What else does reflex defend against?

[Asanarama]

I’m trying to avoid certain kinds of spoilers. The way I’m going to ask this question might seem weird if I hadn’t mentioned that: Does reflex ever defend against anything other than prone, stun, or damage? Looking only for “yes” or “no”, to avoid spoilers. If there’s a “yes”, then I might follow-up.

I’m pretty sure that the only things that reflex defends against are some sources of prone and all or almost all non-raw AoE damage. However, I’m asking because I’m considering a low-reflex, high-fortitude, high-will coastal amaua build that, with the help of the party, shouldn’t have trouble with prone, stun, or any incoming damage. So, if reflex ever does defend against stun or non-AoE damage, I don’t need to know. The rest of the party is going to have all defenses at least fairly high, so I’m not worried about them.

I guess that reflex might come up in dialog or scripted stuff, but unless it’s something extreme, I’d rather not know.

Thanks.

[baldurs_gate_2]

The whole thing is very confusing and there is no list of enemy attacks, that shows which defense they tackle. You could only figure it out when you fight enemies and look it up at the combat screen to the bottom right.

You could be basically immune to everything besides prone and stun, with the right scrolls or priest spells.

[Asanarama]

It seems that prone is the only status ailment that reflex ever defends against, at least when it comes to stuff that player characters can do.* Given that, I thought it might not be too much of a leap to guess that it's the same with stuff that your opponents can do. It sounds like maybe it is too much of a leap though. On the other hand, the in-game description of Reflex makes it sound like it doesn't defend against any status ailments, only AoE damage. I guess it depends on how loosely you interpret their use of the word "harmful": "...allows characters to dodge out of the way of physically harmful AoE attacks (e.g. explosions, bolts of lightning)."

*Well, standard stuff that players can do. At this point, I'm avoiding looking through the abilities that you get from certain quests, that sort of thing. I'd rather not know about that kind of thing until I play all the way through. Same with abilities that you find only on items. Standard player character abilities, however, I don't consider to be spoilers.

[Boeroer]

Reflex gets targeted by a lot of Area-of-Effect spells such as Fireball and so on. 

Have a look at this list for example (same stuff exists for Druid spells, Priest spells, Chatner invocations and so on and so forth). If you click on each spells you'll get a description which also tells you what defense it targets.
List:
https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Wizard_spells
Individual spell (look at "Defended by") :
https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Arkemyr's_Dazzling_Lights

If you don't want spoilers then you can assume that most damaging spells that have an AoE and are not having a disabling component but rather deal direct damage will target reflex.

Edited November 17, 2020 by Boeroer

[Asanarama]

I've searched the wiki. I'm willing to risk a spoiler, mostly because what I learned from the wiki makes it seem like this might be about an overall property of the game system, not something specific to opponents.

Because I'm asking with regard to a particular build idea, I can ask a less specific question than the issue seems to call for, possibly further avoiding spoilers. This might also make the question seem strange, but I've considered it very carefully:

Is anyone aware of anything that reflex ever defends against other than prone, stun, or damage? If so, I'd rather not know what it is, just that such a thing exists.

It's probably difficult to be reasonably certain that no such thing exists, but if anyone is, please say so.

Thanks.

[Boeroer]

There are also other spells and abilities that target reflex but instead of damage, prone or stun cause a debuff like for example "hobbled". Especially the Druid has stuff like Tanglefoot (hobbles) and Nature's Mark (lowers deflection and reflex) that targets reflex.

A stun effect targeting Reflex is more of an exception. Usually stuns (and also weakened, also sickened etc.) are defended by Fortitude. Effects that have illusion and 'mind' vibes often target will. But there are also some priestly fire spells that target will. 

There is no strict systemic rule to this. Honestly it's all over the place and depends a lot on the whole idea, in-game explanation and "lore" of that spell/ability. Like how does char X apply the prone effect? Does he swipe you off your feet? Then he targets reflex. Does he induce a dizzyness right into your head so you fall over? Will. Does he shove you? Fortitude. And so on. 

Sowithout lots of meta-knowledge (been there, done that) you cannot know which defense the enemy is targeting with a certain spell/ability. 

I would just dive into it and not overthink it. Most players restart after a few hours anyway because they understand the game mechanics a lot better then and have a better idea what they want from their character. My first ever char was a Fire Godlike Barbarian on normal difficulty. I scrapped him after some hours and restarted after Act I with a Hearth Orlan Rogue on PotD and so on...

Edited November 18, 2020 by Boeroer

[Asanarama]

I've restarted a few times already.

I ran into one myself: Forest Lurkers doing Stuck vs. Reflex. Kinda like Binding Roots, and guess what? That's another one that, like Slicken, doesn't mention the save in the ability table. It's mentioned only on the ability's individual page. I know I went kinda over-the-top in that post about a database, but having to check each ability's individual page? That's over-the-top too. My arms hurts just from thinking about how much clicking that would involve.

Oh well. This character doesn't have to change too much to have the amount of reflex that I want. It's a paladin, so it can have pretty low dex+per (to focus on healing, buffing, and being a meat shield) and still have decent reflex, especially with outworn buckler. I'm avoiding item-related spoilers, but it's in the first town, so I I found out about it pretty quickly.

[Boeroer]

I agree that it would have been nice to be able to see the respective defense in those spell lists. 

For Deadfire there are lists of abilities (in another wiki though) which directly show the defense the ability has to overcome. Doesn't help you with PoE of course.