I'm not sure how these powers stack, which is why I'm curious about this, but it looks as if you can completely ignore magic attacks if you make your character a certain way. I feel like I'm wrong in at least a couple areas here, as it looks too good, or possibly too broken, depending on your point of view, to be true.

Say you roll a Breton. 25% magic resistance
You use the Lord Stone. 25% magic resistance
Spec into Alteration and get Magic Resistance. 30% magic resistance

That's ignoring 80% of a harmful spell's effects right there, unless I'm mistaken on the way magic resistance even works.

Now, add in Atronach from the Alteration tree. That's 30% magic absorbtion. I'm not sure if this means you absorb the whole attack 30% of the time, or absorb 30% of the entire attack. I'm assuming the latter.

If it all adds up, that's negating the effects of 110% of a harmful spell effect. That's...impossible, which puts my theory to rest, but it doesnt put my curiosity to rest.

How do all of these things stack up? Do you first absorb 30% of the attack, then ignore 80% of what's left? Is it backwards from that? Or something completely different?

I'm about to make a Breton Conjurer that specializes in Conjuration (obviously) and Alteration, which is why I'm curious. Thanks to anyone who can enlighten me!

Firstly, hold off on making your conjurer. Magic Resistance of any kind does not currently work in the game, as of patch 1.02 (corressponding ones for 360 and PC). Wait for the new patch to fix this.

Secondly, spell absorption is not the same as resist. Resist caps at 85%, Absrob goes all the way up to 100, but you can only have a passive 80 (Atronach perk and guardian stone). 100 is only possible with the Breton dragonskin ability. Be warned, however! Spell absorption can make your conjuration and healing spells fail, so a high amount is not recommended for your build.

Lastly, elemental resist does go up to a 100, so if you find enemies that use only one element (dragons, dragon priests, etc.), you can use gear and potions to completely negate their damage.

Nothing new, you also use agent of mara, and one less perk in alteration, its caped at 85%, but magic resist and fire/frost/lightning resist are seperate from it, and are also caped at 85%.

Almost got it, but there's a 85% Magic Resistance cap. However Elemental Resistances can get you near 100%, as almost all magic damage is elemental, and Magic Absorb also stacks with all this. Some other things to consider:

- "Agent of Mara" perk from the Mara Temple quest gives +15% Magic Resistance

- Atronach Stone gives 50% Magic Absorb which gives you a 50% chance to absorb a non-resisted spell