Sometimes it's the simplest things that prove frustratingly elusive. I want to add a constant effect spell to an actor that will damage their attack power and destruction spell power so long as it is active.

So, I set up a magic effect as a Dual Value Modifier, Constant Effect, delivery Self, using AttackDamageMult and DestructionPowerMult as the associated items with 2nd AV weight set to 1.

I have Detrimental (have also tried with this off), Recover, and No Duration set. Under Spellmaking, Magnitude is checked.

I add this effect to a spell as an Ability (since diseases and poisons seem like they could be cured?), also tried as Spell, with Disallow Spell Absorb/Reflect and Ignore Resistance checked.

I have tried setting the Magnitude to 0, hoping this would function intuitively as a MULTIPLIER as documented on the wiki. However, it does not appear to effect either stat.

I also tried setting it to 10, which also had no noticeable effect on these two stats.

Basically, I want these two stats to be zero so long as the spell is active, so both melee attacks and destruction spells do no damage. If this was the player I would do it with perks, but I need to do this for a random actor.

Can anyone explain where I went wrong?

DestructionPowerMod and AttackDamageMult behave differently. DestructionPowerMod is by default at 0, and represents a percentile increase when positive or a percentile decrease when negative. I.e. for completely ineffective Destruction spells set it to -100 (use Detrimental&Recover with a Magnitude of 100). AttackDamageMult is a true multiplier, it's default value is at 1, and weapons do 0 damage if the value is at 0 (use Detrimental&Recover with a Magnitude of 1).

If they're still not working, open the console, select your testing subject and use GetAV DestructionPowerMod and GetAV AttackDamageMult to see if your Ability is actually effecting those actor values. Btw, depending on how you want this magic effect to be applied, shouldn't you simply use a Spell instead of an Ability?

Thanks, that's good information to know!

As to why not use a spell, this particular instance I am dealing with an uncertain duration. So, it was intended to work as an "until I remove it" type a deal.