Reflect · Game Mechanic Compendium

Definition

A reflect sends an incoming attack or spell back at its source or on to another target. A barrier absorbs or blocks the attack and leaves the attacker untouched; spell immunity, such as WALL in Final Fantasy (1987), is a barrier’s selective ward. The parry and dodge mechanic holds the timing window: a reflect needing a timed input runs through it, while a parry that only cancels the hit is not a reflect. A retaliation that is a separate new attack, such as Hellish Rebuke, belongs to interrupts and reactions.

Behaviour

A reflect status, such as Reflect or Bounce, returns spells aimed at its bearer to their caster, friendly spells included, until it expires or, in the Famicom Final Fantasy III, after one spell. A deflection is struck or held: Link returns Agahnim’s energy ball with a sword swing, and Genji sends projectiles where he aims. A redirection moves a spell’s target to another player. Counterplay is selective: Crag spells, cast on the ground, pass Bounce, and the 1974 ring ignores wands and staves.

Variations

Partial return (Dungeons & Dragons): a random share returns to the caster; the rest affects the wearer.
Absorb and return (Greyhawk): the Rod of Absorption soaks hostile spells and sends a spell back at the originator.
Projectile deflection (The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Overwatch, Hades): an attack or held stance knocks projectiles back along a new line.
Target redirection (Magic: The Gathering): the new target need not be the caster; Spellskite, which pulls a spell onto itself, borders taunt in the threat and aggro mechanic.
Echo return (Dota 2): the spell still lands on the shielded unit, and a copy is cast back at its caster.
Damage return (Diablo II, Magic: The Gathering, Gloomhaven): the attack lands, and mirrored or fixed damage strikes the attacker; Diablo II’s Thorns returns 250% of melee damage at level 1.

Gating

The 1974 ring is always on while worn, coded at will, and rare rather than costly: 2 results in 100 on the ring table. Greyhawk’s rod holds 100 spell levels without recharge, Gaze Reflection (1978) is a first-level slot spell, and the 5th edition ring returns a spell only on a natural 20 save. Console role-playing games charge per cast: 8 MP for Bounce, a level 7 charge for Reflect. Card games pay mana in response to the spell. Real-time games drop the resource: Link’s return costs an aimed swing, Genji’s Deflect an 8-second cooldown, and in Hades the gate is whether a run offers Athena’s boon, after which Deflect rides on at-will moves or on the Call, which spends the God Gauge. Gloomhaven’s Retaliate sits on cards recovered by resting.

History and provenance

The Ring of Spell Turning in Monsters & Treasure (1974) is the earliest documented reflect cited. The same booklet treats reflection as a monster weakness: the medusa “also is subject to the effects of its reflected glance”. Greyhawk (1975) adds the Rod of Absorption, and the 1978 Players Handbook has the earliest reflect spell cited, Gaze Reflection; Spell Turning as a spell is often credited to the 1989 second edition, which is unconfirmed. Atari’s Warlords (1981 Atari 2600 manual), in which a caught fireball is sent back, is a video antecedent. Dragon Quest III (1988) has the earliest video reflect cited, Bounce, ahead of Final Fantasy III (1990) Reflect. Overwatch (2016) and Hades (2020) made it an aimed or move-borne deflection.

Notable examples

Notable examples, in chronological order. Notes describe how the ability behaves in each game; gating is what limits its use there; the latest reference is a widely played game from 2020 or later.
Game	Year	Medium	Gating	How the ability behaves
Dungeons & Dragons Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson (TSR)	1974	Tabletop RPG	At will	The Ring of Spell Turning partly turns any spoken spell aimed directly at its wearer, dragon and cleric spells included but not Finger of Death. Percentile dice give the share that returns to affect the caster, and the remainder affects the wearer. The ring does not work against wands or staves.
Dragon Quest III Chunsoft (Enix)	c. 1988	Video	Mana	Bounce (Mahokanta), learned by Mages and Sages at level 24 for 8 MP in the original, is cast on the user and throws spells that target it back at their source, beneficial ones included. Crag-family spells, cast on the ground beneath the target, bypass it. Remakes limit it to 4 to 6 turns.
Final Fantasy III Square	1990	Video	Spell slots	Reflect is a level 7 White Magic spell bought for 20,000 gil, which the manual describes as bouncing attack magic back at the opponent with a reflecting wall. In the Famicom version it returns a single enemy spell to its caster, with an 80% base chance that rises with job level.
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Nintendo	1991	Video	At will	Agahnim cannot be harmed directly. His flashing energy ball must be struck with the sword or the Bug Net so that it flies back and wounds him, while his splitting attack and his lightning cannot be returned. The Mirror Shield also reflects Wizzrobe projectiles.
Magic: The Gathering Richard Garfield (Wizards of the Coast)	1993	Board & card	Mana	Reflecting Mirror (The Dark, 1994), an artifact, pays X equal to twice a spell's mana value and taps to move a single-target spell aimed at its controller to another player. Deflection (Ice Age, 1995) changes the target of any single-target spell, and Eye for an Eye (Arabian Nights, 1993) deals the next damage from a chosen source to that source's controller as well.
World of Warcraft Blizzard Entertainment	2004	Video	Mana, Cooldown	Spell Reflection, a warrior ability reportedly added in patch 2.0.1 (December 2006) at level 64, so in practice with The Burning Crusade (2007), reportedly raises the shield to reflect the next spell cast on the warrior back at its caster, for 5 seconds. It reportedly cost 25 rage on a 10-second cooldown and needed a shield and Battle or Defensive Stance; the rage cost was later removed.
Dota 2 Valve	2013	Video	Mana, Cooldown	Lotus Orb's Echo Shell shields a target unit for 5 seconds and re-casts most targeted spells back to their caster, while the shielded unit still takes the spell; it also applies a basic dispel. It costs 175 mana on a 15 s cooldown at 900 range in 2026 data, and targeted abilities from neutral items do not trigger it.
Overwatch Blizzard Entertainment	2016	Video	Cooldown	Genji's Deflect, a short channel on an 8-second cooldown, sends incoming projectiles towards the direction he is aiming and blocks melee attacks. Experimental patch notes of June 2020 tested raising its duration from 1.5 to 2 seconds with a manual cancel.
Gloomhaven Isaac Childres (Cephalofair Games)	2017	Board & card	Action cost, Per rest, Consumable	Retaliate X on an ability card makes the figure deal X damage to each figure that attacks it from an adjacent hex, or from within Y hexes with Range Y. It resolves after the attack, fails if the retaliating figure is killed or exhausted, stacks, and is not itself an attack or a targeted effect.
Hades Latest Supergiant Games	2020	Video	At will, Ultimate charge	Athena's boons add Deflect to existing moves. Divine Strike makes the Attack deflect, Divine Dash the Dash, and Athena's Aid makes the Call grant brief invulnerability and deflect all attacks, for 1.5 seconds at Common rarity. A deflected projectile is sent back towards the enemy who cast it.

Provenance

Earliest documented use: Dungeons & Dragons (1974), tabletop rpg. Confidence: medium. Monsters & Treasure (1974) lists Spell Turning on its ring table and describes a ring that returns a percentile share of any spoken spell aimed at its wearer to the caster. Confidence is medium for three reasons: the ring is an always-on item rather than an activated ability, and its return is partial and random; the same booklet already uses reflection as a monster weakness, the basilisk and the medusa being subject to their own reflected gaze; and the 1971 first edition of Chainmail remains unsurveyed, although Men & Magic (1974) and the 1972 second edition of Chainmail carry no reflect effect. Greyhawk (1975) repeats the ring and adds the Rod of Absorption. The earliest reflect spell cited is Gaze Reflection in the Players Handbook (1978), which has no Spell Turning spell; the spell form of Spell Turning is often credited to the 1989 second edition, which is unconfirmed. Atari's Warlords (Atari 2600 manual, 1981) is a video antecedent. Dragon Quest III (1988) Bounce is the earliest video reflect cited, ahead of Final Fantasy III (1990) Reflect; earlier computer role-playing games remain unsurveyed.

Sources

Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. (1974). Dungeons & Dragons, Volume 2, Monsters & Treasure. Tactical Studies Rules. Rulebook Magic Rings table; ring descriptions, Spell Turning; Basilisk; Medusae. Accessed 2026-10-24. The Ring of Spell Turning (results 97-98 on the ring table) with its percentile partial return, and the reflected gaze of the basilisk and the medusa; the ring table sits between the scan's page markers 23 and 25 and the description follows marker 33.
Gary Gygax and Robert Kuntz. (1975). Supplement I, Greyhawk. TSR. Rulebook Rod of Absorption, pp. 47-48; rings table, Spell Turning. Accessed 2026-10-24. The Rod of Absorption, which absorbs hostile spells up to 100 spell levels and lets its user redirect a spell back at the originator, and the repeated Spell Turning ring; page numbers follow the scan's page markers.
Gary Gygax. (1978). Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Players Handbook. TSR. Rulebook Illusionist spells, first level, Gaze Reflection, pp. 94-95; Hold Person. Accessed 2026-10-24. Gaze Reflection, which turns a gaze attack back on the gazer, the seventh-level magic-user list without Spell Turning, and the mention of a ring of spell turning under Hold Person; page numbers follow the scan's page markers.
Wizards of the Coast. (2016). System Reference Document 5.1. Wizards of the Coast. Rulebook Magic Items, Ring of Spell Turning (p. 237); Spells, Hellish Rebuke (p. 154). Accessed 2026-10-24. The 5th-edition ring, which returns a spell to its caster only on a natural 20 save, and Hellish Rebuke, a reaction attack outside the archetype.
Square. (1990). Final Fantasy III instruction manual. Square. Rulebook Magic section, white magic, Reflect (リフレク). Accessed 2026-10-24. The Japanese Famicom manual's one-line description of Reflect, which bounces attack magic back at the opponent with a reflecting wall; the entry lies near the scan's page marker 33.
Atari. (1981). Warlords Game Program Instructions. Atari. Rulebook Using the Controllers; Game Variations, C. Shields. Accessed 2026-10-24. The CATCH feature, which holds a fireball on the shield and releases it back towards the opponents at high speed.
Blizzard Entertainment. Genji hero page. Website Abilities, Deflect. Accessed 2026-10-24. Deflect sends incoming projectiles towards the direction Genji is aiming and blocks melee attacks.
Blizzard Entertainment. (2020). Overwatch Experimental Patch Notes, 2 June 2020. Website Genji, Deflect. Accessed 2026-10-24. Deflect duration raised from 1.5 to 2 seconds under test, with a manual cancel.
Isaac Childres (Cephalofair Games). (2017). Gloomhaven rulebook. Rulebook Retaliate, p. 26. Accessed 2026-10-24. Retaliate X and Range Y, their timing after the attack, stacking, and the rule that Retaliate is not an attack.
Blizzard Entertainment. (2009). Paladin: Offensive Auras. Website Thorns. Accessed 2026-10-24. The Diablo II Thorns aura, which returns +250% of melee damage to the attacker at level 1 and +1010% at level 20, at one-tenth in player-versus-player play, as given in the expansion era (Wayback Machine capture of 2009).
Hamza Khalid. Hades Boons and Blessings Guide. SegmentNext. Article Athena Boons. Accessed 2026-10-24. The texts of Divine Strike, Divine Dash, and Athena's Aid, which let the Attack, the Dash, and the Call deflect.
Final Fantasy Wiki. Wiki Reflect (ability); Reflect (Final Fantasy III); Wall (ability). Reflect as a level 7 White Magic spell with its single-spell bounce and base chance in the Famicom Final Fantasy III, and WALL in Final Fantasy (1987) as spell immunity.
Dragon Quest Wiki. Wiki Bounce. Bounce's debut in Dragon Quest III, its learners, cost, and duration, and the Crag spells that bypass it.
Zelda Wiki. Wiki Agahnim; Dead Man's Volley; Mirror Shield. Agahnim's returnable energy ball and unreturnable attacks, and the Mirror Shield's reflection of Wizzrobe projectiles.
Overwatch Wiki. Wiki Genji, Deflect. The 8-second cooldown of Deflect.
Hades Wiki. Wiki Athena/Boons (Hades). Deflected projectiles sent back towards the enemy who cast them, and the duration of Athena's Aid.
Scryfall card database. Wiki Eye for an Eye; Reflecting Mirror; Deflection; Spellskite. Card texts in modern Oracle wording, with first-printing dates.
Warcraft Wiki. Wiki Spell Reflection. The effect, the 2.0.1 addition, the Burning Crusade cost, cooldown, and requirements, and later changes.
Valve. Dota 2 item data, Lotus Orb. Website Active: Echo Shell. Accessed 2026-10-25. The 5-second shield that re-casts most targeted spells back to their caster while the shielded unit still takes the spell, the basic dispel, and current mana, cooldown, and range.

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West, James, Jr. (2026). "Reflect." Game Mechanic Compendium, updated 2026-10-25. http://localhost:4321/abilities/reflect

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