I'm just wondering if anyone knows the relationships between resist effects and weakness effects?

Does a 75% weakness effect balance out a 75% resist effect? And vice versa?

Would a character with 25% resist and a 50% weakness to something actually have a net 25% weakness?

Is there more math involved?

They're both the same actor values. Weakness effects are just detrimental versions. A 50% resistance will be canceled by a 50% weakness. This is, of course, assuming the weakness effect doesn't have a type. For example, should you create a detrimental ResistFrost effect and set it to be Frost-type, using it on a Nord will reduce the target to 25% frost resistance, because that initial 50% resistance halved the effect. Using that same effect on a target with no frost resistance would result in 50% weakness, or more literally, -50% resistance.

Thank you! I'm still a bit confused, though, haha!

So if a character was wearing equipment that offered 100% Fire Resistance, would a 100% Fire Weakness counter that? If not, what would?

80% is the cap IIRC, and yes. 80% fire resistance is countered by 80% weakness to fire to a bonus of +0

SushiSquid seems to claim they're multiplicative and paladin181 seems to claim they're additive. Or perhaps there's a more subtle distinction I'm missing here.

Does "ResistFrost" effect not automatically have a "frost type"? Or are you (Squid) saying that artificially assigning a "frost damage" type to a ResistFrost effect causes it to be mitigated by other preexisting ResistFrost effects?

They only multiply if the weakness effect is given the element. I don't know of any that are. I'm just saying that you can do it (I did for a recent mod), and that's how it works if you do. All resistance and weakness effects I know of are not given an element, so they're unaffected by other elementa resistance/weakness effects.

They're both depending on what the effect type is. If, like in SushiSquid's example a spell that has the effect of ResistFrost-50% is tagged as a "Frost Spell" that means that any existing "Frost Resistance" will effect the spell before it is applied. So if you have already have a 50% "Frost Resistance" then you would get a net of 25% because it would subtract 25% from your current resistance. The -25% is half of the effect of the ResistFrost-50% because it was tagged as a frost spell and was there affected by your existing resistance.

In conclusion: They are primarily additive though they can be affected by existing resistances if they are marked a certain way.

Keywords have nothing to do with resistances. What matters is the type you define on the magic effect. If you set it to Fire, Frost, or Shock, then those resistances apply.

The other types are Extra Damage, Poison, Drain, and None.

Oops, I wasn't sure so I took a guess. Will edit it to "effect type". Is that more correct?

Oh my! I think I'm even more lost, haha!

Ok, maybe I'll understand after a simple math problem, haha... and I stress the word "simple" ;-D


An NPC has armor that has 20% Resist Fire.
I strike the NPC with a weapon that gives 30% Weakness to Fire.
What is the end result?

20% Resist Fire + 30% Weakness to Fire = ?


Sorry for the confusion!

10% weakness. (as long as the weakness to fire isn't a fire type enchantment. In Vanilla Skyrim, they arent)

Got it, thank you! So if I gave an enchantment both that 30% Weakness to Fire effect AND a Fire Damage effect, the end result would still be the 10% Weakness to Fire plus the actual fire damage from the other effect? That is the effects work independently from each other even though they are under the same enchantment?


EDIT:

Just curious, but is there a way to turn a resistance onto a weakness? Basically, is there a way to detect the magnitude of the Resist, cancel it, and add the same magnitude of Weakness?

I would like to know this as well but I'm clueless with the math etc involved

The Weakness and Resist effects work on the same actor value.

Say you're a Dunmer... that gives you a natural ResistFire actor value of 50.

Say, you down a potion that gives +20 Resist Fire. Your ResistFire value is now 70.

Then you get hexed with a spell that gives Weakness to Fire 40%. Your ResistFire value is now 30. You REALLY mess it up , and get hit by a -100% weakness to fire. Your ResistFire is now -70.