Is Magic Interference nonfunctional?

[Clive]

I've noticed that regardless of how much heavy armor and weapons I slap on Firion, his magic doesn't seem to get any worse. With similar stats and the same spell levels as Guy, their numbers are virtually the same despite Firion being at just under 200 MI while Guy is sitting at 30. In the NES and even GBA versions Firion wouldn't be able to cast to save his life with the Golden Armor and Thief Gloves equipped with a sword and shield, but here it seems to not matter at all.

[Skoops]

I believe Magic Interference is not actually the same thing as the magic penalty. MI, from what I've observed, is a defensive stat that increases the chances of blocking spells entirely. At least in my experience, I have seen monsters cast spells on me and fail to cast them at all, such as Self-Destruct, and I'm fairly certain it's due to the Magic Interference stat.

I could very well be wrong, but this is what I've observed personally.

[nesoukefka]

From what I found on this website :

https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Magic_(Final_Fantasy_II)

Magic Interference apparently affect Magic Accuracy, the way spell damage works is behind the scene the spell actually does multi hits, base on the Spell LV and can add up to double the base hit count base on that formula :

Accuracy = Caster Bonus Stat - Caster Magic Interference + Spell Accuracy Bonus

Caster Bonus Stat = either the caster's Intellect for Black Magic or Spirit for White Magic
Caster Magic Interference = total Magic Interference of the caster's equipment
Spell Accuracy Bonus = spell's accuracy rating

... and so this is a funky, so in your case if your character's Intellect/Spirit is under 30 and you cast a spell that have a low Accuracy Bonus (apparently all elemental damage spell have 0 Spell Accuracy) then weither you have 30 or 200 Magic Interference will make no differences, your accuracy will be at 0 regardless and you only due the base guaranteed number.

[SolusEmsu]

Correct on the formula there ^
To add: Due to how that formula works, MI only matters if your stats (Int or Spi) are high enough to matter. Early game when you have <20 stats, MI is largely irrelevant as reducing 10% hit to 0% makes little difference. This also means that MI above 150 is redundant, as your +spell hit cannot be higher than 149 (99 in the stat, +50 from spell accuracy on the most accurate spells). MI in general affects status spells harsher than direct damage/healing spells, as status effects are binary hit/miss, while damage spells will always do something as they have a baseline effect which is independent of any accuracy/MI stats. You will thus not notice as much of a difference in damaging spells between characters of low/high MI unless they also have 90+Int, where it can literally mean double/half the damage, on average.

Damage spells have a set amount of base damage which is unnaffected by accuracy and MI, and then can deal up to double that base damage depending on the stats and MI. For example: Fire 6 with 50int will always hit 6 times, and then will have 6 additional possible hits at a 50% rate with 50int, minus your MI. If you keep your MI low, then as your core stat increases you will get more and more damage from it. The stat increases both the accuracy of the extra hits, and also gives a bonus to the base damage of the spell, resulting in way more output than just the base spell damage would indicate.

If you get all the way to 99Int/Spi, and max Fire to rank 16, it will hit 16 times, up to an additional 16 times at 99% hit each on the extra hits, potentially reduced by enemy Magic Defense stats but most enemies have little Mdef. Notable exceptions are the golem enemy types which all boast huge Mdef (Iron Giant has 14x100%) and several late-game bosses (the final boss has 16x70% mdef). It is worth noting that Dispel works against *every enemy* in this game, and thus if you rank it up enough it can remove the resistances of literally anything and you can then cripple them with Curse+Slow+Blind+Fog to turn them into a crippled mute. xD Yes, even the final boss can be done like this, so long as you hit a Dispel first.

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Skoops:

I believe Magic Interference is not actually the same thing as the magic penalty. MI, from what I've observed, is a defensive stat that increases the chances of blocking spells entirely. At least in my experience, I have seen monsters cast spells on me and fail to cast them at all, such as Self-Destruct, and I'm fairly certain it's due to the Magic Interference stat.

I could very well be wrong, but this is what I've observed personally.

This is actually due to your Magic Defense stats. They reduce enemy spell accuracy, and even seem to affect on-hit statuses. If your Mdef is high enough, Couerls cannot instakill you with their attacks and basically no status effects can hit you ever.

Self-Destruct is actually a unique case, as it fails entirely if the monster using it is at full HP at the time it casts. It can only explode if it is already damaged but not killed.