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Combat: Elements & Weapons

Steam

Despite the colorful spell names, damage in Dungeon Settlers is binary: everything is either Physical or Magic. Weapons come in one-handed types that can carry a shield and two-handed types that block the shield slot.

At a glance

Damage typesOnly Physical and Magic (no elemental damage types)
Defensive statsPhysical Resistance and Magic Resistance only
Two-handed weaponsBow, Fire Staff, Greatsword, Nature Staff, Spear, Water Staff block the shield slot, per the client IsTwoHanded check in DS_B.0.4.29
One-handed weaponsBlunt, Sword can use a shield
Shield incompatibilityCannot be worn with a spear, a bow or any staff
Hit-location splitAbout 30% head / 70% body
GuardReduces incoming damage by about 50%
Critical hit1.5x damage
Encirclement+10% hit and +5% crit per surrounding unit. Defined in the data but not active in this build, since no code reads it

Damage types

RuleThere is no Water (or Fire/Nature) combat element for mitigation purposes. The element labels on spells are only a UI color, and enemies have just 2 defensive stats, Physical Resistance and Magic Resistance.

A "water" spell simply deals Magic damage. Ice- and frost-flavored abilities are Water Magic flavor, not a separate damage type.

One-handed and two-handed weapons

Two-handed weapons occupy both hands and block the shield/off-hand slot. The 6 of them are:

  • Bow
  • Fire Staff
  • Greatsword
  • Nature Staff
  • Spear
  • Water Staff

One-handed weapons (Blunt, Sword) can pair with a shield for sword-and-board play.

Watch outA shield can never be combined with a spear, a bow or a staff on the same unit.
NoteThe client's ItemSubTypeExtension.IsTwoHanded check in DS_B.0.4.29 (build 25846389) flags exactly Bow, Fire Staff, Greatsword, Nature Staff, Spear, Water Staff. Dagger and Axe count as one-handed there, but the build ships no Dagger or Axe item.

Combat constants

A few combat constants worth knowing:

  • Attacks split between head and body hit locations, about 30% head and 70% body.
  • A successful guard cuts incoming damage by about 50%.
  • A critical hit deals 1.5x damage.

Encirclement

The game data also defines an encirclement constant, a bonus per unit surrounding a target:

  • GAMESYSTEM_Combat_StrategyRule_Encirclement_BonusHitRate is a +10% hit-chance bonus
  • GAMESYSTEM_Combat_StrategyRule_Encirclement_BonusCriticalRate is a +5% critical-chance bonus
Watch outA decompile of this build shows encirclement is not wired into the combat code. No compiled code reads those constants, and the hit/crit resolution has no positioning term, so encirclement has no effect on anyone.

If the developers activate it, it would apply symmetrically from the first surrounding unit. The bonus would work for and against you, since combat resolution is faction-agnostic.

Inscriptions

You can still hand a unit a weapon or magic school its background doesn't grant by using a skill-tree inscription. That is how a caster can pick up, say, Water Magic.

Training a tree is separate from the gear a unit can physically hold at once. An inscription can't let a unit hold a two-handed staff and a shield simultaneously.