Magic Defense (stat)

Magic Defense, also known as Magic Resistance, and Resistance, is a recurring stat that is used to determine how resistant a character is to Magic attacks. The higher the Magic Defense, the less Magical damage a character will take. Magic Defense can be increased by the positive status effect, Shell. Some magical attacks are piercing attacks and ignore Magic Defense.

Magic Defense seems to tie in with the Magic stat. For example, Black and White Mages, with their high Magic stat, often have an excelling Magic Defense stat while physical attackers have poor Magic Defense. Magic Defense can be interchanged with Spirit in some games.

Final Fantasy
Magic Defense is an invisible stat that depends on characters' armor and level.

Final Fantasy II
Magic Defense reduces the chance of being inflicted by a statusundefined. It is increased by being the target of magical attacks from the opposition party. The player cannot cast magic on their own party to increase the stat. The enemy does not need to cast the magic on the user, they just need to have selected it, so if an enemy was defeated before their turn, but they were going to use a Magic, this counts as a +1 to chance of increasing Magic Defense.

Magic Defense caps at 16. There is also a percentage that caps at 99. It uses a formula.

Final Fantasy IV
The base Magic Defense equals to the sum of all armor equipped. The Unequipped sections which includes armor, helmet, armlets, have a magic defense value of 0.

Final Fantasy IV -Interlude-
Magic Defense returns in the sequel to Final Fantasy IV, and works the same way as it did in that game.

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years
Magic Defense is calculated the same way as has its predecessors, meaning that magic defense is determined by the armor the character has equipped.

Final Fantasy V
Resistance, formerly known as Magic Defense, is an equipment statistic and represents the character's resistance to magical damage. Magic Defense is ignored if the target is weak against the attacking element, or when the spell cures the target.

Robes have the best Magic Defense, with the Robe of Lords and Black Robe being the best. Most shields don't have any Magic Defense, apart from the Genji Shield and the elemental shields.

Final Fantasy VI
Magic Defense is an equipment statistic and represents the character's resistance to magical damage. Magic damage is (usually) reduced by a factor of MDef/256 for any magic attack that doesn't ignore Magic Defense, but many strong magic attacks, such as Ultima, do ignore Magic Defense and will deal full damage. Special equipment pieces have the best Magic Defense, the best being the Reed Cloak, which only works if the character wearing it is an Imp.

Other equipment that offer high Magic Defense are Snow Scarf (Umaro's equipment, but Gau and Mog can use it as well), the Force Shield, the Minerva Bustier, the creature suits for Strago and Relm, and the Genji Armor.

Final Fantasy VII
Magic Defense is an equipment statistic. This, coupled with the Spirit stat, is meant to reduce damage by magic attacks suffered by the wearer. However, due to a bug, this stat is ineffective. As such, the only way to reduce magic damage is to increase the Spirit stat. At 255 Magic Defense, all damage from magical attacks is nearly halved.

Formula for Magic Defense:
 * $$MDf = Spr + Armor MDefense Bonus$$

Final Fantasy IX
Magic Defense is an equipment statistic and represents the target's resistance against magical attacks. If the attack heals the target (absorbs the damage due to absorbing the element or because it is a curative spell), or deals random damage (Comet and Meteor) Magic Defense is ignored. Gravity spells use a different damage formula that don't factor in Magic Defense.

Steiner's Mental Break can halve a target's Magic Defense and can be used repeatedly. Hats and armlets give the most Magic Defense. The Tin Armor is the only heavy armor with good Magic Defense.

Final Fantasy X
Magic Defense is a character stat acting as defense to magical attacks. The characters gain Magic Defense by activating Magic Defense nodes on the Sphere Grid. Lulu gets the best Magic Defense from her path on the grid, but eventually, every character is able to traverse any path. The player can also use Magic Def Spheres to attain higher stats; the spheres can be obtained by fighting One-Eye on the Monster Arena. The Magic Defense Plus % auto-abilities on a character's armor, can boost the character's Magic Defense even further.

Auron's Mental Break ability reduces Magic Defense by half, and some enemies can also use it against the player party. Lulu's Focus ability cuts damage that Magic Defense is considered in by 1/15th each time and can be used up to five times.

The Aeons have their separate stats in Final Fantasy X. They increase in conjunction with Yuna's, but the player can also boost them manually, and the stats also gradually increase when the player fights battles (any battles count). Of all the Aeons, Ixion has the highest base Magic Defense, whereas Ifrit has the lowest.

Final Fantasy X-2
The characters' Magic Defense acts as defense to magical attacks and depends on which Dressphere the character is equipping. White Mage has the highest Magic Defense, whereas Berserker has the lowest. Magic Defense can also be boosted by equipping accessories and using Garment Grids that grant stat boosts.

The color for the Magic Defense gauge in the menu is pink.

Final Fantasy XII
Magick Resist determines the rate of resisting damage from offensive spells and physical attacks from poles. It is determined by the headgear the character is wearing. Light Armor headgear have slightly better Magick Resist than Heavy Armor helms. The Technick Shear lowers the target's Magick Resist by 10% and it can be used repeatedly. No opponent is immune to it, but its base accuracy is only 33%.

Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings
Magick Defense is an equipment statistic and determines the rate of resisting damage from magickal attacks. Kytes and Ashe get the best Magick Defense in their armors, whereas Balthier's Magick Defense is the lowest. The Espers have their own MDef stats. Zodiark has the best MDef of all the Espers.

Final Fantasy XIII
By combining equipment, the characters can activate the Magic Wall synthesis effect that allows the character to take X less damage from magical attacks. For example 5 Magic Wall means it'll shave off the first 5 points of Magic damage the character takes, each hit. The highest Magic Wall is 30.

Final Fantasy Tactics
In Final Fantasy Tactics, the characters do not have a Magic Defense stat. Damage is calculated based on a formula for each attack. When armor is equipped, it increases the character's max HP, and possibly how often they evade attacks, but not a stat that reduces damage like a "Magic Defense" stat would.

However, there are effects that increase a character's resistance to attacks and thus increase their "Magic Defense". An example is the Shell spell, and damage can be greatly reduced based on the character's Zodiac Compatibility.