Magic Resistance

👉 This page covers Magic Resistance in GnollHack.

Magic Resistance is very important to get in GnollHack, preferably before dungeon level 8, when polymorph traps start to appear. It protects you from the following things:

• Polymorph traps
• Some other polymorph effects (see below)
• Anti-magic traps
• Monster spells

Additionally, unique monsters are shielded from cancellation spells and effects by Magic Resistance (see below).

🛡️ Sources of Magic Resistance

Granted by Items

• Cloak of magic resistance
• Gray dragon scale mail
• Ioun stone of magic resistance
• Orichalcum body armor
• Robe of magic resistance

Granted by Artifacts

• Magicbane
• Ruby Rod of Asmodeus
• The Ark of the Covenant
• The Eye of the Aethiopica
• The Eyes of the Overworld
• The Orb of Detection
• The Platinum Yendorian Express Card
• The Rod of Disjunction
• The Sceptre of Might

Granted by Potions

• Potion of magic resistance

Granted by Spells

• Anti-magic shell

⚠️ Nerfs to Magic Resistance

Contrary to NetHack, Magic Resistance does not protect you from:

• Death attacks — such as the Finger of death spell, or the wand of death
  • You need death resistance to be safe from death attacks
• Magic missiles — such as the Magic missile spell, or the wand of magic missile
  • You need full magic missile resistance to be immune to magic missiles
• Striking — such as the Force bolt spell or the wand of striking
  • You need full magic missile resistance to be immune to striking
• Curses — Magic Resistance used to halve the effect of incoming curses, but it does not do so anymore
  • You need curse resistance to be immune to cursing

🎲 Chance to Work

If a player gets Magic Resistance from an item, it always has a 100% chance to work.

However, monsters' Magic Resistance has a percentage chance to work. The magic resistance is listed in the monsters' stats.

💥 Cancellation Attacks and Magic Resistance

Cancellation attacks prevent players and monsters from using spells and wands.

They can be resisted as follows:

• Cancellation spell or effect against a normal monster bypasses magic resistance and has a 100% chance to work. However, unique monsters are still shielded from cancellation by magic resistance.
• Disjunction spell or effect bypasses every monster's magic resistance, including unique ones, and thus always has a 100% chance to work.
• Cancellation attacks against a player, such as the gaze attack of a gazer, bypass magic resistance and have a 100% chance to work.

Additionally, it is good to remember the following things about cancellation:

• If you zap a wand of cancellation or cast a cancellation spell at yourself or at items, it will set items' beatitude to Uncursed, set the enchantment to +0, make most potions into water, blank scrolls and spellbooks, and set items' charges to 0.
• Putting a wand of cancellation into a bag of holding will destroy the bag.

🐺 Polymorph and Magic Resistance

Magic resistance protects from:

• Wand of polymorph zapped at monsters
• Polymorph traps
• Polymorph other spell cast at monsters
• Polymorph from being hit with a wielded potion of polymorph

Magic resistance does not protect you from:

• Polymorph from ring of polymorph
• Wand of polymorph zapped at yourself
• Polymorph other spell cast at yourself
• Polymorph from drinking a potion of polymorph

ℹ️ See Also

• Resistances and Saving Throws