Parry, avoid blows, hard to hit[G5]

[DokEnkephalin]

According to in-game description and documentation, it reduces damage, but the guides I've seen regard it as useless because it doesn't guarantee deflection. Doesn't it still reduce damage, and if so, roughly how much per point?

 

And what do 'Avoid blows' and 'Hard to hit' effects equate to: dex, parry or straight armor?

[Randomizer]

Parry just has a small chance per level of deflecting blows. There is no damage reduction. In general it's not worth the points even for a pure fighter. You really need a lot to make it worthwhile since in the endgame there aren't that many melee attacks.

 

Dexterity, armor, and maybe luck reduce your chance of being hit.

[Mea Tulpa]

In some previous games, Parry did reduce all damage taken. It doesn't in G5. Don't trust the in-game descriptions, and don't trust GameFAQs. The best information is found in Strategy Central in this forum.

[DokEnkephalin]

The description for Essence Armor says it's 'better than Essence Shield', but it only looks about 2% better for twice the essence cost. Does it have any other worthwhile properties?

 

And how are the 'Avoid blows' and 'Hard to Hit' effects applied? I haven't been watching the hit percentages before and after, has anyone else seen any difference?

[Randomizer]

Go to a friendly, take off all you armor and items, cast essence shield, look at the numbers on your character info page, then cast essence armor, and look again to see the improvements. The effect is multiplicative so with lots of other armor, you don't see the change as easily. Also it increases with your ability to cast blessing magic and spellcraft.

 

Starting with Avernum 5 the spells were also supposed to make it harder to hit you, but except on easy and normal difficulties, you may not see that happen.

 

The "avoid blows" and "hard to hit" are in addition to you normal evaison chance from dexterity and luck. After the demo you don't always see monsters miss because they have a better chance of hitting you.

[DokEnkephalin]

There must be an error in the algorithm; if I cast the armor while wearing armor and then take it off, I get a larger increase than if I'd cast naked. Vice versa, if I cast without armor and then get equipped, I get a smaller boost than if I'd cast with everything on.

[The Ratt]

It doesn't add a set bonus, that's why you get different amounts based on what you have on. I don't know the numbers exactly, but someone does.

[DokEnkephalin]

Essence armor has scaled up some with more blessing magic, but the difference is still so marginal for the essence cost that it's ludicrous.

 

So that leaves the question of what 'Avoid blows' and 'Hard to hit' imbuements do; semantically they seem identical, but what do they do mechanically? If you're maximizing high armor, you'd want enchants that reduce damage more, if you're maximizing dex you'd want to be hit less, so this is kind of an important distinction.