fireball Spell ability:
Immunities[]
Many units in the game possess abilities known as "Immunities", that are meant to make the unit possessing it much more resilient (or completely invulnerable) to one or more Damage Types or spells. When it comes to Conventional Damage, immunities have two different methods of action: they either negate the damage entirely ("nullifying" immunity), or simply raise the unit's Defense statistic by a large margin ("reductive" immunity). The former group contains only two effects ( Magic Immunity and Righteousness), although both of them are actually also part of the latter group. That is, they nullify the damage if, and only if, it is Spell Damage. For Righteousness, it also has to come from the Chaos or Death Realms.
Reductive immunities instead raise the unit's Defense to 50 when they are triggered. This provides a rather high average damage reduction of 15, assuming there are no modifiers To Block in play. The only exception is Weapon Immunity, which only raises Defense to 10. In either case though, nothing happens if the unit's Defense is already higher than what the immunity could provide; although this is nigh-impossible for the 50 ones.
Immunities also don't stack if more than one would apply. In this case Defense will normally be set to 50. However, the original game contains an unfortunate bug that is expressed in exactly this scenario. If an attack would trigger both Weapon- and Missile Immunity, the weaker effect overrides the other, and the unit will only either get 10, or no increase if it has that much already. Insecticide fixes this problem, but introduces a new one instead, as Weapon Immunity will now grant 50 against any non- Melee attacks that trigger it. This bug is ultimately corrected in v1.51.
The following tables summarize each Defense-based immunity, including the Defense they give a unit when triggered, and the attacks that they work against.
Weapon Immunity: 10 Sources: Weapon Immunity ability: Invulnerability (Rare Life Unit Enchantment - R 1,040 - C 200 (40) - U 5) Invulnerability Item Power (5 - 1,200 - Chainmail, Platemail, Shield, Jewelry) Wraith Form (Rare Death Unit Enchantment - R 880 - C 150 (30) - U 3) Wraithform Item Power (4 - 1,200 - Chainmail, Platemail, Shield, Jewelry) Works against: Melee-, Ranged Missile-, Ranged Boulder- and, from v1.40 onwards,
Thrown Attacks made by Normal Units with Normal Weapons
Missile Immunity: 50 Sources: Missile Immunity ability:
Guardian Wind (Common Sorcery Unit Enchantment - R 80 - C 50 (10) - U 2) Guardian Wind Item Power (3 - 400 -
Staff, Wand, Chainmail, Platemail, Shield, Jewelry)Works against: Ranged Missile Attacks (all)
Cold Immunity: 50 Sources: Cold Immunity ability:
Undead units (from the Unofficial Patch 1.50 onwards)Black Channels (Uncommon Death Unit Enchantment - R 500 - C 100 - U 1) Works against: Ice Bolt, Ice Storm
Fire Immunity: 50 Sources: Fire Immunity ability: Works against: Fire Breath, Immolation Fire Bolt, Fireball, Flame Strike, Wall of Fire, Fire Storm, Meteor Storm
Magic Immunity: 50 Sources: Magic Immunity ability: Magic Immunity (Rare Sorcery Unit Enchantment - R 1,600 - C 250 (50) - U 5) Magic Immunity Item Power (5 - 700 - any Magical Item) Works against: Ranged Magical Attacks (all) Fire Breath, Lightning Breath, Conventional component of Gaze Attacks :
Righteousness: 50 Sources: Righteousness (Rare Life Unit Enchantment - R 1,120 - C 200 (40) - U 2) Works against: / Ranged Magical Attacks:
Fire Breath, Lightning Breath, Conventional component of Death Gaze :
Conditional Defense[]
Damage Types and immunities are not the only mechanics that can alter a unit's Defense in a way that does not work all the time. There are a three more spells and a Unit Ability that exert a similar effect, and are only triggered against certain kinds of attacks.
Large Shields[]
- Main article: Large Shield
The Large Shield ability gives a unit a bonus of +2 Defense when struck by Conventional Damage, but only if that damage is not delivered by a Melee Attack. This gives the unit holding the Large Shield better survivability against such attacks, so long as they deliver Physical Damage. Many Heroes can also get this ability, simply by equipping a Shield of any kind.
Large Shield: +2 Sources: Large Shield ability : Shield type Magical Item (any) Works against: Ranged Missile-, Ranged Magical-, and Ranged Boulder Attacks (all) Thrown, Fire Breath, Lightning Breath,
Conventional component of Gaze Attacks :Conventional Spell Damage (all, including Immolation)
Bless[]
The Bless enchantment protects its target against Conventional Damage associated with the Chaos and Death Realms. This is fairly straightforward for spells and Melee Attacks, as their color is defined by the Realm of the spell or creature making the attack. For other Attack Types however, which Realm they belong to is preset, and does not depend on the attacking unit.
Although Bless would technically work against Conventional Damage delivered by Death spells, this omitted from the table below because there are simply no Death spells in the official game that deal this type of Damage. They all deliver Special Damage, against which Bless grants a Resistance bonus instead.
In addition to the spell and Item Power of the same name, Bless is also available to Heroes that can equip Melee weapons with the Holy Avenger Item Power, which also contains this effect.
Bless: +3 Sources: Bless (Common Life Unit Enchantment - R 20 - C 25 (5) - U 1) Bless Item Power (2 - 200 - Chainmail, Platemail, Shield, Jewelry) Holy Avenger Item Power (3 - 500 - Axe, Mace, Sword) Works against: / Melee Attacks:
Undead and Chaos Channeled units/ Ranged Magical Attacks:
Fire Breath, Lightning Breath, Conventional component of Death Gaze : Chaos Spell Damage (except Doom Damage)
Elemental Protection[]
The Nature Realm has two Unit Enchantments that offer protection from "elemental" attacks. This is defined in the game as non- Melee attacks associated with either Chaos or Nature. The two enchantments are not cumulative with each other, and Elemental Armor always supercedes Resist Elements. Both are also available as Item Powers, and can be imbued onto all types of Magical Items.
Resist Elements: +3 - Elemental Armor: +10 Sources: Resist Elements (Common Nature Unit Enchantment - R 40 - C 25 (5) - U 1) Resist Elements Item Power (2 - 100 - any Magical Item) Elemental Armor (Rare Nature Unit Enchantment - R 880 - C 175 (35) - U 5) Elemental Armor Item Power (4 - 500 - any Magical Item) Works against: Ranged Magical Attacks (except those of the Sage and the Illusionist) Fire Breath, Lightning Breath, Conventional component of Stoning Gaze : Chaos / Nature Spell Damage (except Doom Damage and Cracks Call)
City Walls[]
City Walls are a unique Town Building in that they provide an almost purely combat oriented benefit, rather than an economical one. In addition to significantly changing the tactics likely to be employed by both the attacker and the defender during a Town siege, they also grant very tangible protection to the units inside.
The walls surround a 4×4 tile area on the combat map commonly called the "town proper". On each corner is a tower tile that is impassable for units on either side, while a single dedicated section serves as the "gate" that allows walking through. The entire structure is illustrated by the image on the right.
Units standing adjacent to any of the wall or gate sections receive a bonus of +3 against nearly all attacks originating from outside the walled area. The only exception is Spell Damage, which is never affected. However, each section of the City Walls can be individually destroyed by the opponent during the battle. Should this happen, the Defense bonus of that particular section is immediately reduced to only +1. Regardless of its magnitude though, this protection is not exclusive to the defending side. If an attacking unit manages to outmaneuver the defenders and get inside the walls, they will enjoy the same benefit when attacked from the outside. It may also be worth noting that Flying and Non-Corporeal units, while able to bypass the walls themselves during their movement, do not negate any Defense bonus granted to their opponent.
Units stationed in the middle of the Town, that are not adjacent to the walls, also get +1. In this case though, it can only ever apply against Ranged Attacks, since these units are too far away to be engaged in Melee from the outside. However, this bonus is increased to +3 in the unofficial Insecticide patch.
Finally, City Walls are also the source of an obscure bug that requires the Unofficial Patch 1.50 to fix. In nearly every battle that does not take place at a Town, units standing in the 4×4 area where the town proper would be actually gain the benefit of a destroyed City Wall section. This is even more pronounced in Insecticide, as units in the inner 2×2 square gain an overall +3 against all Ranged Attacks from the outside. Essentially, the combat map is treated as if City Walls were present, but all destroyed, except that there are no visuals to indicate this fact.
Unmitigated Changes[]
Defense can be both improved and lowered in many ways in the game, although the majority of these effects have limitations on the types of units they can affect. The base score is indicated as a row of bright Shield icons in the unit statistics window, and also includes improvements gained from Experience and Hero Abilities. Any other "universal" bonus that applies across the board will extend the row with golden icons (). Reductions, on the other hand, darken, or grey out, some of these icons instead (, ), always starting with any enhancement icons. The sole exception is the effect of the Berserk spell, which removes the entire row of icons rather than darkening them out, effectively hiding the unit's original score.
A full list of the effects that unconditionally modify Defense is compiled in the table below. It is evident from it, that Heroes have the easiest time increasing this attribute, while Fantastic Units are more or less limited to "aura" effects and Nature spells. If enabled in the game's Settings, the combat unit display, shown in the upper right corner when mousing over a unit, displays Defense as a single numerical value, with all unconditional modifiers already included.
Effect | Modifier | Notes | |
Improvements | |||
Veteran Level | +1 | Normal Units only, requires 60/20/0* Experience Points | |
Ultra-Elite Level | +1 (total +2) | Normal Units only, requires -/120/60* Experience Points (only available with Warlord or Crusade) | |
Mithril Weapons | +1 | Normal Units only, Alchemists' Guild + Mithril Ore | |
Adamantium Weapons | +2 | Normal Units only, Alchemists' Guild + Adamantium Ore | |
Stone Skin | +1 | - | |
Iron Skin | +5 | overrides Stone Skin | |
Holy Armor | +2 | Normal Units and Heroes only | |
Chaos Channels | +3 | Normal Units and Heroes only, 1/3 chance for this effect (also bugged and gives double bonus in v1.31) | |
Black Channels | +1 | Normal Units, Heroes, and Undead units only (turns Normal Units and Heroes into Undead) | |
Reductions | |||
Black Prayer | -1 | affects all enemy units | |
Darkness | -1 | affects all Life units (Cloud of Shadow and Eternal Night share the same effect) | |
True Light | -1 | affects all Death units, including the Undead (Heavenly Light shares the same effect) | |
Mind Storm | -5 | single target, not Resistable (does not work against units with Illusions Immunity) | |
Vertigo | -1 | single target, Resistable (no penalty) | |
Warp Creature | Halved | single target, Resistable (at -1), 1/3 chance | |
Berserk | Set to 0 | also doubles Melee Strength | |
Auras | |||
Chaos Node Aura | +2 | affects all Chaos and Chaos Channeled units | |
Nature Node Aura | +2 | affects all Nature units | |
Sorcery Node Aura | +2 | affects all Sorcery units | |
High Prayer | +2 | affects all friendly units | |
Holy Bonus | +1 or +2 | affects all friendly units | |
Darkness | +1 | affects all Death units, including the Undead (Cloud of Shadow and Eternal Night share the same effect) | |
True Light | +1 | affects all Life units (Heavenly Light shares the same effect) | |
Heroes | |||
Myrmidon Level | +1 | requires 20/0/0* Experience Points | |
Commander Level | +1 (total +2) | requires 120/60/20* Experience Points | |
Lord Level | +1 (total +3) | requires 300/200/120* Experience Points | |
Super Hero Level | +1 (total +4) | requires 600/450/300* Experience Points | |
Agility | +1 / level | up to +9 | |
Super Agility | +1.5 / level | up to +13 | |
Mace | up to +1 | requires , , or equipment slot | |
Sword | up to +3 | requires , , or equipment slot | |
Bow | up to +3 | requires equipment slot | |
Staff | up to +3 | requires or equipment slot | |
Jewelry | up to +4 | requires equipment slot | |
Shield | up to +6 | requires equipment slot (also grants Large Shield) | |
Chainmail | up to +7 | requires equipment slot | |
Platemail | up to +8 | requires equipment slot | |
* - The Warlord Retort and the Crusade spell reduce XP requirements. The first number is the base value, the second is with either one of these effects, while the last is with both. |
Order of Operations for Resolving Defense and Immunities[]
This section covers the step-by-step order in which the game applies modifiers to Defense during a combat action. Details about these factors are explained above in this article, as well as on their own respective pages.
Step | Attacker | Defender | Modifier |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Base Figure Defense;
|
||
| |||
2 | Any Ranged Attack Any Breath Attack Any Spell Damage |
Add +2 | |
| |||
3 | Attack Spell Damage |
Add +3 | |
| |||
4 | Ranged Magical Attack Spell Damage |
Add +10 | |
| |||
5 | Ranged Magical Attack Spell Damage |
Add +3 | |
| |||
6 | Armor Piercing Damage | Divide by 2 (round down) | |
| |||
7 | Non-magical Melee Attack Non-magical Ranged Missile |
Raise to 10 | |
| |||
8 | Ranged Missile Attack |
|
Raise to 50 |
| |||
9 | Fire / Cold Damage | Raise to 50 | |
| |||
10 | Any Ranged Magical Attack Any Breath Attack |
Raise to 50 | |
| |||
11 | Ranged Magical Attack Breath Attack |
Raise to 50 | |
| |||
12 | Illusion Damage | Lower to 0 | |
| |||
13 |
|
Add +3 ( +1) | |
| |||
14 | Defense ignored | ||
| |||
15 | Doom Damage Chaos (Item Power) |
Defense ignored |
Examples and Quirks[]
Events lower (thus later) in the order of operations will supersede the earlier ones. The procedure usually generates combat results that make perfect sense, but will also also yield some that are unexpected. Ranged attacks and counters, in particular, may be difficult to predict due to color associations. The following examples may help illustrate how these defensive buffs function.
- Sprites fire a Ranged Magical Attack at a unit with both Resist Elements and Elemental Armor
- Sprites use a Nature aligned ranged attack. Elemental Armor will trigger first, adding +10 to the target's score, and prevent Resist Elements from taking any effect.
- Zaldron with a Lightning staff fires a Ranged Magical Attack at Recruit Dwarf Swordsmen with Elemental Armor
- The Swords' Large Shield will trigger, adding +2. Since Zaldron uses a Sorcery aligned ranged attack (despite the enchantment on the staff), Elemental Armor will fail to help against this color. Subsequently, the staff's Armor Piercing Damage boost is factored in, cutting the Swordsmen's Defense score, Large Shield bonus included, by half, back to 2.
- Aerie fires a Ranged Magical Attack at a unit of Paladins behind City Walls
- Paladins have Magic Immunity, raising their Defense against the attack to 50. Subsequently, Aerie's Illusion attack ability lowers their Defense to 0, since the Paladins are not immune to illusions. They are behind City Walls, though, and these factor in later than Illusion, so the Paladins' final Defense score is 3.
- Magic Immunity applies first, raising the drake's Defense score to 50. It also possesses Illusions Immunity though, so its Defense is not lowered to 0. It remains 50.
- Warrax fires a Ranged Magical Attack at a Sky Drake guarding a Sorcery Node
- Warrax faces a similar problem. First the drake's Defense score is raised by +2 by the power of the Node. His Armor Piercing attack halves this (typically from 12 to 6). But this gets overwritten when Magic Immunity readjusts the drake's Defense to 50.
- Reywind is one of the Heroes with a flex weapon slot. Whether this works depends on the type of weapon Reywind has equipped. If he wields a Staff, the enchantment applies to his ranged attack, the drake's 50 against ranged magic (as well as any other factors in play) will be completely ignored, and an exact level of Damage will be guaranteed. If he wields a melee weapon though, he would have to go into melee with the Sky Drake in order for this power to take effect.
- Normal Javelineers throw a volley at Werewolves with Guardian Wind
- Buggy behavior. Weapon Immunity raises the Werewolves' Defense score to 10 against the volley. If it triggers, Weapon Immunity prevents the Missile Immunity granted by Guardian Wind from taking effect, so Defense remains 10!
- Javelineers with Magical Weapons throw a volley at Werewolves with Guardian Wind
- This time, Weapon Immunity is negated by the magical javelins. Yet Missile Immunity will therefore apply, and the Werewolves' Defense score is raised to 50, more-or-less as expected.
- Ghouls engage a unit with Bless and Righteousness
- Melee with Ghouls triggers Bless, giving the target +3. That is the extent of the Defense score interactions in this case. Righteousness will be checked down-the-line but will not trigger, since this was a Melee engagement.
- A Wizard casts Fire Storm on an army of Chaos creatures
- Each unit on the map tile will be subjected to a strength 8 Area Damage attack. This brings about one attack for each figure currently in the unit, and each of these is defended against separately (any Hell Hounds would receive 4 attacks, Fire Giants 1x, Hydras 9x, and so on). Although most of them will use their base Defense scores, if there are any Fire Giants or Efreeti in the stack, their Fire Immunity will trigger, and these figures will defend against the spell with 50.