Lore
The Magic of Imarel - by T.A. Saunders ©2009, revision v2.9, 12.16.14
Magic is essentially the altering of reality to create an effect that would not normally exist in the natural world. Because of this magic to a degree can be effected by a person's perception as well as the good old fashioned method of getting the out of the way. An unskilled caster throwing a lightning bolt at a highly trained warrior may find him or herself a bit disappointed that the warrior only has a bit of hair standing on end, rather than being blown across the room. Conversely, a powerful archmage casting the same spell can put enough of his or her will into the spell to make it more effective against even a highly-skilled target.
In terms of game mechanics, a mage's overall spell hit determines, along with rank, the overall potentially of the spell. The total spell hit is subtracted from the target's armor value and the final percentage to hit is calculated.
This works fine for directional spells, like a lightning bolt or area of effect spells, such as a radiant blast, but when targeted spells are used, or illusionary magic, what then? Since either type of spell doesn't need to be aimed, or attempts to destroy a specific area, the character's mystic defense comes into play.
Mystic defense, unlike physical armor and agility is an unseen trait, that is a manifestation of a character's inherent resistance to sorcerous or divine attack upon their person, but is calculated in the same fashion armor rating is. All characters start out with a 0% mystic defense, unless their class or race has innate bonuses for it. In addition, while there are items that directly effect mystic defense, there are items that further increase it for specific effects, such as illusion or mental attack. In these cases, it is possible to say, for example that a hero with a mystic defense of -100% could have a mystic defense of -125% vs. illusion, if he was wearing some sort of magic or technomagical item that increased his mystical defense against that form of attack.
Finally, there are forms of abjuration magic, that can increase a group's mystic defense, or increase it for a specific form of attack as mentioned above. These spells never go over a bonus of -25% however, unless the caster has created a masterwork abjuration spell.