Defending against magic
What it is
Players, Runebound and bosses all cast spells. Your armour, the Warding enchantment, the Potion of Warding and your spellguard keep them from killing you in one blow. These rules are for players only: spells hit monsters as hard as ever.
| Defence | What it takes off a spell | How to get it |
|---|---|---|
| Armour | Full value against fire, lightning and blasts; a little over half against pure magic, frost and sonic booms | Wear it |
| Warding I-IV | 8% per level, added over every piece, up to 80% | Enchanting table, anvil, librarians, loot |
| Potion of Warding | 20% (40% at II) | Awkward Potion + Tinted Glass |
| Focus of Resolve | 20%, but your own spells are 15% weaker | Focus slot, or off-hand while that slot is empty |
| Resistance | 20% per level, as against anything | Turtle Master, Stoneskin, Reversal… |
| Protection | 4% per level per piece (nothing off a sonic boom) | Enchanting table |
| A Shield spell | Stops a spell, or turns it back on a parry | Shields and Parrying |
| Spellguard | One spell can’t take you from 80% health or more straight to dead | Everyone has it |
The layers multiply. Nothing makes you immune: a spell always hurts a little.
How to get it
Warding
An armour enchantment from I to IV. Each level takes 8% off every spell, added over all your pieces, up to 80%. It also works against sonic booms.
It can’t share a piece with Protection (or Fire, Blast or Projectile Protection), and both share the same 80% limit against spells. So:
- Protection IV everywhere: 64% off everything, nothing off sonic booms.
- Warding IV everywhere: 80% off spells, nothing off blades and arrows.
- Three Protection IV and one Warding IV: the full 80% off spells and still 48% off everything else.
Find it from an enchanting table, an anvil with a Warding book, librarian villagers, and enchanted books and armour in chests.
The Potion of Warding
Gives you Warded: spells hurt you 20% less per level.
| Potion | Effect |
|---|---|
| Potion of Warding | 20% for 3:00 |
| Long (+ Redstone) | 20% for 8:00 |
| Potion of Warding II (+ Glowstone) | 40% for 1:30 |
Splash and lingering potions let you ward your friends before a boss.
The Focus of Resolve
Takes 20% off spells that hurt you, while your own spell effects are 15% weaker.
How to use it
Armour
Armour counts fully against fire, lightning, blasts, falling stone and wind. Against pure magic, frost and sonic booms it counts for a little over half. As usual, toughness keeps more of its worth against a big hit, so diamond and netherite hold up far better than iron against a boss’s biggest spell.
The spellguard
If a single spell would take you from 80% of your health or more straight to dead, your spellguard breaks instead:
- you’re left on one heart, with a ring of amber light and the sound of a ward shattering;
- the rest of that spell can’t finish you either;
- it comes back after a minute.
It only guards against spells, only from high health, and never against /kill or the void. It goes before a Totem of Undying, Reversal, Second Wind or Rebirth, so those are saved for the next blow. A server can change its numbers or switch it off.
Bonuses against players
Execute, reactions, hexes, backstabs and the like multiply freely against monsters. Against a player, all of them together never make a spell more than 2.5 times as strong.
On the Cord screen
The amber shield beside the heart in the Cord screen shows how much less spells hurt you and from what, and whether your spellguard is ready (a small dot shows while it recharges).
Tips and counterplay
- With no armour, a boss’s biggest spell can kill you from full health. Wear your best set.
- Heal up before a big fight: the spellguard only holds from 80% health or more.
- Brew Warding for the whole party before a boss.
- Stack Warding on one or two pieces and keep Protection on the rest for a balanced set.
- See also Elemental Armour and Defensive Foci.