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 (1603) and by the paladin's armor specialization Armored Fluidity. Faith's Clarity (1603) 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.

Paladins can also learn armor specializations that mitigate the negative aspects of armor hindrance. Armored Casting decreases the mana and roundtime expended when failing to cast a spell, and Armor Blessing increases the potency of a successfully cast attack spell if a previous cast has failed due to armor hindrance.

Examples

Example 1: 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 (assuming the 5% version of the spell with no lore bonus), base hindrance is considered to be only 8%, so only 150 skill bonus (50 ranks) is required and the same caster is considered fully trained and will only experience 8% hindrance. Armored Fluidity reduces total hindrance by 1.3% per rank (rounded down) in all cases, so a caster with 2 ranks of fluidity will have a 2% bonus, giving 63% total hindrance normally and 6% hindrance with Faith's Clarity active.

Example 2: Minor Spiritual spells have 16% base hindrance in metal breastplate armor at 310 armor use skill bonus (210 ranks). If the caster has only trained to 170 skill bonus (70 ranks), total hindrance will be 16% * (1 + (310 - 170) / 20) = 128%, which is higher than the max hindrance of metal breastplate (90%), so the actual hindrance will be 90%. While under the effect of Faith's Clarity (assuming the 5% version of the spell with no lore bonus), base hindrance is considered to be only 11%, so only 210 skill bonus (110 ranks) is required and the same paladin will only experience 11% * (1 + (210 - 170) / 20) = 33% hindrance. Armored Fluidity reduces total hindrance by 1.6% per rank (rounded down) in all cases, so a caster with 2 ranks of fluidity will have a 3% bonus, giving 87% total hindrance normally and 30% hindrance with Faith's Clarity active.

Chart of Armor Spell Hindrance Penalties

See Armor Use for the number of ranks required to minimize hindrance for each type of armor and spell circle.

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 and Hindrance

The hindrance of Arcane 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).

Resources

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