Magic cancellation

Magic cancellation, or, shortly, MC, is a property of some pieces of armor which protects against a wide variety of special melee attacks by monsters, such as poisonous killer bee stings and lycanthropy through werejackal bites. Generally, magic cancellation protects against magical attacks where the monster touches the player with some part of its body. Each piece of armor has a magic cancellation number ranging from 0 to 3, where 0 is the lowest (worst) and 3 is the highest (best). Having the highest magic cancellation means that only 1/50 of magical, body-to-body melee attacks will succeed (assuming they would hit otherwise). Note that not all special attacks are considered magical, see the list below for details.

The relationship between magic cancellation level and chance of a body-to-body magical attack success is as follows:


 * Magic Cancellation 0 = 100% (150/150)
 * Magic Cancellation 1 = ~67% (101/150)
 * Magic Cancellation 2 = ~35% (52/150)
 * Magic Cancellation 3 = 2% (3/150)
 * Monster cancelled by wand or spell = 0% (0/150)

All cloaks, some pieces of body armor and the cornuthaum provide non-zero magic cancellation. Note that magic cancellation is not cumulative - your magic cancellation is the maximum of that provided by any single piece of your armour. The following items have maximum magic cancellation (3):


 * Elven mithril-coat
 * Dwarvish mithril-coat
 * Elven cloak
 * Oilskin cloak
 * Robe
 * Cloak of protection
 * Cloak of magic resistance

Most players like to have maximum magic cancellation, but some favour the benefits conferred by a cloak of displacement (MC 2).

Difference between magic cancellation, cancelling a monster, and magic resistance
Magic cancellation is a property of armor that reduces the probability of certain special monster melee attacks of succeeding. A monster can also be cancelled by zapping a wand or a spell of cancellation. This is somewhat different from magic cancellation. Cancelling a monster completely removes the monsters ability to perform it's special melee attacks, while magic cancellation only reduces the probability of those attacks succeeding against the player. Also, the attacks affected by cancelling a monster are not exactly the same as those prevented though magic cancellation. See the article on cancellation to compare effects.

Magic cancellation is not the same as magic resistance. Magic resistance is an extrinsic that protects against spell, wand, and trap effects and damage.

How it works
The effects of magic cancellation depend on the attack type (e.g. bites and breaths) and on the damage type (e.g. physical or cold). Magic cancellation will only work against certain attack types that deal a certain type of damage.

Damage from the following attack types CAN be affected by magic cancellation
Magic cancellation applies only to a certain types of damage delivered through only following types of attacks. Except for the weapon attack, they all involve the monster touching the player with some part of their body:
 * Claw
 * Bite
 * Kick (note that the actual damage done by all kick attacks in the game bypasses magic cancellation)
 * Head butt (note that the actual damage done by all headbutts in the game bypasses magic cancellation)
 * Touch
 * Sting
 * Tentacle attack (note that the actual damage done by all tentacle attacks in the game bypasses magic cancellation)
 * Grabbing attacks (note that the actual damage done by all grabbing attacks in the game bypasses magic cancellation)
 * Weapon attacks

Damage types that ARE affected by magic cancellation (assuming that the attack type is affected)
Assuming that the attack type can be affected by magic cancellation, the following damage types will be affected too:
 * Fire (e.g. fire ant bite)
 * Cold (e.g. lich touch)
 * Shock (e.g. electric eel bite)
 * Sleep (e.g. homunculus bite)
 * Poison (e.g. killer bee sting)
 * Paralysis (e.g. guardian naga bite)
 * Drain life (e.g. barrow wight weapon attack)
 * Sticky attack (e.g. large mimic bite)
 * Lycanthropy (e.g. the werejackal bite when it is in animal form)
 * Slowing attack (e.g. Shade touch)
 * Teleport by the quantum mechanic claw
 * Sliming by the green slime touch
 * Disenchanting by the disenchanter claw (note that it does not protect against the passive disenchanting attack)
 * Constitution draining poison by the rabid rat bite
 * Dexterity draining poison by the quasit claw
 * Power draining by the energy vortex (interestingly, the attack type is engulf, and magic cancellation is hence bypassed. This may be a bug in the source code.)

Damage from the following attack types is NEVER affected magic cancellation
Regardless of the type of damage, the following attacks types will never be affected by magic cancellation:
 * Passive attackss
 * Spitting attacks
 * Engulfing attacks
 * Breath attacks
 * Explosions from proximity
 * Explosions from dying
 * Gaze attacks
 * Magic spells

Damage types that are NOT affected by magic cancellation
The following monster damage/effects are not affected by magic cancellation, regardless of how the attack was delivered:
 * Ordinary physical damage
 * Magic missile damage
 * Disintegration effects
 * Acid damage
 * Blinding effects
 * Stuning effects
 * Leg damage by Xans
 * Petrification effects
 * Gold stealing effects by leprechaun
 * Item stealing effects
 * Erosion effects (including rusting, corroding and rotting)
 * Confusion effects
 * Digestion damage
 * Healing effects by nurses
 * Drowning effects
 * Intelligence drain effects by mind flayer
 * Disease effect by Juiblex
 * Seduction effects
 * Hallucination effects
 * Amulet stealing effects by the Wizard of Yendor
 * Intrinsic-stealing effects by gremlins
 * Random clerical spell effects, magic spell effects or breath weapon effects
 * Special damage effects of the Riders

Common misconceptions

 * Magic cancellation does 'not' protect against paralyzing passive attacks nor gaze attacks, which include the attacks of floating eyes and Medusa.
 * Magic cancellation partially protects against disenchanters; it prevents the disenchantment though the claws, but not through the disenchanters passive attack.
 * Magic cancellation does 'not' protect against the hissing attack of the cockatrice.