Kingdom Resistance
Kingdom Resistance, otherwise known as 'Spell Resistance' (although referred to as Kingdom Resistance to differentiate between it and Unit Spell Resistance), is the chance that a mage has to completely resist an enemy mage's spell if the mage's barriers fail to initially resist the spell. Barrier Resistance functions similarly to Kingdom Resistance; whereas Barrier Resistance offers a mage a chance to resist all spells of any color, Kingdom Resistance assigns a resist value to each of the five colors, and thus, offers a different chance to resist spells of each color. It is easiest to think of Kingdom Resistance as a 'second chance' for a mage to resist spells, if his barriers happen to fail. If the barrier roll happens to fail, another roll will take place, which is assigned whatever value is set for that specific color. Essentially, this offers a mage additional protection against harmful spells, whether in or out of battle.
There are a couple of methods that are capable of adding value to Kingdom Resistance:
- Spells, such as Mind Bar (which adds to resistances) or Sunray (which adds only to resistance)
- Unique Items, including Chaos Ward, Black Ankh, Spectacles of True Seeing, The Sinner, Lucky Charm, and St. Nara's Lock of Hair, all of which offer Kingdom Resistance to one color (first three) or all colors (latter three)
Notes:
- Kingdom Resistance values can easily be viewed by checking a mage's Status Report, which, under 'Barrier Resistance', lists the chance to resist spells of each color
- Mages of all colors have access to Kingdom Resistance-granting spells (the only color that does not have a resistance-granting spell of its own is Eradication, although they can employ Verdant and Nether spells if they so wish, in addition to Ascendant and Phantasm spells if purchased independently from the Exotic Mageware section of the Black Market)
- The effect of increased Kingdom Resistance can often be understated; while the maximum barrier protection roll will only be pierced 25% of the time, if a mage also has all colors' Kingdom Resistance at 75, the chance that a spell pierces both the barrier and Kingdom Resistance rolls drops to 6.25%, giving the mage a 'total resistance chance' of 93.75% when the rolls' chances are multiplied
- It is important to note that having all Kingdom Resistances at 75 is difficult, but the usefulness is obvious nonetheless