INTRODUCTION

The Ranger spell 620, Resist Nature, was introduced to GemStone in August of 2003 by GM Cyr. The spell went through some serious updates in June 2005 by GM Mestys. It allows Rangers who can cast it the ability to imbue cloth and leather armors (from Robes to brigandine armor) with the power to resist one of a few energy types (fire, nature, cold, or steam). The spell was again updated December 2007 by GM Mestys to include armor accessories. The strength of this resistance, as well as its duration, is dependant on the skills of the Ranger.

The procedure has a few steps, each with multiple conditions, outcomes, and requirements. The purpose of this document is to provide the guidance necessary to make these steps more apparent. Extensive testing has been done on the spell since its update, but there are holes to be filled, and may be incorrect information. Please make use of the address at the end of the document if you are aware of any inaccurate content.

THE PROCESS

In addition to the ASG requirement, the armor to be affected cannot be scripted or currently tempered by a Wizard for enchanting. Furthermore, the spell can only be used on five armors in a given week.

The first step in the spell's process is to cast 620 on the armor that meets the above requirements. The higher the enchant on a set of armor, the more likely it is to fail. The message received is indicative of eligibility and success.

INITIAL CAST

Failure, chance (try again):
You gesture at some vultite cuirbouilli leather.
The magic of your spell unravels and dissipates!
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.

Failure, armor not in hand (hold it and try again):
You gesture at some light leather.
The magic of your spell dissipates before it can reach the light leather.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.

Failure, exceeded five per week limit:
You gesture at some cuirbouilli leather.
You strain to cast the spell, but your spirit hasn't yet recovered from your recent channeling of this type of magic. Your spell's energy dissipates.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.

Failure, incompatible (armor is scripted, or being tempered):
You gesture at a set of darkly etched Sylvan scalemail.
Your spell's magic cannot permeate the material of the etched Sylvan scalemail.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.

Failure, incompatible (armor does not fall in the proper ASG range):
You gesture at some chain mail.
The magic of your spell fizzles against the surface of the chain mail.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.

Failure, armor is already resistant (remove the current resistance before attempting again):
You gesture at some leaf-etched dark armor with polished vultite skulls on the shoulders.
The magic of your spell wavers and lashes back at you!
   ... 1 point of damage!
   Your wrist is twisted slightly.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.

After a successful initial cast, ASSESSing the armor should yield a message similar to the following:

Careful examination indicates the armor has a base strength of 49 and a base durability of 325. You also determine the current integrity of the armor to be at 100.0%.
You examine the armor closely, lightly running your fingers over the material.
You sense that the armor is imbued with the magic of nature, but the magic is pourous and holds no hint as to its purpose. An emptiness permeates the material of the armor.

POTION PREPARATION

The next step is to acquire the appropriate potions for the resistance to be imbued. The table below lists the various desired resistances, their respective necessary plants, and the location(s) in which each plant can be foraged.

Each potion requires five pieces of the designated plant; multiple pours from a number of the single-dosed potions will be necessary to imbue the armor with resistance, depending on its Armor Sub-Group. Something as light as full leather (ASG 6) only requires three pours, while brigandine armor (ASG 12) requires eight.

Once all of the plants have been gathered, they must be processed and refined by a local herbalist, who can be found in weathered shacks in the following locations:

Each potion will take one hour to finish, and costs 3000 silver each, payable upon the herbalist's delivery. Only one potion of a given type can be made at a time. For instance, one drakefern and one frostflower potion may be made in a single shack at once, but not two drakefern potions.

POTION APPLICATION

When at least one potion has been readied, it can be poured upon the prepared armor from the first step. Please note that all the potions can be made and then poured all at once. Keep in mind that only the original caster can successfully apply a potion. Though the potions do not have to be used immediately, they do expire after about a week's time. Pouring the potion on the armor can result in one of a few outcomes, depending on chance and circumstance.

Success, ready for next pour or sealing cast:
You pour the frostflower potion over the leather of the cuirbouilli leather, working it into the material with your hands. After some time, the liquid is completely absorbed by the leather, leaving it feeling a bit more solid than before. You set the empty potion bottle aside.
Roundtime: 17 sec.

Failure, chance (try another potion), wrong potion type (use same potion type as previous pour), or the armor is ready for its sealing cast:
Your pour your potion onto the brigandine armor. The liquid simply rolls off the surface and falls to the ground as the empty bottle shatters in your hand.

Failure, potion has expired (get a fresh potion):
As you pour the potion onto the soft black cuirass, the liquid seems very thin and has a pungent odor. It rolls off the surface of the cuirass and onto the ground. The empty bottle shatters in your hand.

Failure, incorrect pourer (only the original caster can pour):
As you pour the potion onto the light leather, the liquid beads up and appears to be repelled from the surface of the leather. The empty bottle shatters in your hand.

Between each pour, it is important to ASSESS the armor to check its progress. In addition to the standard breakage numbers, a general progress of the armor should be determinable. The "holds no hint as to its purpose" should be replaced by one of the following, depending on the resistance type:

FINAL CAST

If "an emptiness permeates the material of the armor," it requires at least another potion pour. However, if "the aura of magic does not feel complete," the armor is ready for the final sealing cast. At this point, hold it in hand and cast the spell at it one final time.

Success, process complete:
You gesture at some ora brigandine armor.
A white aura surrounds the ora brigandine armor, pulsing softly in time with each beat of your heart. The armor seems to grow more rigid in your hands and you can sense rather than see a change in its organic material. The armor begins to feel as solid as it did before you began this process and soon the aura subsides.
Roundtime: 7 secs.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.

Failure, chance (try again):
You gesture at some shiny blue leather.
The magic of your spell unravels and dissipates!
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.

Failure, armor not in hand (hold it and try again):
You gesture at some light leather.
The magic of your spell dissipates before it can reach the light leather.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.

Failure, exceeded five per week limit (if working with more than one project at a time):
You gesture at some leaf-etched dark armor with polished vultite skulls on the shoulders.
You strain to cast the spell, but your spirit hasn't yet recovered from your recent channeling of this type of magic. Your spell's energy dissipates.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.

Failure, not enough potions poured (start the entire process over):
You gesture at some brass brigandine armor.
A white aura surrounds the brigandine armor, pulsing softly in time with each beat of your heart. Suddenly, the aura wavers and flickers. The material of the armor begins to slowly undulate in your hands as if trying to balance itself somehow. With a sharp crack the aura explodes outward, spraying you with the liquid it once held!
   ... 45 points of damage!
   Right eye evaporates in a burst of flame. Death from shock follows.

Note that throughout this process, regardless of success or failure, the armor will not be harmed. However, the caster is susceptible to damage if they prematurely attempt a sealing cast.

THE FACTORS

Once a set of armor has been successfully infused with resistance, a Ranger can ASSESS it once more to determine its Resistance Strength (RS), Resistance Life (RL), and the caster of the spell. The RS determines the magnitude of protection from the targeted element, while the RL dictates the number of strikes that it will last before wearing out.

You examine the ora brigandine armor closely, lightly running your fingers over the material.
You sense that the armor is imbued with the magic of nature, and your fingertips detect the slightest presence of cool air along the surface of the armor. The imbued magic in the armor seems to offer a very good amount of resistance to its targeted element. The strength of the magic's aura suggests that the resistance could falter after a great number of strikes. You also sense that this armor was imbued with this resistance by Cappurnicus.

The RS of the armor does not degrade with use; however, the RL decreases as the armor absorbs damage of the type the resistance is intended to protect against. When the RL is exhausted, the resistance is no longer inherent in the armor.
Additionally, resistant armor that is physically damaged may have its RL shortened depending on how badly it is damaged. Keeping the armor in good repair will provde for the best RL.

Any ranger who obtains this spell may attempt to use it with no further training in any of the skills that affect it. A few of the ranger's stats play a part in this spell, but the skills mentioned here serve as bonuses to the final result of the spell. In addition to the listed stats/skills below, there may be other factors that influence the result as well.

Aura, Discipline, and Wisdom stat bonuses will play a part, though not equal ones, in this spell.

Armor infused by the spell will reduce the critical damage of the specified resistance type by a percentage based upon the caster's Spiritual Lore, Blessings training. This resistance strength is equal to 20% + (Spiritual Lore, Blessings ranks / 2). So all rangers with this spell, regardless of lore ranks can cast the spell at 20% stregnth.

The duration of the resistance, or resistance life, is influenced by Mana Control, Spiritual and Ranger Spell ranks. When ASSESSing armor with Nature's Resistance imbuded within you should get a messaging of: a resistance life of either a number of strikes listed as under 50, under 100, or under 150, or it will say a great number of strikes (150+).

Training in Mana Control, Spiritual will also allow the ranger to cast the spell on damage or crit padded armor. The ranks needed for each degree of padding are listed below:

Encumbrance and climate play a part in the successful casting of Nature's Resistance. For best results be unencumbered and cast this spell out doors. A ranger can cast Nature's Touch (625) before casting Nature's Resistance to be able to cast inside.

This spell can be cast on armor with up to 10x enchantment.

THE BENEFITS

The immediate benefit of successfully completing a project is experience. The final cast yields experience roughly equivalent to a like-level kill (~100).

Resistant armor will protect against damage caused by attacks based upon its attuned element. A partial list of spells and circumstances that are dampened for each type is listed below:

Nature:All offensive Ranger spells, plus Sandstorm

Fire:Any spell or situation that uses fire to attack: They include but are not limited to bolts, immolation, lave golem hurls, weapon fire, fire mage death throes, boil earth, fire spirit, major elemental wave with fire flares, fire flares from nature's fury and the fire flare from dark Catalyst.

Cold:Any spells or situations that use cold to attack: They include but are not limited to ice bolts, major e-wave with ice, cold flares from Nature's Fury, environmental effects (pinefar/icemule/gossamer pass).

Steam:Any spells or situations that use steam to attack: They include but are not limited to steam flares, steam e-waves (including greymist area effect), steam flares from Nature's Fury, steam column damage from the columns in Luukos' Temple.

A fire sprite hurls a roaring ball of fire at you!
  AS: +307 vs DS: +270 with AvD: +44 + d100 roll: +74 = +155
   ... and hits for 14 points of damage!
   Minor burns to right arm. That hurts a bit.
The roaring ball of fire strikes you, blossoming into a much larger sphere of flame upon impact.
Your armor seems to resist some of the heat.
   ... 10 points of damage!
   Burst of flames to back toasts skin nicely.

ARMOR ACCESSORIES

Resist Nature, Ranger spell 620, has been updated to allow the spell to imbue certain armor accessory items with resistance. Any armor accessory items comprised chiefly of wood, leather, cloth, or bone are eligible for resistance.

620 resistance benefits for armor accessories will only apply when used in conjunction with rigid leather torso armor or below -- no benefit will be garnered from wearing them with chain or plate class torso armor. However, armor accessories imbued with resistance via 620 will also not cause the typical reduction in effective padding when worn with crit or damage padded chain or plate class torso armors, while the reduction will still apply when worn with rigid leather torso armor or below.

GM Mestys

ADVICE AND CONCLUSION

Though only Rangers can effectively cast the spell and make use of the potions, they are not the only ones who can have the potions made. It would be wise to have friends submit plants for potion-creation whenever possible, in order to expediate the process.

One of the restrictions for 620 is that armor currently tempered by a Wizard for enchanting cannot be imbued with resistance. The converse is not true - armor that has been made resistant via the Resist Nature spell is still temperable and enchantable. Since armors of lower enchants are easier to successfully imbue with resistance, it is generally a good idea to do so before starting an enchanting project.

Furthermore, it is possible to submit plants for refinement at more than one shack at a time. Especially convenient near the Wehnimer's Landing, Icemule Trace, and Solhaven area, this strategy can triple one's potion preparation productivity.

When gathering the reagents for a long-term project, it is also prudent to save up foraged plants. Though potions will expire over time, the stalks, flowers, and weeds will not. A trip to Kharam-Dzu can be made more efficient by stocking up a cache of drakefern before returning to the mainland.

The Resist Nature spell allows a Ranger to provide individuals having foresight of their environment with an extra edge. Proper training and specialization, coupled with the above tactics, allow for more effective assistance to those willing to wait through the process.

Please e-mail any additions, corrections, or suggestions for this guide to hailee@play.net.

Acknowledgements

Thank you to Cappurnicus for allowing me to update his original guide, much of which was kept intact. And thanks to Saberwolv for additional research on Meteor Swarm, enchantment testing, and general non-Ranger viewpoints during the writing of the original document by Cappurnicus. Thank you to Miaplacides for helping me test the new spell and giving me input. Information has also been taken from the official Simu website.
Kateerina