If you cast magic spells with Magic Projection, how is Defense calculated (if you cannot block magic spells with your weapons, such as the Ki ability)...

I think you can still Dodge them, or rely on Magical Resistance for some spells.

could you elaborate more on your question, i dont want to give you an answer about something you already know, or the wrong answer altogether.

Pavlovian said:

a caster would roll his magic projection and calculate the total for the attack.

for the defender, lets say he has 95 in block and 15 in dodge (from dex bonus and nothing else).

if he does not have the abilities presence extrusion, energy armor, or aura extension to block energy based attacks then he must roll a dodge at -60 for dodge not being his primary means of defense. in addition, if the spell is NOT NORMALLY VISIBLE (an effect or spiritual attack that the caster does not give a visual descrip for) the defender also takes a -80 due to blindness.

The MINIMUM result that can be achieved is a 0 for your final total, as defense or attack rolls are not allowed to go negative. (a 0 roll essentially means you stand still and do nothing to avoid the attack).

E.G.: attacker final of 130, defender rolls 65 on dice, and it is an attack spell (ray of light). so 65+15 -60 = 20 final result. then use combat table.

EG2: spiritual attack that the defender cannot see, again attacker rolls 130 and defender rolls 65. so 65+15-60-80 = 0 final result. this probably achieves the esoteric effect of the spiritual attack, use the combat table to see if any special conditions trigger because of a better hit.

another example, if the spell in question is like a fireball (an area attack) the defender can only use block (impossible to dodge an area of effect) and if they cannot block energy it is a -120 to their roll, again with a minimum final result of 0.

Ok that was what I needed to know. Thanks.

Also: for spells not attack or defense, you only roll Magic Projection to see how far your effect goes, right?

Magic projection for non attack spells is usually to see how far they can reach. Certain spiritual spells that i cannot think of at the moment do require you to use projection to roll an 'attack' to get varied results on the combat table based on if you hit by less than 10% dmg or greater than 100% dmg

EDIT: bonds of light for example uses trapping rules, and to do that you roll projection for the attack. you can usually combine these 2 functions of range and attack value when rolling for such a spell.

note :

this is not how block and dodge work : the -60 is a penalty to either one of them to calculate the other score : if you have 90 block you're considered as having 30 dodge, and if you have 90 dodge you're considered as having 30 block, having one better than the other has no importance (p56, blocking and dodging : "this is the penalty that must be applied when a person with the Block ability tries to dodge an attack and vice versa")

your fights will semm less imbalanced, now, ilovecheese! , this rule is done as the majority of fighters won't develop Block and Dodge, so they can use the other wit the -60 penalty

TheTenth said:

Ah, i see! This makes more sense than i care to admit. Thank you sir, i will use this from now on, though for most of my characters it will not matter (they mostly have around 80 in their defensive skills. **** mentalists)