A question about fortitude

[Da_Hubby]

Hey all, just got a quick question about fortitude saves in D&D 3.5 rulings because everything i see about it in the books is rather unclear.

Can a fortitude save half or negate in some way physical damage (IE longsword dmg).

Example. Kinkead attacks Jester with his longsword and does 6 damage. Does Jester get a fortitude save to half the damage? If so, how would one normally go about getting a DC.

We've been using 15 as a standard DC just for expediancies sake, but we're trying to get more and more into legit gameplay, and steer some of our more........ Napoleon complex players towards something other then the god-chara's they like to go for (and we subsiquently have to kill off >( )

As i said, the books are unclear, for example, the players handbook says under "Saving Throws" (Pg 136, top right corner) that "Usually when you are subject to an unusualy or magical attack, you get a saving throw to avoid or reduce the effect."

Now if you read just a bit further you will find under the subsection of "fortitude" " These saves measure your ability to stand up to physical punishment or attacks against your vitality and health"

That's an awful big contradiction there, where one part is stating that unusual and magical attacks are really the only save types, whereas another part is implying that even getting slapped deserves a save to reduce the damage. Any help that i can get on this subject would be greatly appreciated.

-Da Hubby

[Sean K Reynolds]

You do not get a Fort save against damage from swords or other melee or ranged weapons. In effect, your Armor Class is your "saving throw," except your opponent is trying to make you "fail" your "save" (by hitting you) with their attack roll.

Unusual attacks that usually require Fort saves are *special* attacks that you resist by brute physicality or endurance, rather than by dodging out of the way (which is a Reflex save) or by having a strong mind (a Will save). These sorts of Fort-save attacks include poisons (like from a snake bite) and diseases (like from giant rats). If a giant poisonous snake bites you, you don't get a Fort save against the hit point damage from the bite, but you DO get a Fort save against its poison. If a giant rat bites you, you don't get a Fort save against the hit point damage from the bite, but you DO get a Fort save against the disease its bite carries.

Make sense? :)

[PsychoticWarrior]

You don't get any save against damage done by weapons in 3E. I don't have my books in front of me but I would examine weapon damage rules for more clarity and any 'taking damage' entry in the index.

I do have to admit it isn't a bad idea though. For a DC I would use the attack roll used to hit the target.

[thorindale]

Without the books in fornt of me, it sounds like the system from True20.

[Da_Hubby]

PsychoticWarrior wrote:

You don't get any save against damage done by weapons in 3E. I don't have my books in front of me but I would examine weapon damage rules for more clarity and any 'taking damage' entry in the index.

I do have to admit it isn't a bad idea though. For a DC I would use the attack roll used to hit the target.

Thank you all for you help in this matter, we really appreciate it over here (we've got as many as 12 people a game lol).

We've spent the time waiting for a reply trying to refine our.... "alternate" save system we'll call it.

We think that the best way to do a dc for something like this would be as thus:

Kinkead attacks Jester with his longsword dealing 6 damage. Jester rolls his save to half the damage, His difficulty is 10 + whatever amount of damage he took was, in this case 6 so the DC would be 16. We think this would be ideal because when you get to level 10+ chara's who gain higher saves due to level and magical equipment, then the idea of saving for half damage on a higher DC due to the higher level of damage being dealt isn't unreasonable, but niether will it be easy, and it allows some chara's a little more staying power.

Either way, thank you all very much for your assistance in this matter.

~Da Hubby

[A Man In Black]

You may want to investigate True20, where all attacks target one of your three defenses, which are similar to saving throws. Reflex defense is used for basic physical attacks.