Armor

Understand Tyranny armor mechanics, including how generic and specific armor types reduce incoming damage and how secondary damage is affected.

Armor in Tyranny functions by subtracting its value from incoming attack damage of the corresponding type. While generic 'armor' applies to all attacks, specific subtypes take precedence if available. For instance, if a character has 10 armor but 0 arcane armor and is hit by an arcane spell, they will take full damage.

Unlike in Pillars of Eternity, Tyranny allows damage to be reduced all the way down to 1, without any minimum percentage of the initial value. This means stacking armor on characters is more beneficial in Tyranny, as increasing armor from 8 to 9 can result in a further 50% damage reduction (reducing damage from 2 to 1), whereas in Pillars of Eternity, increasing armor beyond 8 against a 10 damage attack would yield no additional benefit as the damage was already at its minimum.

There is a specific rule for secondary and triggered damage in Tyranny: it is affected by only 1/4 of the appropriate armor value. For example, if an ability like Imbue the Elements: Fire adds 25% extra weapon damage as fire, this damage is considered secondary/triggered. If you deal 20 base damage against a target with 8 armor, the normal damage will be reduced to 12, and the subsequent 3 fire damage (25% of 20 minus 2) will be further reduced by 1/4 of the 8 armor, resulting in 3 fire damage.

Damage over time (DoT) effects in Tyranny appear to be implemented as 'pulsing' damage, with each pulse affected at quarter strength, similar to secondary damage. This contrasts with Pillars of Eternity, where DoT damage was calculated as a total amount reduced by damage resistance (DR), with the remainder spread over the duration.