Resistances cumulative?

[grassy]

If I have more than 1 item offering resistance will I have more resistance? Also - if I have all resistances, is there a benefit to using Scab's resistance spell?

[Napsterbater]

No and yes. Temporary resistance from potions and spells stacks with resistances conferred by armor and weapons. But multiple sources of temp resistance don't stack with each other and neither do multiple pieces of weapons and armor with resistance.

[buzzkill]

You can get one resist from your equipment, and a second resist from potion, scrolls, or spells. Additional resists are worthless. I think.

1 resist = 66%, 2 resists=88%. I think.

[fizzix]

You can get one resist from your equipment, and a second resist from potion, scrolls, or spells. Additional resists are worthless. I think.

1 resist = 66%, 2 resists=88%. I think.

furthermore this only applies for fire, elec, cold and acid

you cannot stack poison, which has a max damage of 800 and 66% from resist.

Higher level resists (confusion, light, dark, nexus, sound, nether, shards, chaos, disenchant) have damage reduction that is randomized depending on the resist. They max out at 50% and go as low as about 15-20% reduction. They do completely block side effects.

[grassy]

wow - that's bad news. So even with poison resist you have a a 1/3 chance of dying from high level poisoners with hp less than 800! Pretty low odds. How'd you tackle these - or just avoid?

[Derakon]

Damage from breath attacks is a third of the monster's HP, then capped based on the element. For the basic four (fire, electricity, acid, cold) the cap is 1600; for poison it's 800, and everything else is lower (IIRC nether is capped at 550 and light at 400, for example). This number is then reduced by your resistances. For the basic four and poison, resistance cuts damage to 1/3rd its normal value; thus, the maximum damage a single-resisting character can take from fire is 533 and from poison is 266.

For all other elements, resistances cut damage by a random amount as Fizzix described.

[Sirridan]

And double resisted base 4 are 177 damage. And acid is cut by 1/2 by armor. Lightning is the worst because its hard to get double resist for it. Although with scab that is a non issue.

[Marble Dice]

To clarify:

Resistance (found on gear) to acid, elec, fire, cold, and poison always reduces damage taken by 66% (reduces to 1/3). If you would normally take 600 damage from one of these five elements, with resistance you will only take 200.

Temporary resistance from potions, activations, or spells is called opposition, and is only available for acid, elec, fire, cold and poison. It stacks multiplicatively with resistance, and also always reduces damage by 66% (reduces to 1/3). If you would normally take 600 damage from one of these five elements, with resistance and opposition you will take only 66 damage.

Resistance (but not opposition) to other "high elements" is available, but it has a random amount of damage reduction, between 14% to 50% (reduces to 6/7 to 6/12).

[miyazaki]

To clarify:

Resistance (found on gear) to acid, elec, fire, cold, and poison always reduces damage taken by 66% (reduces to 1/3). If you would normally take 600 damage from one of these five elements, with resistance you will only take 200.

Temporary resistance from potions, activations, or spells is called opposition, and is only available for acid, elec, fire, cold and poison. It stacks multiplicatively with resistance, and also always reduces damage by 66% (reduces to 1/3). If you would normally take 600 damage from one of these five elements, with resistance and opposition you will take only 66 damage.

Resistance (but not opposition) to other "high elements" is available, but it has a random amount of damage reduction, between 14% to 50% (reduces to 6/7 to 6/12).

What about rconf that you get from eating a certain mushroom? Is this only against confusion effects? Or does it count as 'resistance' and not stackable with armour, etc.?

[Magnate]

What about rconf that you get from eating a certain mushroom? Is this only against confusion effects? Or does it count as 'resistance' and not stackable with armour, etc.?

This is an interesting point. Canonically only the basic 4 elements + poison allow double resist. Personally I'd favour moving to a more logical system where every element has a double resist possible (even if some of them are not available via any items). Or even an O-type system of percentage resistances (where you can stack several sources up to a cap). Not sure if Takk is up for any of this though.

[buzzkill]

This is an interesting point. Canonically only the basic 4 elements + poison allow double resist. Personally I'd favour moving to a more logical system where every element has a double resist possible (even if some of them are not available via any items). Or even an O-type system of percentage resistances (where you can stack several sources up to a cap). Not sure if Takk is up for any of this though.

I was thinking this the other day. I think the FA/O resistance system is superior, but should it be introduced to Vanilla? I don't know. 'ID by use' started me wondering if Vanilla is straying from it's Vanilla roots.

[Marble Dice]

This is an interesting point. Canonically only the basic 4 elements + poison allow double resist. Personally I'd favour moving to a more logical system where every element has a double resist possible (even if some of them are not available via any items). Or even an O-type system of percentage resistances (where you can stack several sources up to a cap). Not sure if Takk is up for any of this though.

Admittedly I've never played a variant with percentage resists, but I don't think I like it. There's too many resistances in Angband to balance stacking a lot of every type, without either putting very large percentages on items (in which case it's basically what we have now), or putting smaller percentages on every item (in which case I think gear selection would feel samey and watered down). Maybe you could make it work, but I like the binary resistances system where you either have it or you don't. It seems like swap items and home inventory would be more tiresome in a percentage system.

As for confusion being confusing, maybe you could rename the status effect to something like "dazed". The permanent effect from gear (which protects from damage and side effect as any high resist) would be rConf, and the timed effect (which protects only from the status) could be called rDaze or Clarity.

[pav]

I played percentages years back in Ey and they were blast. Clearly better. Drop your prejudices and give it a whirl in some variant

[RogerN]

I think newbies would be less frustrated by Angband's system of resistances if different terminology was used. When a newbie reads that his shiny new artifact grants "resistance" to fire and also "resistance" to nether, it's logical to assume that a similar level of protection applies to both elements. They're both called "resistance", right?

But if his new sword grants "repulsion" to fire and "resistance" to nether (just making up terms here), he's instantly curious what the difference is. He'll then consult the help files, and hopefully be enlightened regarding the distinction

[Nick]

Vanilla already has percentage resistances, with the following rules:

1. Every resist value is 66% or 100%;
2. Multiple resists are multiplicative (two lots of 66% gives you 89%) but
3. Permanent resists don't stack.

The FA system merely relaxes 1 and 3.