Saving Throws

Saving Throws determine your character's ability to overcome harmful and damaging effects. It can be everything from dousing flames on your arm, to overcoming the effects of a charm spell, to recovering your sight after being blinded by a knave's dirty trick. A Saving Throw consists of rolling a number of d10s and comparing the total against the character's Saving Throw Score for a particular attribute (specified in the save ends effect). If the resulting roll is equal to or less than the Saving Throw Score, then you succeed on the saving throw, otherwise you fail the check.

Saving Throw Scores are equal to your character's Attribute Scores, with bonuses granted by his Physical and Mental Ranks (plus miscellaneous bonuses). Calculate your Saving Throw Scores using the equation below:

Physical Saving Throw Scores (STR, DEX, & CON) = Attribute Score + Physical Rank + Miscellaneous Bonuses
Mental Saving Throw Scores (INT, WIS, & CHA) = Attribute Score + Mental Rank + Miscellaneous Bonuses

Saving Throws are denoted as [ST Xd10 vs ATT] where X is any number (typically ranging between 1 and 6) and ATT is any attribute such as Strength, Dexterity, Charisma, etc. A few examples:

  • [ST 2d10 vs STR] means you must roll 2d10 and compare the result to your Strength Saving Throw Score.
  • [ST 4d10 vs CHA] means you must roll 4d10 and compare the result to your Charisma Saving Throw Score.

When subjected to an effect that a Saving Throw can end (denoted as SE), you may immediately attempt a Saving Throw as a free action (unless otherwise noted). If you succeed the Saving Throw , then you are not affected. If you fail the Saving Throw , then you must use the Recovery Action or other effects which grant Saving Throws to further attempt to negate the effect.

Examples
  • Gravus is subject to an ongoing 10 Bleed damage [SE, ST 4d10 vs CON] and has a Constitution Saving Throw score of 14. For his initial Saving Throw, he rolls the following result on his 4d10: 4, 7, 3, 9. The sum of his roll is therefore 23, and higher than his Constitution Saving Throw score of 14, so he fails the check. On his next turn, he uses the Recovery Action to make another Saving Throw and rolls: 7, 2, 1, and 4, giving him a total of 14. As this result is equal to or less than his Constitution Saving Throw score of 14, he succeeds the check and is no longer subject to the ongoing Bleed damage.
  • Later, Gravus is subject to the Dominate Person spell, and is Dominated [SE, ST 5d10 vs Charisma. His Charisma Saving Throw Score is 17. For his initial Saving Throw, he rolls 10, 3, 8, 5, and 4, giving him a total 30 and causing him to fail the check. The Dominated condition allows a free Saving Throw after each action is taken, and eventually Gravus is able to save with a result of 14 (rolling a 5, 3, 1, 1, and 4 on his 5d10).


Bonuses & Penalties

Races and Class Features, Feats, and Powers can grant Bonuses [STB] and Penalties [STP] to your Saving Throws. If a creature gets a one die bonus to a Saving Throw [STB 1d10], then that means they roll one less die when making the save. A Saving Throw bonus of 2 dice [STB 2d10], removes two dice from the Saving Throw, and so on. These bonuses are permanent and also apply to all future Saving Throws made against the affect the bonus was granted to.

Alternatively, an effect may grant a bonus to a single Saving Throw (or to Saving Throws made for the duration of a power or effect). These bonuses add a flat bonus to the creatures Attribute when making the Saving Throw. For example, if a creature gets a +5 bonus to a saving Throw [STB 5], then they adds 5 to their Saving Throw Score. As per usual, bonuses of the same type do not stack.

Penalties add a number of dice to the Saving Throw or subtract from a creature's Saving Throw Score. If a creature gets a 1d10 penalty to its saving Throw [STP 1d10], then that means they roll one more die when making the save. Like bonuses, Penalties of one or more dice are permanent and also apply to all Saving Throws made against the effect the penalty was applied to. If a creature gets a -5 penalty to a Saving Throw [STP 5], then they subtract 5 from their Saving Throw Score. It is possible to have multiple bonuses and/or penalties to a single Saving Throw; penalties and bonuses all stack and may partially or completely cancel each other out.

Example

Dirkus, a Dwarf with an 18 Constitution Saving Throw score and Rank 4 in the Physical philosophy, has just been afflicted with Sleep Dust (a poison) in the Poison Swamp. Sleep Dust requires a Saving Throw of 3d10 vs Constitution [ST 3d10 vs CON]. Dwarves gets a Racial bonus to Poison saving Throws equal to twice their Physical, giving Dirkus a +8 to this Saving Throw. The Poison Swamp imposes a 1d10 penalty to any Poison Saving Throws made within it [STP 1d10]. Dirkus's final Saving Throw vs the Sleep Dust is therefore 4d10 (3d10 plus 1d10 penalty) and compared against the dwarf’s Saving Throw score of 26 (18 plus 8 from racial bonus).

Dirkus rolls the 4d10, which results in a 10, 6, 3, and a 2. His total is 21, which would normally fail because this is higher than his Saving Throw Score of 18, but because he has the Saving Throw Bonus of 8 (from his racial ability) his modified Saving throw score is 26 and he saves.

Cumulative Saving Throws

Sometimes a creature is afflicted by the same Status Effect multiple times. When this occurs, the worst of the two Saving Throws are taken (if applicable) and the difficulty of the Saving Throw is increased by 1d10. A creature is not granted an initial save when this happens. For example, if a creature is subject to a 3d10 vs Charisma Saving Throw (gaining an initial save as normal), and is later hit with an attack that deals the same Status Effect at 4d10 vs Charisma, the result would be that the creature now has a 5d10 vs Charisma Saving Throw in order to overcome the effect and is not granted an initial save. This rule applies regardless of whether the Status Effect is the result of different powers or multiple uses of the same power. However, the maximum number of dice a saving throw can be increased to is limited to twice the number of dice of the effect.

For example, a character is confused multiple times, each effect having a saving throw of 3d10. The first works as usual, imposing a 3d10 saving throw vs the confusion effect. The second effect increases the save to 4d10, the third to 5d10, and the fourth to 6d10. The next effect cannot increase the saving throw to 7d10, because twice 3d10 is 6d10 (the maximum). However, if the character was then hit with a confusion effect with a saving throw of 4d10, the saving throw would increase to 7d10 (and then cap at 8d10 for another application). Note that If the character has a 7d10 and is hit with a 3d10 later, the saving throw is not reduced to 6d10 (it instead stays at 7d10).

There are a few exceptions to how Cumulative Saving Throws function, as follows:

  • Ongoing Damage effects always apply separately, even if they are for the same Damage Type and/or the same amount of Damage. Typically this damage will be suffered in different segments (since this timing is based on when the effect was initially applied), but the effects are considered separately even if they occur in the same segment. This means that a creature suffering from multiple Ongoing Damage effects must save from each effect separately.
  • Hobbled effects always apply separately. In this vein, damage from multiple Hobbled effects are suffered cumulatively and Saving Throws must be made separately against each effect.
  • Marked for Death or Petrified effects with different durations (i.e. Marked for Death (10) and Marked for Death (20)) apply separately.
  • In all other cases, Save Ends effects must be exactly the same or they apply separately. For example, an effect the causes a creature to be Blinded and Deafened is separate from an effect that only Blinds.