Saving Throws for Items

Saving throws for items apply whenever a character's body is thrown, broken or subjected to various natural and magical attacks that affect the charcter's whole person. In such instances, equipment can be damaged or incinerated, clothes can be made unwearable, substances can be rendered inert or useless and even armour can be destroyed. Therefore, when a character is subjected to any of the attacks listed below, the objects worn and carried by the character must also make a saving throw or else be ruined.

Items affected include weapons, clothing, armour, magical objects, containers, stored goods, alchemical preparations and anything else not directly protected from the effects of the attack. These saving throws are rolled individually per item, unless the object is part of a set — such as a suit of armour — in which case a single throw may be rolled for the whole. Most items use the saving throw category associated with their principal material: leather, cloth, wood, glass, metal, stone and so on. Items that fail their saves may be sundered, melted, broken, soaked, frozen, rotted, burnt or otherwise rendered useless or partially damaged, depending on the nature of the effect and the judgment of the dungeon master.

In most cases, an item's destruction should be apparent — a flask shattered, a scroll burnt, a sword warped beyond use. The game does not require precise simulation of partial degradation or tracking of every buckle and hinge, but encourages common sense and rulings made with consistency. Where it improves drama or realism, a DM may allow a damaged item to be repaired or salvaged, at cost, delay or risk. However, objects like potions, spell components or fragile one-use items are typically lost outright if their saving throw fails.

Adjustments

All magical items gain a minimum +1 bonus to saving throws against the effects described, regardless of their nature. If the item is a piece of armour or a weapon with an enchantment bonus, that bonus replaces the minimum — so that a +2 weapon, for example, gains a +2 bonus instead of +1. This rule extends to defensive magical items such as bracers, a cloak or a ring of protection, which use their own modifier when determining their save. Additionally, both the cloak and ring of protection grant a +1 saving throw bonus to all other worn or carried items belonging to the same character, reflecting a general aura of protection that these items bestow.

When the magical item is specifically enchanted to resist a particular type of damage — as with a ring of fire resistance against any form of fire — that item gains a +5 bonus against that specific effect. This stacks with any general saving throw bonus the item might possess.

Items that are stored within a container or shielded by a protective outer layer do not need to roll saving throws unless the container or covering fails its own roll. For instance, a scroll inside a scrollcase will not need to save unless the scrollcase itself is destroyed. A spellbook inside a box or chest is similarly protected. Garments worn beneath another item — such as a doublet under armour, or a linen shirt beneath a hauberk — are presumed spared if the outer article withstands the effect. Where multiple layers exist, only the outermost must save unless it fails, in which case the next layer is tested in turn.

Item material	Acid	Crushing blow	Disintegrate	Electricity	Fall	Fireball	Fire (magical)	Fire (normal)	Frost	Lightning	Normal blow
bone or ivory	11	16	10	20	6	12	4	3	2	8	1
book or leather	10	4	2	20	1	8	5	4	3	13	1
ceramic or pottery	4	18	12	19	11	5	3	2	4	2	1
cloth & food	12	6	3	20	2	15	14	13	1	18	1
crystal or vial	6	19	14	20	13	5	4	3	7	15	5
gem or pebble	3	17	7	18	4	5	3	2	1	14	2
glass	5	20	15	20	14	6	5	4	6	17	1
liquid	15	1	1	20	1	15	14	13	12	18	15
metal (hard)	7	6	2	17	2	6	2	1	1	11	1
metal (soft)	13	14	9	19	4	13	6	5	1	16	1
mirror	12	20	15	20	13	9	6	5	6	18	1
paper or parchment	16	11	6	20	1	8	18	17	2	20	1
wood or rope (thin)	9	13	6	20	2	12	10	9	1	10	1
wood or rope (thick)	8	10	3	19	1	8	6	5	1	12	1

Attack Forms

• Acid: includes breath of the Dragonis Malignans, giant slug spittle, enzyme from creatures such as the ankheg, along with substances like aqua fortis, aqua regia, vitriol, and other acid attacks.

• Crushing blow: refers to any overwhelming or massive physical impact that deals 33 or more damage in a single strike. When such a blow occurs, determine by 50/50 chance whether the character’s weapon or shield must first make a saving throw. If no shield is present, it must be either the weapon or armour. Should that first item fail its save, then the armour must immediately save. If the armour also fails—or was not present—then all items worn or carried on the upper body, both front and back, must individually make saves. It is assumed that at this point the blow has hurled the character bodily and compromised all carried gear.

• Disintegrate: includes effects that replicate the spell in name or force. All items within the effect’s 10-foot cube must make saving throws, regardless of whether they are protected or enclosed. Nothing is considered safe from this form of attack.

• Electricity: applies to all forms of ambient or creature-generated electrical discharge that are not defined as lightning. This includes attacks such as those from the electric eel or magical effects like an electrical glyph of warding. Attacks like shocking grasp do not trigger item saves. Furthermore, if the target is not grounded when struck, item saving throws are not required.

• Fall: describes falls where a minimum of 22 hit points of damage occurs. Unless the landing surface is 20° or more, roll 50/50 for the character's back or front to determine which carried objects are affected by the fall.

• Fireball: describes the effects of the spell, which lasts for a split-second. A failed save will scorch or discolour materials but will not render them useless, except in the case of delicate magical formulas such as potions, oils, ointments and healing salves. Magical scrolls that fail save have a 20% chance of being made unreadable; likewise, if a spellbook fails save, each individual spell in the book has a 20% chance of being made unreadable, so that it must be replaced.

• Fire (magical): describes one combat round's sustained exposure to fire produced by magical spells, such as burning hands, wall of fire and flame strike. Flammable objects failing their save will be set alight with normal fire. Other objects are considered scorched, smoked or singed, so that they are reduced in value by 20%. A saving throw must be made for each round that an object is exposed to magical fire.

• Fire (normal): describes one combat round's sustained exposure to naturally occurring fire, including burning oil, exposure to a firepit or a burning environment such as a house or forest fire. Flammable objects failing their save will be set alight. Other objects are considered scorched, smoked or singed, so that they are reduced in value by 10%. A saving throw must be made for each round that an object is exposed to normal fire.

• Frost: describes one hour's sustained exposure to ice crystals that infuse the object, coating it with rime or frost and causing its temperature to fall well below freezing. Objects that contain water will be split open by expanding ice. Paper, once it has thawed, will become wet and useless. Mirrors, glass and vials will crack. Hard metal or stone will, if subjected to a normal blow, will break without gaining a saving throw.

• Lightning: describes both magical and natural bolts of lightning passing through creatures and objects. Unlike natural lightning, magical lightning does not require the target to be grounded. As lightning passes through every part of its target, all objects must make save regardless of protection or location on the body.

• Normal blow: describes any strong physical blow that causes 22–32 damage (for greater blows, see crushing blow, above). Roll a 50/50 chance to see if the character's weapon or shield must save first; if there is no shield, then it must be either the character's armour or weapon. If the weapon or shield fails, the armour must save afterwards. If the armour fails (or there was no armour), then everything on the character's upper body, both back and front, must make save (following the armour's fail, it is assumed the force has knocked the character down).

Notes on Materials

• Bone or ivory: includes carved or otherwise fragile examples; unworked bones or tusks should be treated as thin or thick wood.

• Book or leather: includes armour made of leather or studded leather, tack, harnesses, straps, belts and most similar goods. The paper inside leather-bound books need save only if the leather fails; books without leather binding should be treated as paper.

• Ceramic or pottery: describes clay material goods of all sorts, with the exception of faience or majolica, which should be treated as crystal. When thrown as grenade missiles, ceramic flasks must break before the contents will have the desired effects. See liquids.

• Cloth & food: describes all natural fibres. Types of food that are sensitive to the attack form being saved against should save as cloth.

• Crystal or vial: describes glass that is made with lead; includes crystal balls, vials, lenses, figurines and ornaments.

• Gem or pebble: describes any mineral stone smaller than a plum in size. Larger stones are virtually immune to destruction, even disintegration. For organic gems such as amber, mother-of-pearl and pearls, see metal (soft).

• Glass: includes glazed windows, lantern glass, bottles and other like objects made of ordinary glass. See crystal.

• Liquid: includes magical potions, oils, salves and pastes; vitriol, aqua fortis and regia, distilled and fermented beverages, wine and vinegar, whale and lamp oil, perfume and poison. These must make saving throw regardless of the container's successful save, as a failure will indicate that the magic has been disrupted or that the liquid has gone rancid or become distasteful. Oils will not explode from magical or normal fire, or lightning, as long as they are still contained.

• Metal (hard): describes smithed and wrought metals used to make weapons, armour, tools, nails or other construction materials. The thickness of the metal is immaterial, only the manner in which the weapon was forged.

• Metal (soft): describes shaped or cold-hammered metal, including jewelry that has not been hard-forged into shapes and angles before manufacture. Organic minerals, such as amber, mother of pearl or pearls, save as metal (soft).

• Mirror: describes silvered glass. Steel mirrors that do not include glass should be treated as metal (hard). Silver mirrors without glass should save as metal (soft).

• Paper or parchment: describes unprotected sheets of paper or thin, unbound pamphlets; includes magical scrolls, dried leaves, field stubble or dry crops and grass. Failure to save vs. fire or lightning will cause paper and the outer pages of unbound books to burst into flame.

• Wood or rope (thin): describes examples in which the principle diameter of the object is less than ¾ths of an inch, including arrows, ordinary rope, bows, wooden weapons and handles, tools and so on.

• Wood or rope (thick): describes examples that cannot be considered thin as above, including wood and rope used for construction and living purposes, doors, floor planks, furniture, wagons, carts, heavy cable ropes and wooden armour.

See Also,
Combat
Injury
Saving Throws