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Consider a Rogue. The Rogue has reflex as its good save. The Dex mod is applied to the Reflex save.
As a Rogue goes up in level, both its Reflex save and its Dex increases at a relatively fast past (fast as compared to other kinds of saves and other attributes). So, by the time the Rogue is high level, there is a truly huge gap between what his reflex save is and what his other saves are.
The other classes do the same thing - they have certain attributes which are preferred and the saves connected to those attributes increase at a faster rate.
To put it another way, in my opinion, the weak saves are too weak and the strong saves are too strong.
Why do we need the double benefit of having a good save which benefits from our preferred attribute?
I'd like to see all saves increasing at the same rate and then modified by the attribute (so the reason a character has a strong reflex save is that they have a strong dexterity).
The problem of this would be that not every class has the same good saves as main attributes. Wizards for example have good will saves, but their wisdom usually isn't that great.
How about defining something like "class saves", giving a class that formerly had a save as a good save a one time +2 bonus on that save. It would function the same way as class skills, so you won't get huge saves by multiclassing any more. The base saves should be about half character level. To balance this with Save DCs I would recommend basing the save DC on half the characters caster level instead of spell level.
Has any of you took a look into the StarWars SAGA Edition?
That's exactly what they do.
- All Defenses (aka Saves) go up at 1/2 character level
- Each core class grants one +2 and one +1 to those (f.e. Soldier: Fort +2, Ref +1), except Jedi (+1 to all three)
- Class bonuses max and don't stack. Use your highest class bonus available for each Defense (Save).
Actually I am not a fan of increasing saves at all (since it doesn't make sense, that you get more resistent to ills or poisons only because you are more experienced - I would prefer feats for improving saves),
BUT since the Save mechanic is CORE for 3rd Edition, I wouldn't mind to see the SAGA system be adopted (MUCH less of a headache!)