Spell hindrance

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Spell hindrance is a system that imparts a chance for armor to prevent spells from being successfully cast. Elemental spells are harder to cast in heavy armor than Spiritual or Mental spells, and Mental spells are far harder to cast in armor that covers the caster's head.

Armor and Hindrance

Robes, light leather, and full leather armors allow spells from all circles to be cast without failure. Reinforced leather and double leather cause hindrance for some elemental and mental spell circles. Characters wearing a leather breastplate will experience hindrance for spells cast from every spell circle. A base mana cost will be taken, stance will be forced down from defensive, and the standard 3 second cast roundtime takes place, but there is no further effect:

You trace a sign while beseeching the spirits to empower you with the Bind spell...
Your spell is ready.
You gesture at a skeletal lord.
[Spell Hindrance for some marbled pink mithril armor is 9% with current Armor Use skill, d100= 7]
Your armor prevents the spell from working correctly.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.
(Forcing stance down to guarded)

The failure rate varies based on the circle of the spell, the armor worn, and the caster's training in Armor Use.

Reducing Hindrance

Hindrance is entirely negated in natural sanctuaries, Major Sanctuaries, and areas where Minor Sanctuary (213) is in effect.

Base hindrance is the minimum hindrance that can be attained with enough Armor Use:

Armor Use Bonus Required = (Base Hindrance * 20) - 10

Under trained penalty formula (total will not exceed the armor's max hindrance in the spell hindrance table's rightmost column):

Total Hindrance = Base Hindrance * (1 + (Required Bonus - Current Bonus) / 20)

Base hindrance can be further reduced both by the spell Faith's Clarity (1612) or by the paladin's armor specialization Armored Fluidity. Faith's Clarity reduces base hindrance, thereby also reducing the required armor use bonus in the formula. Armored Fluidity only reduces total hindrance using the original base hindrance amount from the table times 10% per rank of fluidity, rounded down.

Examples

Paladin spells have 13% base hindrance in full plate armor at 250 armor use skill bonus (150 ranks). If the caster has only trained to 170 skill bonus (70 ranks), total hindrance will be 13% * (1 + (250 - 170) / 20) = 65%. While under the effect of Faith's Clarity, with 25 ranks in Paladin spells, the caster would have 5% Paladin base reduction. This puts the base hindrance at 8%, so only 150 skill bonus (50 ranks) is required and the same caster is considered fully trained and will only experience 8% hindrance. In addition, since Faith's Clarity also reduces the caster's Minor Spiritual spell hindrance to match their Paladin spell hindrance, they would also experience 8% hindrance with Minor Spirit spells. Armored Fluidity no longer stacks with Faith's Clarity, so would not give any additional hindrance reduction.

Chart of Armor Spell Hindrance Minimum Penalties

Table: Spell hindrance - edit
AG ASG Name Spell Hindrance (%)
MnS MjS Cleric MnE MjE Ranger Sorcerer Wizard Bard Empath MnM MjM Paladin Max
1. Cloth 1 Normal Clothing - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
2 Robes - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
2. Leather 5 Light Leather - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
6 Full Leather - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
7 Reinforced Leather - - - - 2 - 1 2 - - - 2 - 4
8 Double Leather - - - - 4 - 2 4 2 - 2 4 - 6
3. Scale 9 Leather Breastplate 3 4 4 4 6 3 5 6 3 4 4 6 2 16
10 Cuirbouilli Leather 4 5 5 5 7 4 6 7 3 5 5 7 3 20
11 Studded Leather 5 6 6 6 9 5 8 9 3 6 6 9 4 24
12 Brigandine Armor 6 7 7 7 12 6 11 12 7 7 7 12 5 28
4. Chain 13 Chain Mail 7 8 8 8 16 7 16 16 8 8 8 16 6 40
14 Double Chain 8 9 9 9 20 8 18 20 8 9 9 20 7 45
15 Augmented Chain 9 11 11 10 25 9 22 25 8 11 10 25 8 55
16 Chain Hauberk 11 14 14 12 30 11 26 30 15 15 15 30 9 60
5. Plate 17 Metal Breastplate 16 25 25 16 35 21 29 35 21 25 21 35 10 90
18 Augmented Breastplate 17 28 28 18 40 24 33 40 21 28 21 40 11 92
19 Half Plate 18 32 32 20 45 27 39 45 21 32 21 45 12 94
20 Full Plate 20 45 45 22 50 30 48 50 50 45 50 50 13 96


Arcane Spells

The hindrance of Arcane circle spells is a little more subtle. Some Arcane spells have a 'native' circle, and use that circle's armor hindrance. For example, Minor Cold (1709) is native to the Wizard Base, while Spirit Guard (1712) is native to the Minor Spiritual circle. Arcane spells that do not have a 'native' circle (such as Arcane Blast (1700)) have the same hindrance as Sorcerer Base.

A caster wearing double leathers would thus experience no hindrance casting Spirit Guard, 2% hindrance casting Arcane Blast, and 4% hindrance casting Minor Cold (provided they 15 ranks of Armor Use to minimize hindrance in double leathers).

Paladin Spells

The Paladin spell Faith's Clarity grants a reduction of 1% to Paladin base spell hindrance for every 5 Paladin spells known, up to a maximum of 10% reduction at 50 Paladin spell ranks. In addition, the spell reduces Minor Spiritual spell hindrance to match the caster's Paladin spell hindrance. As such, a Paladin with 50 ranks of the Paladin spell circle who is fully trained for full plate armor will have 3% spell hindrance when casting Paladin or Minor Spiritual spells.

Armored Casting

Paladins may learn the armor specialization Armored Casting, which they can apply on themselves or other adventurers. While Armored Casting is active, spells will always be cast even if they fail the spell hindrance roll, but upon the failed hindrance roll the caster will suffer hard roundtime. The duration depends on the type of armor and the Paladin's training in the specialization. Armored Casting also applies to "fumbled" casts, which normally have a 1% chance of occurring even if there is no hindrance, so it has some benefit even if the caster is not hindered by armor.

Chart of Armor Use Ranks Required

The following table shows the Armor Use ranks required to achieve the minimum hindrance for each spell circle.

Table: Armor Use Skill Rank Requirements - edit
AG ASG Name RT/AP Spell Circle
MnS MjS Cle MnE MjE Ran Sor Wiz Bar Emp MnM MjM Sav Pal
1. Cloth 1 Normal Clothing - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
2 Robes - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
2. Leather 5 Light Leather - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
6 Full Leather 2 - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
7 Reinforced Leather 6 - - - - 6 - 2 6 - - - 6 6 -
8 Double Leather 6 - - - - 15 - 6 15 6 - 6 15 15 -
3. Scale 9 Leather Breastplate 10 10 15 15 15 27 10 20 27 10 15 15 27 27 6
10 Cuirbouilli Leather 15 15 20 20 20 35 15 27 35 10 20 20 35 35 10
11 Studded Leather 20 20 27 27 27 70 20 50 70 10 27 27 70 70 15
12 Brigandine 27 27 35 35 35 130 27 110 130 35 35 35 130 130 20
4. Chain 13 Chainmail 35 35 50 50 50 210 35 210 210 50 50 50 210 210 27
14 Double Chain 50 50 70 70 70 290 50 250 290 50 70 70 290 290 35
15 Augmented Chain 50 70 110 110 90 390 70 330 390 50 110 90 390 390 50
16 Chain Hauberk 70 110 170 170 130 490 110 410 490 190 190 190 490 490 70
5. Plate 17 Metal Breastplate 70 210 390 390 210 590 310 470 590 310 390 310 590 590 90
18 Augmented Breastplate 90 230 450 450 250 690 370 550 690 310 450 310 690 690 110
19 Half Plate 110 250 530 530 290 790 430 570 790 310 530 310 790 790 130
20 Full Plate 130 290 850 850 330 890 490 850 890 890 790 890 890 890 150


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