Scope RPG

HP, Armor & Magic Defense ​

Your survivability stack - how much you can take, and from what type of attack. HP is the raw pool; Armor and Magic Defense are the filters that apply before damage touches the pool.

Defense

Max HP ​

Your total health pool. When HP hits zero, you're out of the fight.

Driven by: Vitality. Every point of Vitality adds a flat chunk of max HP.

Multiplied by:

  • Class base HP - Knights start with the highest, Wizards the lowest.
  • Equipment Vitality bonuses (avatar only).
  • Real-life Vitality zone multiplier - avatar only.

Unlike Armor or Magic Defense, Max HP has no cap. Every point of Vitality keeps paying off, all the way to the attribute hard cap.

HP is pure absorption - it doesn't deflect damage, it takes it. Which is why most classes pair Vitality investment with at least some Armor or Magic Defense.

Armor (Physical Damage Reduction) ​

A percentage reduction applied to every physical hit you take. Each point of the Armor attribute raises this percentage a little, up to a hard cap.

Driven by: the Armor identity attribute, plus any Armor bonuses from equipment.

Interactions:

  • Knight perk - a baseline physical damage reduction floor sits on top of the Armor math. Knights reach the cap with far fewer allocated points.
  • Knight parry - parry chance is derived from your physical DR, so Armor investment also raises your parry probability.
  • Archer armor penetration - arrows ignore a fraction of your Armor before the reduction applies. High-Armor targets are the Archer's favorite prey.
  • Monsters have smaller DR floors than soldiers - that's part of what gives the player-side party a small defensive edge on even ground.

Knights compound

The Knight's Armor line is the best-compounding stat in the game. Armor points raise physical DR, physical DR raises parry chance, parry chance adds another chance to negate the hit entirely. One investment, three benefits.

Magic Defense ​

A percentage reduction applied to every magic hit you take. Like Armor, it has its own cap.

Driven by:

  • Half the effect of your Intelligence (the same stat that drives Magic Power).
  • Your class base magic defense points.

Interactions:

  • Wizard perk - a magic damage reduction floor, higher than the Knight's small one. Combined with Intelligence contribution, the Wizard is uniquely hard to burst with magic.
  • Real-life Clarity - for the avatar, the zone multiplier applies to magic defense on top of everything else.
  • Bard's Discordant Note - debuffs can subtract flat magic defense rating from enemies to open them up to spell bursts.

Intelligence is the only attribute that pays off on both offense and defense. Every point you put in makes you hit harder with magic and take less magic damage.

Damage Reduction Caps ​

Both Armor and Magic Defense cap at a maximum percentage. Past the cap, additional investment in the underlying attribute does nothing for damage reduction - though it may still help other derived numbers (Intelligence still adds Magic Power past the Magic Defense cap; Armor continues to contribute to parry for Knights).

Armor's cap is higher than Magic Defense's. The design is asymmetric on purpose - magic is supposed to remain threatening as a damage type even against magic-resistant builds.

When Defenses Apply ​

Both defenses run in the damage pipeline after the attack's raw damage and variance are rolled but before the critical hit multiplier. In order:

  1. Raw damage is calculated.
  2. Defense reduction applies (Armor for physical, Magic Defense for magical).
  3. Critical hit multiplier applies (if the crit landed).
  4. Dodge and parry run as separate negation checks.
  5. Any active damage-reduction buff (like Shield Wall) subtracts on top.
  6. Minimum damage floor - a hit that landed always does at least 1.

See Battle Overview for the full pipeline.