Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity Original Sin - Help/Tips/Tricks Enemy resistances, wrong numbers ?

I've been noticing that (some) enemies have more resistance than their willpower or bodybuilding score suggests.

Maybe, again, it's part of the Tactician mode. But I would just like to know.

Just a few numers, because this looks random (BB stands for BodyBuilding, WP for WillPower, known this lore 5) :
Skill 120% -> 53% to resist, 70% due to BB=4
Makes the full resist to 73% with BB=4, it should be 60% (+13%)
Skill 135% -> 6% to resist, 40% due to WP=2
Makes the full resist to 41% with BB=2, it should be 30% (+11%)
Skill 145% -> 2% to resist, 42% due to BB=2
Makes the full resist to 47% with BB=2, it should be 30% (+17%)
Skill 145% -> -1% tp resist, 43% due to BB=2
Makes the full resist to 44% with BB=2, it should be 30% (+14%)
Skill 140% -> 45% to resist, 82% due to BB=4
Makes the full resist to 85% with BB=4, it should be 60% (+25%)

Enemies I'm facing are my own level (15 vs 15 against Jared from Homeforest).

What's strange is not the bonus in itself, but I'd still like to know where it comes from... what's strange is that it seems rather random.

I wondered if that wasn't a bonus from their resistances but I haven't looked at it yet.

Does anyone have an idea ?

I have accepted the idea that the game is tempered with while playing tactician mode... I just don't understand why some random bonus are added when they could just up the Bodybuilding or Willpower values.

Or maybe it's that they almost all have a talent that improves their resistances, like "Weather of the storms" but applied to WP or BB...

Bonus questions : How can I know the dices on an action ?

I feel alone.

I just typed "divinity wp and bb modifiers" to expand my investigations on the subject.

This post in this exact forum is the FIRST result google gives me.

This raises only two valid options :
(1) I am the only one asking the question.
(2) I am the only one having this issue.

Both are funny and scary.

You are the only person I recall asking this question. I didn't pay that close attention to the stats to notice any discrepancies. Someone who has done some modding may have come across this.

I don't understand how you present the numbers.



"Skill 120%" = I suppose a skill that has 120% chances to hit?
"-> 53% to resist" = no fucking idea.
"70% due to BB=4" = no fucking idea.
etcetera.

What's the formula you are using to determine resist?

Thanks for your replies.

Exactly.
As displayed in the combat log. Coming from the game, not frome me...
The "70% due to BB" comes from the game. It gives the two numbers, the first (here 53%) is the total resist the enemy uses, the second (here 70%) is the resist given by the resistance skill involved (here BB).

When I put "=4" afterwards, it's because I know (through loremaster) how much enemy have in their BB or WP.

As it's explained by the game itself, resistances should be 15%*skill involved. When I have 4 BB it makes 60% resist, when I have 3 WP it makes 45% resist.

The final formula to know if you can resist a skill cast on you is :
Final chance to resist = Chance to resist from skill - Chance to cast the skill + 100

Meaning that if you have 100% chance casting crushing fist against someone BB=0 it will succeed (in theory) everytime. Because your chance to resist from skill (BB=0) is 0% the chance to cast the skill is 100.

Chance to resist = 0 - 100 + 100 = 0%

Maybe I'm mistaken but it seems to work with most of the game so far except from certain enemies that are "magical" (can't say something else).

With these, calculations don't fit the boxes, see the examples given. Like Jared from Homeforest that has a 45% to resist a knockdown on bodybuilding with my attack skill at 140% and he's got BB=4.

This should do :
Chances to resist = (4*15)-140+100 = 20%
And the games makes it 45%.

I don't know why.

If you have a name in mind, I'd be happy to have a clue on solving this issue.

It's strange I'm the only one seeing this. I must be mistaken on my calculations... but it's strange that worked so often and goes off in some fights. That makes my think that I missed a rule or technical detail.

The wiki says that resistance is more like this:

4 BB = 60% chance to resist = 40% chances to be hit.

A spell that has 140% chances to hit has, with 4 BB taken into account, only 40% * 140%, which is 56% to hit. In other words, BB provides here 44% resist.

Your post is hella confusing because you don't say what comes from tooltips, and what comes from your own assumptions/formulaes, which could be erroneous.



In bold what seems to make sense (44% close to 45%), the rest I have no idea.


BB4, Skill 120% -> 53% ?
YES, because 60% resist/40%hit, so 120% * 40% = 48% hit/52%resist

WP=2, Skill 135% -> 6% ?
YES, because 30% resist/70%hit, so 135% * 70% = 94.5%

BB=2, Skill 145% -> 2%
?? NO ? Same example as below.

BB=2, Skill 145% -> -1%
YES, because 30% resist/70%hit, so 135% * 70% = 101.5%

BB=4, Skill 140% -> 45%
YES, because 60% resist/40%hit, so 140% * 40% = 56%

Strange.

I assume you are correct, it seems to fit in the calculations.

Everywhere I look (on the Internet) it's a matter of additions and substractions. Not a matter of percentages multiplications. But that would explain it.

I you're right (and the more I think about it and the more I think you're right), it means what whatever scores you have on your primary attributes, if someone has 5 in his resist skill he'll reduce your % to hit to sh**. Even if you hit 200% to hit you end up with only 50% with your final chance to apply the status (-75%).

For a game that says itself to be a tactic one, it would be quite random... even punishing.

THANKS A LOT for taking time to explain this !!!

Bodybuilding 5 and 6 are reserved for just a few strong/special NPCs in the game. D:OS 1 already has a huge problem with overpowered CC. There are also skills that reduce BB and WP. They wouldn't have a function if CC-resistance was relatively low even for best protected characters (and high CC-resistance for strong enemies is more interesting, in my opinion, than simple status immunities to protect from CC; besides high armor with 0% chance of CC sucess, that's what D:OS 2's system is forced to do for balancing). Third, there's nothing bad about 'randomness' if you can calculate CC-success, and the possibility of failing actions requires more strategical thinking and tactics than (nearly) 100% predictability. It makes combat more dynamic and less deterministic.
From what I see, enemies can have quite high intelligence later on. If they were able to control you, no matter how much you invest in BB or WP, there would be a problem.

True.

I'm also glad they don't have the same number of skills and the same intelligence as main caracters . The game would not be playable at all ^^

Now I know that I guess I'll increase WP and BB... well... it might be to late at level 19 but I've made it this far.

I assume Witchcraft is by far the best magic in the game with the "Drain Willpower" ability.

I, honestly, would not have made it this far if I couldn't Drain WP + Blitzbolt + Petrifying touch to keep an enemy disabled for 3 turns... since even basic enemies can melt down any of my Lone Wolves with only one full turn.

Anyway thanks for the replies, it seems I need to stick to Loremaster 5 to know who or what I can CC.

I don't think it's the strongest no, but it's handy I suppose.

I posit you don't have any insanely strong master spells in your arsenal?

Sure, master spells damage are insane - well, at this level they are the only one that really count for damage purposes since basic enemies have 1750hp they don't really care about fireballs doing maximum 260 damage.

The only thing you can trust for damage in this game is weapons... they always works. You can't rely on one spell to do damage since many enemies have 50-70% resist, and a lot have more than 100% meaning they will be healed.

Last major fight I cast Earthquake, too late did I remember that they have 150% Earth resistance... my bad. Healed everyone except me on the battle field.

Really, magic is about CC and environemental effects like slipping, burning, stunning etc. only master spells really do damage. Weapons are about damage, they do the job.

By my experience, it's an equation that changes through the game : when u begin magic is really overpowered and weapon are meaningless, when you reach level 13-15 the equation changes, spell damage becomes somewhat irrelevant (except for master spells) and weapon damage breaks the roof.

I've seen undead walk through 15m of fire and take, like, 5-10% of his lifebar off. But hey, some of them just took nothing at all...

More or less, yes ^^

Outside of the big AOE master spells, damage spell (spells that are designed to do damage) don't really do much damage considering their AP cost (and even less when you consider their cooldown??).

Making the enemies walk in fire is excellent early game ^^
More potent than Lower willpower (which I quite never find msyelf to use in the end) is smokescreening stuff. It forces mages and rangers to come and pack as they don't have vision on you. Which nullifies their damage and makes them exposed. Comboing Oil and Firefly is very good early game, and even mid-game.

I totally agree, plus midnight oil + firefly makes a dark smokescreen... those in or behind got to move to see you.

During fights I allways tried to find narrow bridges or ways to force enemies to do the long way or go through damage... definitely one of the best defense/offense combo of the game.

For the smoke wall thingie, I admit I got always disappointed, while my hero couldn't see through, enemies always found vision. That just made them loose a bit of AP to get the spot where they could attack me.

But I admit not controlling vision is what made my first run in classic mode with 4 heroes so hard.

Yesterday night I beat the game with my two lonewolves in tactician mode... the game began to be easy when I found a bow with real damage. Even the Void Dragon couldn't stand it

All fights after the Death Knights near the source temple were easy with level 5 spells combos and that terrible bow.

Good on you :o)

You're perhaps a candidate for an honor speedrun then? =D

XD

I don't think I'd do it even if I were paid to.

Even with a relative mastery of field and skills I still made errors that killed me on regular fights, trust me I'm not ready for it !