Spell Talk/Status effects, immunity vs percentage

[CWells]

Hi. I am trying to decide on a balanced approach to some powerful effects I have in mind for my game. The two states I am considering are called Neutral and Potency.


Neutral is activated from spells like "Neutralize". What this does is it removes any elemental effects applied to a target and also prevents the target from using any elemental spells, whether combat based or support based.


Potency is meant to counter Neutralize by creating a resistance to it. This would allow cold and heat based players/creatures to keep use of their abilities and skills provided they successfully resist Neutralize  But I am uncertain of whether to go full immunity or to simply raise the resistance to Neutralize while just falling short of pure immunity. My reasoning is rooted deep with how I am structuring the effects and how they are applied.


Neutralize is a spell that is applied to a character temporarily. While Potency is something that is inborn or learned. What do you like when it comes to one effect taking priority over the other?


Do you like inborn traits being more powerful than incoming spells? Or do you prefer an incoming strike taking priority over a resistance that will fall short of immunity?


I don't want to go the way of many RPG's where you end up coming across opponents/bosses that are suddenly immune to 3/4th of everything you throw at them. I'd prefer that all actions/skills are relevant and reliable for as long as possible.


What kind of structures do you like with skills and counter skills like the above?


Just a bit more detail on the respective skills:


Potency is a trait learned late in game after a player develops a bond with a certain element. The goal is to activate stronger skills and to increase resistance to neutralize.


Neutralize is meant to soften and slow down elemental powerhouses. It is meant to help you gain the upperhand against an opponent that heavily relies on a certain element. It also helps protect the player from elements that take advantage of the player/enemies weakness. If you are weak to fire, you can simply use neutralize to protect yourself, as well as use some other states to protect yourself from heat/cold based strikes.

 

[eadgear]

I think potency is a good idea. But you need to make it more details like, immunity against level 3 fire attacks. So aren't affect by any level 3 fire attacks but a level 4 attack can damage you. Levelling it up is something like this, repeatedly you faced a fire monster. After several hours of gameplay your fire immunity level up so you faced the monster again and laugh at it. But it looks like a cheat if I want to grind against a fire monster, It is not if you gain less experience from weaker enemy right?, fire monster of that certain level is consider as weak to you.