So my copy of Daggerfall Chronicles eludes me still (if it did even still exist, I and my brothers wore that thing down to its spine), and every internet search I've tried has turned up nothing. What formula is used exactly for calculating a monster's saving throws, or for that matter how difficult your spells are to resist? I've come to wondering this since I've started my mage. This mage is pretty much the default Bethesda mage HP and skill-wise, except with 3xINT spell points instead of 2. Common sense dictates that to successfully land an offensive spell its some combination of your WIL, destruction skill, and level vs. some combination of their WIL, level and race/class specific resistances, but the actual formula is not documented anywhere besides the Chronicles which unfortunately is not at all available to me at this point.

I know the Elder Scrolls Series basically spawned from the developers' homebrew D&D campaign, but in real D&D offensive spells tend to do at the very least half damage when enemies make their save against them. Having my spells fail completely with no feedback other than "Save vs. spell made" is rather discouraging if I'm not made aware of the mechanics behind it in the slightest. For example, what are MY saving throws? Are there different ones for specific elements? Does the "Resistance to [element]" advantage in character creation improve my saving throws against that element? Do Nords get better saving throws against frost? Is there even more than one saving throw to begin with? Why am I here? Where are my pills?