SAVING THROWS

Petrification or Polymorph. Excluding polymorph wand attacks.

Breath Weapon. Excluding those which cause petrification or polymorph.

Spell. Excluding those for which another saving throw type is specified, such as death, petrification, polymorph, etc.

N.B.: A roll of 1 is always failure, regardless of magical protections, spells, or any other reasons which indicate to the contrary.

Saving Throw—A die roll which is used in adverse circumstances to determine the efficacy of a spell, whether a character fell into a pit or not, whether a character escaped a dragon's breath, etc.

The chance to avoid or partially negate magical and breath attack forms is known as the save. (Note that magic items and even normal items and weapons must be saved for due to such attacks, falls or blows. Consider the fate of a cloak when exposed to dragon fire, a suit of magic armor struck by a lightning bolt, or a magic hammer flying through a cone of cold prior to striking its target.) 

Your Dungeon Master has tables which show the saving throw scores for these attack forms, by class of character, by level of experience in class. These base numbers are modified by the power of the attack, and by magical protections and character class and race.

SAVING THROWS FOR MONSTERS

SAVING THROWS FOR MULTI-CLASS CHARACTERS

Multi-class characters, characters with two classes, and bards check the matrix for each class possessed, and use the most favorable result for the type of attack being defended against.

POISON SAVING THROWS FOR CHARACTERS

For those who wonder why poison does either killing damage (usually) or no harm whatsoever, recall the justification for character hit points. That is, damage is not actually sustained — at least in proportion to the number of hit points marked off in most cases. The so called damage is the expenditure of favor from deities, luck, skill, and perhaps a scratch, and thus the saving throw. If that mere scratch managed to be venomous, then DEATH.

If no such wound was delivered, then NO DAMAGE FROM THE POISON. In cases where some partial damage is indicated, this reflects poisons either placed so that they are ingested or used so as to ensure that some small portion does get in the wound or skin of the opponent.

POISON SAVING THROWS FOR MONSTERS

There are exceptions to the death (or damage) rule for poison. Any creature with a thick layer of fat (where blood vessels and nerves are virtually non-existent) will be totally immune to poison from creatures which are not able to penetrate this fat layer when injecting their poison.

All swine, wereboars included, will be in this protected class. Similarly, very large creatures poisoned by very small ones are not likely to be affected. Even the poison of the deadly coral snake would not be likely to harm an apatosaurus. Giants would simply smash giant centipedes without fear of their poison - which would cause a swelling and rash, perhaps, at worst. Whenever a situation arises where poison is involved, consider both of these cases in reaching a decision.

SAVING THROW MODIFIERS

DM Stipulations: You may assign modifiers to any saving thiows as you see fit, always keeping in mind game balance.

Rule Stipulations: Some attack forms will always give an adjustment to saving throws because of the creature considered, e.g., a large spider's poison attack is always at a plus on the saving throw dice. Some attack forms always receive adjustments against certain creatures also. Check facts regarding the characters and/or monsters concerned.

Magical Devices and Protections: Various magic items (rings, armor, shields, etc.) allow saving throw dice modifications. In general, these modifiers are cumulative, unless otherwise stated. Some spells will also cause such modifications. It is necessary to familiarize yourself with all such information by having a working knowledge of both MONSTER MANUAL and PLAYERS HANDBOOK, as well as this volume.

Circumstantial Adjustments: Such adjustments are quite similar to DM stipulations. That is, if a character is standing in a pool of water holding a sword in his steel-gauntleted hand when the blue dragon breathes at him, you just might wish to slightly alter his chances of saving. In like manner, you might wish to give this same character one-half or NO damage from a red dragon's breath in the same circumstances. (In this same fashion you may feel no constraint with respect to allotting pluses to damage so meted out to players, adjusting the score of each die upwards or downwards as you see fit because of prevailing circumstances.)

Certain Failure: As shown on the table, a 1 is ALWAYS a failure, regardless of magical modifiers to the contrary. However, as DM you may adjust such failures according to prevailing circumstances, although any adjudication which negates failure on a roll of 1 is not recommended at all. Another rule you may wish to consider is allowing a save (where applicable) on c natural 20, regardless of penalties.

Of course, where no saving throw is permitted, magic armor does not then give such an option unless otherwise stated.

ITEM SAVING THROWS

[See ADVENTURES, Item Saving Throws.]

EXPLANATION

The term saving throw is common enough, coming to us from miniature wargames and D&D. It represents the chance for the figure concerned to avoid (or at least partially avoid) the cruel results of fate. In AD&D it is the same. By means of skill, luck, magical protections, quirks of fate and the aid of supernatural powers, the character making his or her saving throw takes none or only part of the indicated results - fireball damage, poisoning, being turned to stone, or whatever. The various saving throws are shown on the appropriate tables - for characters, monsters, and items as well. When someone or something fails to roll the number shown, or better, whatever is coming comes in full. To better understand the concept of the saving throw, the following is offered:

As has been often pointed out, AD&D is a game wherein participants create personae and operate them in the milieu created and designed, in whole or in part, by the Dungeon Master and shared by all, including the DM, in imagination and enthusiasm. The central theme of this game is the interaction of these personae, whether those of the players or those of the DM, with the milieu, including that part represented by the characters and creatures personified by the DM. This interaction results in adventures and deeds of daring. The heroic fantasy which results is a blend of the dramatic and the comic, the foolish and the brave, stirring excitement and grinding boredom. It is a game in which the continuing epic is the most meaningtul portion. It becomes an entity in which at least some of the characters seem to be able to survive for an indefinite time, and characters who have shorter spans of existence are linked one to the other by blood or purpose. These personae put up with the frustrations, the setbacks, and the tragedies because they aim for and can reasonably expect to achieve adventure, challenge, wealth, glory and more. If player characters are not of the same stamp as Conan, they also appreciate that they are in effect writing their own adventures and creating their own legends, not merely reliving those of someone else's creation.

Yet because the player character is all-important, he or she must always — or nearly always - have a chance, no matter how small, a chance of somehow escaping what otherwise would be inevitable destruction. Many will not be able to do so, but the escapes of those who do are what the fabric of the game is created upon. These adventures become the twice-told tales and legends of the campaign. The fame (or infamy) of certain characters gives lustre to the campaign and enjoyment to player and DM alike as the parts grow and are entwined to become a fantastic history of a never-was world where all of us would wish to live if we could.

Someone once sharply criticized the concept of the saving throw as ridiculous. Could a man chained to a rock, they asked, save himself from the blast of a red dragon's breath? Why not?, I replied. If you accept fire-breathing dragons, why doubt the chance to reduce the damage sustained from such a creature's attack? Imagine that the figure, at the last moment, of course, manages to drop beneath the licking flames, or finds a crevice in which to shield his or her body, in which to shield his or her body, or succeeds in finding a way to be free of the fetters. Why not? The mechanics of combat or the details of the injury caused by some horrible weapon are not the key to heroic fantasy and adventure games. It is the character, how he or she becomes involved in the combat, how he or she somehow escapes — or fails to escape — the mortal threat which is important to the enjoyment and longevity of the game.

If some further rationale is needed to explain saving throws versus magic, here is one way of looking at it. Magical power is energy from another plane channeled through this one by the use of certain prescribed formulae. The magic obeys (or disobeys) the magic-user because he or she controls and constrains it by a combination of the formulae and will-power. As magic-users advance in level, their willpower increases through practice, and so does their control. Inherently magical creatures exercise such control instinctively.

A character under magical attack is in a stress situation, and his or her own will force reacts instinctively to protect the character by slightly altering the effects of the magical assault. This protection takes a slightly different form for each class of character. Magic-users understand spells, even on an unconscious level, and are able to slightly tamper with one so as to render it ineffective. Fighters withstand them through sheer defiance, while clerics create a small island of faith. Thieves find they are able to avoid a spell's full effects by quickness...

So a character manages to avoid the full blast of the fireball, or averts his or her gaze from the basilisk or medusa, or the poisonous stinger of the giant scorpion misses or fails somehow to inject its venom. Whatever the rationale, the character is saved to go on. Of course, some saves result in the death of the character anyway, as partial damage causes him or her to meet death. But at least the character had some hope, and he or she fought until the very end. Stories will be told of it at the inn, and songs sung of the battle when warriors gather around the campfire. Almost, almost he managed to reach the bend in the passage where the fell breath of the blue dragon Razisiz could not reach, but at the last moment his to struck a protrusion, and as he stumbled the dragon slew him!