Resistances reduce the damage or magnitude of effects to help protect characters and entities from harm. They can be gained from the features of Equipment and buffs, innate traits of the character themselves, or by successfully Deflecting attacks.
Resistance Properties do not stack in most circumstances, they take the highest value of all applicable Resistances. The only exception is the interaction between Deflection and any other form of Resistance X, in which case both forms will stack.
Resistance Properties
There are different Resistance types that a character might be able to use. A character can only use one Resistance variation at a time, so when multiple types apply, the player may choose which form to use to transmute damage/magnitude effects.
Resistances can be gained from Equipment, such as Armour or Shields. Or they can be part of the innate traits that a character's species or powers provide. A special form that occurs when an attacker triggers Deflection on a character can grant Resistance X when appropriate.
Resistance X
Resistance reduces the damage and/or magnitude from the specified type/property by half. Whenever Resistance is suffixed with a value, that value denotes the Damage Reduction that is subtracted by the remaining damage/magnitude after halving.
In the event that multiple Resistance Xs apply, you may only take the highest value of the set. Only one stack of Resistance can apply at a time, except for Deflection. When Deflection and another Resistance stacks, you apply the Resistance first (1/4 original value), then subtract the sum of both Reduction values.
"A Fireball is thrown in the direction of the Golem, it would normally deal 14 Fire damage, however the Golem has Resistance 5 to all damage including Fire. After halving the damage to 7, 5 is subtracted from the remaining damage, meaning the Golem only takes 2 Fire damage."
Immunity X
Immunity X makes the character take no damage and no magnitude from the type of damage/effect specified. If the resistance is suffixed with a value, this value denotes how much it can ignore Penetration properties attempting to ignore its resistance. If X is equal or greater to the Penetration's value, the defender still takes no damage or magnitude.
"The Golem has a special immunity to Physical damage, having Immunity 5. A Knight with a magic sword enchanted with Penetration 8 tries to strike at it. The sword deals 14 damage normally. The difference between Immunity and Penetration is 3, thus the Knight is able to inflict up to 3 damage per strike with their sword. If the Sword were Penetration 5 or lower, it would not be able to pierce the Golem's immunity."
Absorb X
Absorb (or Absorption) converts takes half of incoming damage or magnitude and heals the user by that amount instead. When suffixed with a value, this increases healing taken by that value as well.
When struck with Penetration attacks, the amount of healing is reduced by the Penetration value, if Penetration is equal or greater than the healing granted, it can deal damage despite the Absorption effect.
"The Fire Elemental is struck with a Fireball, the Fireball deals 13 Fire Damage this time. The Fire Elemental has Absorb 5 to Fire sources. When they take the Fire damage, half the damage rounded up is converted into healing (7), plus its value (5). Ultimately healing 12 health if it lost any."
Penetration X
Penetration X is a modifier that can be made to certain attacks that can ignore a certain amount of Resistances in order to deal damage or magnitude to the resistant target. Penetration halves the value of a given Resistance for the purposes of calculating damage. When suffixed with a value, this Resistance is reduced further by this amount.
Penetration works normally against Resistance X and Absorb X, however Immunity differs as its value can't be halved, instead the value is critical to enabling any kind of damage/magnitude piercing. And if Immunity has a value, this is subtracted from Penetration's value before damage is calculated. Penetration has no effect on reductions caused by Deflecting the attack, the Penetration property requires direct hits to work.
As Penetration can be added to attacks, it can have the value of a regular or Meta die.
"The Master Wizard takes on the Fire Elemental and casts a special Fireball, one that has Penetration 5. It deals 14 damage to the Elemental. Penetration reduces Absorption by 5, down to 5. Fire Damage is reduced to 9, the damage is taken and then the Fire Elemental heals 5 damage, net loss of 4 health."
Deflection
Deflection is a natural defence for most characters to reduce and mitigate damage and effects that hit, but not a direct hit. Deflection grants the defender a special form of Resistance X to all damage (that the user can defend against) where X is equal to any existing Resistance X property the character is using. If the character has no other form of Resistance X with a positive value, it is simply 'Resistance'. Calculate the Deflection Resistance before other forms of Resistance.
The Penetration property to ignore resistances is not effective against the Resistance created by Deflection. Meaning Deflection will always protect the defender whenever it applies.
"The mighty Knight in their heavy armour takes a blow from a Huge Ogre. The Ogre deals 48 damage with their fist. The Knight is wearing armour that grants Resistance 4 to physical damage. The attack triggers Deflection upon the Knight. The damage is halved due to Deflection (24), then halved again due to his armour resisting (12), then both Damage reduction values subtract by 8 (double the original Resistance X from their armour). The Knight only takes 4 damage from this attack, whereas without Deflection they would have taken 20."
Weakness X
Weakness X affects types of damage or statuses that characters are especially vulnerable to. Weakness doubles the damage or magnitude dealt to the appropriate type. If the original damage/magnitude taken is less than X, then they take double X in damage/magnitude instead. X ensures a minimum amount of extra damage taken.
"The Golem, who has Weakness 5 to Electricity, is struck by a Thunderbolt. The Bolt deals 12 damage normally. Because of the Weakness, the Golem instead takes 24 electrical damage from it. Later, the Golem gets a small shock from a Wizard's Shocking Grasp, this Grasp deals 4 damage normally. But because the Golem's Weakness is value 5, the Golem takes 10 electrical damage instead, which is its Weakness value doubled."