Conditions
Buffs, debuffs and status effects - how they are applied, how long they last, and what they stop you doing.
Almost every temporary effect in the game is a condition: a named state sitting on your character with a type, a duration and usually a magnitude. Blessings, poisons, stuns, elemental wards, songs and damage-over-time effects all use the same underlying system, which is why they all appear in the same place and behave consistently.
There are well over two hundred defined conditions. You will never see most of them, but the rules below apply to all of them equally.
Seeing what is on you#
buffs lists everything currently affecting you, split into a buffs section
and a debuffs section, each row giving the name, a short description of what it
does, and the time remaining as minutes and seconds. Permanent effects show as
~~~ rather than a countdown.
buffs all additionally shows hidden permanent entries and synthesises rows for
worn gear that grants health, spell point or endurance bonuses without
registering a condition of its own.
The display can be reconfigured with settings buffs, which offers a normal
bordered table, a plain accessible style, and custom colours. settings buffs
messages off suppresses the routine "you feel the blessing leave you" lines
when a buff runs out. Debuff expiry messages are always shown.
Types#
| Type | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Buff | A beneficial effect. Shown in the buffs section. |
| Debuff | A harmful effect. Shown in the debuffs section, and given a distinct expiry message. |
| Hex | A curse maintained by a caster, such as a necromancer's Blood Bond. Not listed by buffs, which shows only plain buffs and debuffs. |
| Maintained | Something you are actively sustaining, such as a bard's performance. Not listed by buffs, which shows only plain buffs and debuffs. |
Only the type of the effect changes how it is displayed and how its expiry is announced. The mechanical work is done by the individual condition.
Duration and expiry#
Durations are set by whatever applied the condition, not by the condition itself, so the same debuff can be brief from a low-level source and lengthy from a high-level one. Some conditions are permanent, which normally means they are tied to something else, such as a worn item or a stance that refreshes itself.
Expiry is checked when your condition list is read. During a fight that happens once every combat round, so an effect will never linger more than about two seconds past its time. Outside combat the check is lazy, and an expired effect is simply treated as absent until something reads the list properly.
Applying a condition that is already on you refreshes it rather than adding to it, and it never cuts short what is already running: if the existing effect has longer left, that longer timer is kept. A permanent version of an effect always outranks a timed one, and a damage-over-time effect re-applied does not tick twice as hard. Nothing in the system stacks.
Damage and healing over time#
Effects that tick do so once per combat round, which is every two seconds. A few of the slower afflictions - bleeding, infection, plague, and the necromancer's Grasp of the Dead - tick every third round instead, so roughly every six seconds. Burning deals a flat 10 damage per tick regardless of who set it, before your own resistances. Duration is the only lever an applier has.
Several caster-bound effects end early if the caster leaves the room. Resonance, Bladebind, Bloodboil, Wither and Soulburn all break when whoever cast them walks away, so retreating from a caster is a legitimate answer to them.
Healing over time works the same way in reverse, and warns you shortly before it fades so you know to reapply it.
Ticking runs on the same two-second round clock whether or not a fight is happening. Applying a damage-over-time or heal-over-time effect starts that clock in the room, so a poison landed out of combat begins ticking immediately and a burn still running when the last enemy drops keeps burning until it expires.
What conditions stop you doing#
These are the effects worth knowing by name, because they take control away from you rather than adjusting a number.
Movement. Rooted, stunned and knocked down all prevent you leaving the room. Hobbled is different: it does not stop you moving, it waits until you try, then throws you to the ground and knocks you down for eight seconds. If you are following a group leader, being stunned or knocked down will not stop you being dragged along, but being rooted will.
Attacking. Stunned and knocked down both prevent you attacking, and the combat round skips a stunned character's swing entirely. Knocked-down and stunned characters still hand their opponent a free counter-swing, so being disabled in melee is expensive twice over. Petrified prevents you acting at all, but a petrified target also takes no damage from anything and cannot be attacked at all, which makes it as much a reprieve as a punishment.
Speaking. Mute stops say, whisper and shout working.
Casting. Mute also blocks any skill or spell with a cast time. Instant physical abilities still work, so a muted warrior loses very little and a muted mage loses almost everything. Petrified blocks every skill without exception.
Fleeing. No Flee prevents flight outright, and a leg wound does the same. Fear inverts the problem: it forces you to flee every round whether you want to or not, unless one of those two is stopping you.
Common effects#
| Condition | Effect |
|---|---|
| Burning, Wither, Soulburn, Bloodboil, Bladebind, Resonance | Damage each round |
| Bleeding, Infected, Plagued | Damage every third round. Plague also cuts the victim's own damage by 20 percent |
| Decayed | 20 percent less damage dealt |
| Dissonance | 50 percent less damage dealt |
| Feared | Forced flight each round, and 15 percent less damage dealt |
| Blinded | 50 percent chance to miss, negated by the Blind Fighting passive |
| Eye Wound | 50 percent chance to miss |
| Mocked, Dirge, Deafened | 10, 5 and 15 percent less chance to hit respectively |
| Off Balance | 15 percent less damage reduction from armour |
| Sickness | You cannot eat or drink |
| Seduced, Charmed | Broken the moment the target takes damage |
| Bless | 5 percent better chance to hit |
| Aura of Fortitude | 10 percent more maximum health and armour class, for the paladin and nearby allies |
| Aura of Sanctum | Flat 10 percent damage reduction, and it does not use up the one-defence-per-attack slot |
| Go for the Eyes | 15 percent more critical hit chance |
| Elemental resistances | Typically 25 percent against one damage type |
Immunities#
A small number of buffs hard-counter a specific debuff. While you carry the relevant immunity, the debuff is refused outright and you are told you resisted it. There are five such pairings, covering knockdown, stun, root, mute and sickness, and applying the immunity also cleanses the debuff if you already have it. The healer's Unbending is a single buff that grants the knockdown, stun and root immunities all at once.
Aura of Stability blocks knockdown for as long as it lasts. The cleric passive Unshakable Faith blocks both knockdown and stun, but only while the cleric is below a quarter of their maximum health.
There is no general resistance or diminishing return on crowd control. An effect either lands in full or is refused outright, either by a specific immunity or, in the single case of knockdown, by shield-craft: a warrior of level 31 or above, or a cleric running Anvil of Kranos, keeps their feet through half of all knockdowns whether or not a shield is in hand.
Getting rid of them#
Healers and clerics carry the reliable answers. A healer can dismiss a listed set of afflictions directly, and several paladin abilities cleanse blindness and charm effects. Beyond that, the practical options are waiting the duration out, breaking a caster-bound effect by leaving the room, or triggering the break condition where one exists - damage breaks seduction and charm, for instance.