Spell hindrance

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Spell hindrance
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Reinforce	Evasion	Blessing
Support	Stealth	Casting
Crush	Support	Fluidity
Puncture
Slash

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

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

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

Resources

• http://www.play.net/gs4/info/armory/armor.asp