Zadok_Allen: I always wondered. "Attack effects" refers to paralysis / hex / etc as applied by weapons, monsters and skills (e.g. paralysis might be resisted as a water effect). Crits would be one of the outstanding examples.
The level seems more likely. For one thing it's my impression that levels are at work (for what it's worth) and for another some effects are available in multiple magic realms (e.g. Instant Death). Just like spells attack effects could be influenced by both. Does some one know specifics?
My understanding is this:
For example, Diamond Eyes has a 20% Paralyze effect. This means that 1 in 5 times you hit an opponent (the attempt itself doesn't count - you have to hit) something like a dice throw is triggered, comparing your level to the opponent's level. In case you both are the same level, my understanding is (and this could be wrong) that there is a 50% chance your 1 in 5 times Paralyze effect goes through (i.e. 10% in total).
I don't know the exact formula behidn the dice throw, but I think it is not linear, but rather very "steep" (i.e. even like 5 levels difference has a big influence in terms of attack success). Someone has posted some examples somewhere, but whether that was accurate or not I cannot say.
As for magic resistances, I'm pretty sure that those have no influnce on the success chance of weapon effects. At least I've often hexed some higher level Mental resistant opponent with the Staff of Doom, but almost never got through with the respective spell.
BTW: I'm not sure what you mean by "some effects are available in multiple magic realms (e.g. Instant Death)". Each spell belongs to one specific realm (Divinity for Instant Death), and thus is also affected by only one specific magic resistance. Don't confuse this with magic schools - Instant Death can be learned from the Divine and Psionics magic school, but still only belongs to one realm (Divinity).
