Saving Throws

Saving Throws are die rolls used to ascertain the efficacy of non-melee attacks such as magic, poison, or various other forms against a character or monster. The specific methods of countering or evading these attacks is a subject of considerable debate. The rules here presume that a successful saving throw implies that the defender has skillfully evaded, eluded, retreated from, escaped, parried, resisted, conquered, stood up to, mentally resisted, or fortuitously benefited from luck, lessening the impact of the attack. The danger of such attacks, and success in side-stepping them, enhances the overall game experience.

To achieve success in a saving throw, threatened characters must roll a result that is equal to or exceeds their level and hit dice. It's well to remember bonuses the character possessed from their race, class benefits, sage abilities, magical armour or other devices, and of course any spells in place or that should be put in place before coming into proximity of those attacks addressed by saving throw die rolls.

In most cases, the specific saving throw column to be used in the tables below is given as part of a spell or monster's attack description. In case of exceptions, use the column that seems most applicable in the situation and try to codify or correct that use afterward.

Bards, Fighters & Rangers

Level	Poison	Paralyse & Petrify	Polymorph	Rod, Staff & Wand	Breath Weapon	Other Magic
1-3	15	15	16	15	17	15
4-7	14	14	15	13	16	14
8-10	12	13	13	12	14	12
11-15	11	12	11	10	13	11
16+	9	10	10	9	11	9

Attacks

Assassins & Thieves

Level	Poison	Paralyse & Petrify	Polymorph	Rod, Staff & Wand	Breath Weapon	Other Magic
1-6	13	12	14	14	16	15
7-11	12	11	13	12	15	13
12-15	11	10	12	10	14	11
16-19	10	9	11	8	13	9
20+	9	8	10	6	12	7

Illusionists, Mages & Monks

Level	Poison	Paralyse & Petrify	Polymorph	Rod, Staff & Wand	Breath Weapon	Other Magic
1-4	14	12	12	11	15	12
5-8	13	11	10	9	13	10
9-12	11	10	8	7	11	8
13-17	10	9	6	5	9	6
18+	8	8	4	3	7	4

Clerics, Druids & Paladins

Level	Poison	Paralyse & Petrify	Polymorph	Rod, Staff & Wand	Breath Weapon	Other Magic
1-4	12	11	13	14	15	15
5-8	11	10	12	13	14	14
9-13	9	8	10	11	12	12
14-18	8	7	9	10	11	11
19+	7	6	8	9	10	10

Regardless of the type of magic a rod, wand or stave casts, always roll on that column for attacks by these items.

Non-magical monsters are counted as fighters. Magical monsters — those possessing either spells or natural magical abilities — should be treated as mages with their number of hit dice equal to the level indicated. Magical monsters that possess more hit dice than spell levels (such as dragons) should roll according to their best chance of success.

See Also,
Combat
Magic Resistance
Saving Throws for Items