Magic resistance

This article is about the magic resistance property. For monsters' magic resistance, see Magic resistance (monster).

Magic resistance is an extrinsic property which protects against many annoying magical attacks and effects. It is part of most ascension kits, and is generally considered a high priority to obtain as soon as possible.

Effect

Magic resistance protects against:

• Death magic from external sources:
  • instadeath effect of Death's touch attacks
  • zapped wand of death and finger of death
  • the touch of death monster spell
• Polymorph magic from external sources:
  • vapors from a potion of polymorph
  • polymorph traps
• Damage from pure magic:
  • magic missile attacks of angels, gray dragons, Yeenoghu, the Chromatic Dragon, and the Oracle
  • zapped or broken wands of striking or magic missile
  • zapped spells of force bolt or magic missile
  • broken wands of cancellation, create monster, digging, light, make invisible, polymorph, sleep, slow monster, speed monster, teleportation, and undead turning
  • damage from exploding spellbooks
• anti-magic, teleport, and level teleport traps
• the destroy armor, drain strength, and confuse monster spells
• effect of the paralyze and stun monster spells is reduced to one turn
• damage from the psi bolt and open wounds monster spells is halved
• damage from artifact blast is halved
• number of items cursed by curse items from any source is halved
• Magicbane cannot scare you, chance of other effects is reduced

Magic resistance does not protect against:

• Death magic that you pointed at yourself:
  • zapped wand of death or finger of death aimed at yourself
  • broken wand of death^{[citation needed]}
• Polymorph magic that you pointed at yourself:
  • zapped wand or spell of polymorph aimed at yourself
  • broken wand of polymorph
  • quaffed potion of polymorph

Obtaining

Magic resistance is granted by wielding Magicbane, wearing a cloak of magic resistance, gray dragon scales, or gray dragon scale mail, polymorphing into a (baby) gray dragon, or carrying certain Quest artifacts.

Quest artifacts granting magic resistance when carried
Role	Artifact	Alignment
Archeologist	the Orb of Detection	Lawful
Caveman	the Sceptre of Might	Lawful
Knight	the Magic Mirror of Merlin	Lawful
Monk	the Eyes of the Overworld	Neutral
Tourist	the Platinum Yendorian Express Card	Neutral
Wizard	the Eye of the Aethiopica	Neutral

Monsters

In addition to monster-type magic resistance, some monsters have player-style magic resistance: those with a magic missile attack, a random breath weapon, and baby gray dragons In vanilla, this means Angels, Yeenoghu, gray dragons, the Oracle, and the Chromatic Dragon.

Monsters gain player-style resistance from a worn cloak of magic resistance, gray dragon scale (mail), or from wielding a co-aligned artifact: neutral Magicbane, lawful Sceptre of Might. Carrying quest artifacts also works (quest nemesis, Rodney!), but tame monsters will not keep them unless worn or wielded.

This provides all the same protections to monsters as it does to the player, e. g. death rays, polymorph or level teleport traps. It does not make them resist taming or conflict, as monster-style magic resistance would.

Strategy

Relying only on your own Quest artifact for magic resistance is dangerous in the endgame, because the Wizard of Yendor can steal it from you and become magic resistant himself. He will now absorb any death rays or magic missiles unharmed, but you are now quite vulnerable to his touch of death. A Quest artifact of another role, obtainable only by wishing, is safe from this kind of theft (but not from that of nymphs, of course).

Player-style magic resistance is good in a pet: death rays, polytraps, and levelport traps loose their threat. Especially a non-eating pet that hits a levelport trap would often go feral before you can find it again. If you want to make your pet magic resistant, gray dragon scale mail (or the cloak) are usually best. If you go the artifact weapon route, make sure your pet is carrying as few objects as possible and disarm it with a bullwhip beforehand to keep it from wielding any different artifact it may encounter. Unfortunately, the most useful pet, the Archon, can only be made magic resistant with the Sceptre of Might.

SLASH'EM

New monsters with player-style magic resistance are diamond and crystal golems and adult shimmering dragons. Anybody coding their own monsters should be aware a magic missile or random breath attack will grant magic resistance as a side effect.

This page is based on a spoiler by Dylan O'Donnell. The original license is:

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