Fire Shield

Units with Fire Shield deal damage to creatures that make attacks against them¹⁾. Even attacks that do not hit will trigger fire shield; however, abilities which stop attacks from happening in the first place (e.g. Awe) will by extension prevent Fire Shield from dealing damage.

Fire Shields do their listed strength in magical, armor-piercing fire damage, and never miss. The base damage (before DRNs) dealt is reduced by the Length of the attacker's weapon, however.

Example

Length 0 attacks (Bite, Fist, Dagger, or any other attack without a listed Length are Length 0) take 0 less damage from Fire Shield.
Length 1 attacks (Short Sword or Long Sword) take 1 less damage from Fire Shield.
Length 2 attacks (Great Sword) take 2 less damage from Fire Shield.
Length 5 attacks (Pike) take 5 less damage from Fire Shield.
Note that, similar to how repel works, the effective weapon length is increased by +1 length if Size 6 or greater. Reducing an additional point of damage.

Sources of Fire Shield

Some troops, commanders, and pretenders have an innate, persistent Fire Shield. This can be boosted by empowerment or by giving them additional levels of Fire in pretender design; the damage boost is +1 for every level of Fire more than what they started with.

For example, the Baphomet has a Fire Shield with a strength of 16, but giving him 6 elevates its strength to 20, since he starts with 2.

The Fire Shield spell gives the caster a Fire Shield with a strength of 9, +1 for every level of Fire they're overcasting it by. It is a Level 3 Enchantment that requires fire 1 1 and zero gems to use.

For example, an Adon with 2 would get a Fire Shield with a strength of 10.

Then there's the Fire Shield bless; this provides a Fire Shield with a strength of 7, +1 for every level of Fire the blessed subject has.

For example, a Witch Hunter with 2 would get a Fire Shield with a strength of 9.

Last but not least, there are a few items that provide a Fire Shield with a strength of 9; these items are the Charcoal Shield (Construction 5, earth 2 2 fire 1 1, 10 earthgem 5 firegem ), the Carmine Cleaver (Construction 7, fire 2 2 earth 1 1, 10 firegem 5), and the Crown of the Fire King (Construction 9, fire 4 4, 25 firegem ).

unit-abilities

¹⁾

Note that testing shows that not all attacks provoke a response from Fire Shield. Dancing weapons like the Dancing Trident and the AOE attacks from Enchanted Salt do not cause a response from Fire Shield. Additionally, despite their name, spells like Freezing Touch are technically ranged attacks (Range 1) and therefore do not cause a response from Fire Shield.