How does magic resistance work?
 

I can't seem to find an answer to this.

My particular problem is dealing with a thug with an antimagic amulet; I'd quite like to fry his brain. All the spells that are particularly good at that say "magic resistance negates". Does this mean they fail is he has any resistance, or is it just if he successfully resists it, it does nothing?

Re: How does magic resistance work?
 

It means the power of your spell is rolled against his magic resistance value. All units have an innate value of mr which can then be boosted by items or battlefield buffs.

You get a penetration bonus from certain items as well as having magic levels above those required. So a mage wearing a void eye and have very strong astral has a better chance of killing the thug in question.

Re: How does magic resistance work?
 

MR negates means he has to fail a mr roll to be affected. Everyone has some mr. The Antimagic amulet just gives a bonus.

You'll just need to spam the spell more times to fry his brain.

Re: How does magic resistance work?
 

Excellent. I set up a level 4 astral mage communion master casting mind burn (or something like that) with 6 communion slaves.

Would this level of magic be adequate to reliably penetrate an anti magic amulet?

Re: How does magic resistance work?
 

Depends on what the total mr adds up to. Some thugs have a high base mr of 15-18 or somesuch, in which case there are no way to "reliably" penetrate it. But you may have a decent chance with that communion, mind burn is inferior to soul slay though.

Sometimes it is better to have many mages spam the spell hoping some get through, rather than trying to boost a single mage to cast it a few times. it depends.

Re: How does magic resistance work?
 

If I were you, I'd just get 4 slaves 4 masters and spam the Mind Burn/Soul Slay. Have the masters cast Power of the Spheres first so the slaves catch less fatigue, they should be good for at least 10 turns before they start taking damage.

Re: How does magic resistance work?
 

communion gives boost to master as follows:
2 slaves = +1 path
4 slaves = +2 path
8 slaves = +3 path
...etc

Mind burn is a S2 attack, every 2 extra level gives it +1 Penetration. So if you are using a S4 mage, you already have +1 pen, using 4 slaves is sufficent for another +1, the next step up is 16 slaves (you might as well put void eye + magic focus rather then adding 12 more slaves). Your mind burn will have a MR check of 14 (base 12 + 2 pen), lets say this thug has 20 MR, you'll only roughly have 11% chance to beat the MR (refer to manual for the chance table)

Re: How does magic resistance work?
 

Thanks for the help gentlemen. Hopefully I will be able to induce a full blown brain haemorrhage with this information.

Re: How does magic resistance work?
 

Enslaving can be an interesting option too if yo are not targetting mindless or a pretender...
--ssj

Re: How does magic resistance work?
 

I have never thought about it before but this thread is as good a place as any to ask:
what happens when you use two (or more) eyes of the void?