Many spells and effects allow a saving throw to resist or reduce the effects of the spell or effect. Saving throws are calculated on your character sheet (see chart below). To make a save, roll percentile dice. If you roll equal to or less than your saving throw number, then you made the save. Modifiers may apply depending on the spell or effect.
There are five possible levels of success though Success Plus and Success Minus will often have the same effect:
- Failure - Rolled above save
- Success Minus - Made saving throw but by less than half (i.e., saving throw is 60 but rolled between 31 and 60)
- Success Plus - Made saving throw by half or better (i.e., saving throw is 60 and rolled 30 or less)
- Critical Success - Compare save to critical table
- Grievous Success - Compare save to critical table
The result of the saving throw roll will depend on the effect being saved against.
There are four kinds of saving throws:
- Magic Save - used to resist magical effects.
- Mental Save - used to resist effects, both magical and mental, that target the mind, such as fear.
- Normal Save - used to resist effects that target the body, such as poison, disease, polymorph and petrification.
- Luck Save - used to resist some area-effect attacks.
Disbelieve is often lumped into saving throws but is not actually a saving throw. It represents the character's ability to find flaws in an illusion and convince themselves that it is not real. If they make their roll, they still see the illusion but are convinced that it is not real. This usually means that they are immune to any damaging effects of the illusion, though there are some exceptions, such as Shadow Magic, which are quasi-real.
Actively Resisting
If a character knows or suspects that a spell or other hostile effect is coming his way, he may actively resist. This consists of withdrawing into yourself, clenching all the muscles in your body, closing your eyes, covering your ears and holding your breath in an effort to be less susceptible to whatever hostile effect is coming your way. Those actively resisting have a DEF of 0 unless they have magic on them that provides DEF without the need to deploy the item. Thus a magical Ring of Defense that provides 20 DEF would still provide the 20 DEF, but a magical shield that adds 10 to DEF would not.
Additionally, anyone attempting to hit the person who is actively resisting automatically hits with a melee weapon (an attack roll at +20 is made to determine whether the attack is a crit or grievous) while those attacking with a ranged weapon gain a bonus of +20 to hit.
Someone who is actively resisting gains a bonus of +20 to their saves against most single-target spells and effects that affect the body or mind.
Actively resisting must be declared before the character takes any actions for the round. The character loses all of their actions for the round.
Critical and Grievous Success for a Saving Throw
It is also possible to roll a critical or grievous success on a saving throw, using the same table as is used for cast chance and strike chance (see table below)
The effects of critical or grievous success depend on the nature of the saving throw.
For saving throws that result in half effect if the save is made, critical success indicates 25% effect (instead of half) and grievous success indicates no effect.
For saving throws that result in no effect if the save is made, critical success indicates that future saves vs. the same spell for the rest of the battle, are made with a bonus of +10. Grievous success increases the bonus to +25.
Modified Strike Chance | Grievous | Critical |
01…09 | - | 01 |
10…16 | 01 | 01…02 |
17…23 | 01 | 01…03 |
24…28 | 01 | 01…04 |
29…36 | 01…02 | 01…05 |
37…43 | 01…02 | 01…06 |
44…49 | 01…02 | 01…07 |
50…56 | 01…03 | 01…08 |
57…63 | 01…03 | 01…09 |
64…69 | 01…03 | 01…10 |
70…76 | 01…04 | 01…11 |
77…83 | 01…04 | 01…12 |
84…89 | 01…04 | 01…13 |
90…96 | 01…05 | 01…14 |
97…103 | 01…05 | 01…15 |
104…109 | 01…05 | 01…16 |
110…116 | 01…06 | 01…17 |
117…123 | 01…06 | 01…18 |
124…129 | 01…06 | 01…19 |
130+ | 01…07 | 01…20 |
Automatic Failure
A natural roll of 96 or higher on a saving throw automatically results in failure.
Item Saving Throws
When an item is subject to one of the below attacks, it must make a saving throw to survive intact. The roll is made on a d20. The roll must equal or exceed the number indicated (e.g., metal armor subject to an acid attack needs a 13 or higher on a d20 to survive intact).
Magic items gain a bonus to their saves equal to the power level of the item, minus 1 (i.e., a PL5 item would gain a +4 to its save).
| Item | Acid | Crushing Blow | Dis-
integration | Fall | Magical Fire | Normal Fire | Cold | Lightning | Electricity |
| Bone or Ivory | 11 | 16 | 19 | 6 | 9 | 3 | 2 | 8 | 2 |
| Cloth | 12 |  | 19 | | 16 | 13 | 2 | 18 | 2 |
| Glass | 5 | 20 | 19 | 14 | 7 | 4 | 6 | 17 | 2 |
| Leather | 10 | 3 | 19 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 13 | 2 |
| Metal | 13 | 7 | 17 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 12 | 2 |
| Oils | 16 ** | | 19 | | 19 | 17 | 5 | 19 | 16 |
| Paper, etc. | 16 | 7 | 19 | | 19 | 19 | 2 | 19 | 2 |
| Potions * | 15 ** | | 19 | | 17 | 4 | 13 | 18 | 15 |
| Pottery | 4 | 8 | 19 | 11 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| Rock, crystal | 3 | 17 | 18 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 14 | 2 |
| Rope | 12 | 2 | 19 | | 10 | 6 | 2 | 12 | 2 |
| Wood, thick | 8 | 10 | 19 | 2 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 9 | 2 |
| Wood, thin | 9 | 13 | 19 | 2 | 11 | 9 | 2 | 10 | 2 |
* This save does not include the container, only the liquid contents.
** Of course, even though the save is made, the item is probably hopelessly mixed with the acid. |
- Acid attacks (Acid) assume there is either a sizeable quantity of acid or that contact with the acid is prolonged.
- Crushing Blows (Cr. Blow) include strikes by the clubs of creatures of giant size or greater. Blows by normal people on small, fragile objects also fall into this category. A normal human could not do a crushing blow on a rope, which isn't very fragile, but could certainly do so on a potion flask. Breakable items hurled against hard surfaces--bottles thrown against walls, for example--also use the crushing blow column.
- Disintegration (Dis.) applies only to the magical effects of the spell or spell-like ability.
- Falls (Fall) must be greater than five feet. If the surface is hard, the listed saving throw is used. If the surface is soft, give a +5 bonus to the saving throw. For every five feet fallen beyond the first, apply a -1 penalty to the saving throw.
- Magical fires (Mag. Fire) include fireballs, dragon-breath, and any sizeable body of flame created by a spell or spell-like effect. Extraordinarily hot normal fires, such as the lava from a volcano, should also use this saving throw.
- Normal fires (Nor. Fire) include campfires, candle flames, and bonfires. Obviously, the item must be in the flame for a sufficient time to be affected.
- Cold (Cold) covers any intense, abnormal, or magical cold. If the temperature change is gradual, a +2 bonus is applied to the saving throw.
- Lightning bolt (Light.) applies to attacks by the spell or spell-like power of the same name.
- Electrical (Elec.) is for those electrical attacks that do not carry the wallop of the lightning bolt. Electric eels and magical traps fall into this category.
Saving Throw Table
Saving throws are automatically calculated in the online character sheet. The table below shows the base save based on stat. The saving throw can be improved with such talents as Magic or Mental Resistance and magic items such as a Ring of Protection. Overall level also improves saving throws by (Overall Level x 2).
- Normal saves are based on CON
- Magic saves are based on MA
- Mental saves are based on WP
- Luck saves are based on Luck
- Disbelieve is based on an average of MA and PER
Stat | Base Save |
1-5 | 3 |
6 | 5 |
7 | 9 |
8 | 11 |
9 | 15 |
10 | 17 |
11 | 21 |
12 | 23 |
13-17 | stat x 2 |
18 | 37 |
19 | 39 |
20 | 43 |
21 | 45 |
22 | 49 |
23 | 51 |
24 | 55 |
25 | 57 |
26 | 62 |
27 | 67 |
28 | 71 |
29 | 73 |
30 | 75 |
31 | 80 |
32 | 85 |
33 | 90 |
34 | 95 |
35 | 100 |
Ideas for New Saving Throw Rules
Problem Statement: Due to various rules, race bonuses, spells, magic items, etc., saving throws can be very high making spells where a successful saving throw negates the effect all but useless. Mages are much more likely to use other spells where a save simply reduces the effect rather than a spell where the save negates the effect.
Ideas:
- New table where you roll and add your bonus. This will allow for partial and near success rolls that will result in a reduced effect for the spells that are currently save negates. However, those with high saves will still likely get Success pretty often and the spell will be negated.
- Get rid of the concept of saving throws but allow resistance rolls. For example, someone is hit with a Hold Person. They are automatically impacted but can attempt a resistance roll each round (or maybe each action) to overcome the Hold Person and act normally.
- Keep Saving Throws but get rid of the save negates qualifier for spells. Unless you get grievous success, or have some sort of immunity, a spell will have some effect on you. Rewrite the save negates spells to indicate the effect of a successful save. This will be the solution of least impact but will require quite a bit of work on the part of the GM and will change the cost of spells where save currently negates (the current formula gives a significant cost savings for a save negates spell).
- Other ideas?
Most inclined towards number 3 above. Additional ideas around that:
- Right now there are 3 levels of a successful save; normal success, critical success and grievous success. For save negates spells, allow a 4th level of success called half success. This happens when you roll half or less of the number needed to save (i.e., you have a mental save of 50. If you roll 25 or less, but not low enough for critical or grievous success, you have achieved half success.) Spells will have to have descriptions for what happens when you roll half or critical success. Grievous success will still mean that the spell has no effect.
- Expand the list of immunities for high stats to cover many of the current save negates spells. Maybe a high CON means immunity to paralyzation type effects, etc.
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