If a monster attacks a hero who has permanent resistance (from equipment or racial trait), the hero will receive 1/3 of the damage. If the hero has temporary resistance (from a potion or a spell), they will also receive 1/3 of the damage. If the hero has both permanent and temporary resistance, the damage is reduced to 1/9. Having more than one source of permanent resistance does not provide any additional benefit; using multiple sources of temporary resistance only increases its duration. In both cases, resistance is either present or not, although combining permanent and temporary resistance is effective.
Breath damage scales with the monster’s current HP, up to a maximum cap that depends on the element. The most common elements (like fire or cold) may reach up to 1600 damage.
Damage calculations
- Vulnerable (-1): Take extra damage
- Normal (0): Take normal damage
- Resistant (1): Take 1/3 damage (33%)
- Double Resistant (2): Take 1/9 damage (11%)
- Immune (3): Take minimal damage
Let’s demonstrate how resistance works with actual monster examples:
Ancient Red Dragon (1164 HP) – Fire breath damage: 388 damage (1/3 of HP)
Normal (0): 388 damage (full damage)
Resistant (1): 129 damage (388 / 3)
Double Resistant (2): 43 damage (388 / 9)
Ancient Hell Wyrm (5820 HP) – Fire breath damage: 1600 damage (capped at maximum)
Normal (0): 1600 damage (full damage)
Resistant (1): 533 damage (1600 / 3)
Double Resistant (2): 178 damage (1600 / 9)
Vulnerability (-1)
Before Level 30: Vulnerabilities reduce your resistance level by 1
- Vulnerable + Normal Resistance = Vulnerable (-1)
- Vulnerable + Single Resistance = Normal (0)
- Vulnerable + Double Resistance = Single Resistance (1)
- Vulnerable + Immunity = Double Resistance (2) – immunity is prevented
How much extra damage you receive:
- Most elements: +33% damage (eg 100 → 133)
- Time and Light: +50% damage (eg 100 → 150)
After Level 30: Vulnerabilities give flat bonus damage instead of reducing resistance. Extra damage:
- Fire, cold vulnerability: +12.5%
- Time Vulnerability: +50%
- Light Vulnerability: double Damage
- Dark Vulnerability: Maiar, Celestial, and Wisp take 10% max HP damage from Darkness spell (not from the DARK element itself).
Important notes:
- Vulnerability limitation: At 30+ level, extra damage from vulnerability only applies if it won’t kill the player (but base damage don’t have such limitation)
- No immunity: If your race has a vulnerability, you won’t be able to cover it with immunity, even if you find an item with that property.
- Polymorphed forms can have complete immunity or +33% vulnerability to certain elements.
One-Shot Protection
🛡️ If you’re at full health, a single magical attack (spell or breath) cannot kill you outright – it will leave you at 1 HP and trigger a 1000-turn cooldown (which is shared with racial ability cooldown). Important limitations:
- Only applies to magical damage (spells/breaths)
- Does NOT protect against physical attacks
- Does NOT work if you’re already injured
- Might not work if race has additional incoming dagame (eg Balrog race)
Q&A
How to survive Acid breaths? There are no potions. Yes, there are only rings and some rare items, but acid isn’t too bad. If a piece of armor gives you at least 1 point of AC, and acid hits that armor slot, the damage from the acid is reduced by half – even if the armor itself isn’t damaged. Since acid always targets a specific armor slot, wearing armor in every slot means you’ll always take only half damage from acid attacks.
How to survive Electricity breaths? There are no potions. It is very rare element. In general you should avoid fighting electric monsters or use rare spells/items which provide temp resistance.
What is Biofeedback buff? It halves physical projectile damage (missiles, shots, arrows, bolts, boulders, shards, sound).