My players stay out!
So I'm running a campaign (with very heavy training wheels as this is my first spin as a DM) with several spellcaster antagonists lined up for later in the game. Looking over my players, only one of them has any shot at gaining SR, which means that they are very likely to get slammed if they run against these casters. I'd prefer not to kill them if it's at all possible to make the playing field a little fairer, but I don't know of any way of gaining any reasonable amount of SR (I remember seeing a feat that gives +5, and there's a high level spell not one of them can get).
What would be a good way of giving them the option to gain a little SR without breaking the system?
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/m-p/mantl e-of-spell-resistance
Tada.
But why do you think they need Spell Resistance? Many PCs take on enemy spellcasters without any SR. High saving throws are usually just as good, and easier to build. And with their own spellcasters, they can cast spells to protect themselves from enemy casters, if they know what's coming (protection from evil to avoid mind control, protection from energy if it's an elemental style blaster, so on).
SR is usually a hindrance on PCs, because it also has a chance of blocking friendly spells (and parties like to cast team buffs often), SR can be lowered for a turn, but it does cost a standard action.
dwarves have a racial option and clerics have a spell.
Ah, thanks! For some reason, I hadn't checked the wondrous items.
As for why...mostly because I'm a total noob. =) Played a little bit to learn the mechanics, DM asked if I'd like to take a spin at GMing just so we didn't have one person who never got a chance to play, and am still learning how things work. Hearing SR described as AC for magic kind of tripped a mild panic mode when I saw that most of them weren't going to do so well, especially since I saw quite a few spells that had no saving throw.
SR is very much the exception rather than the rule. PC's get saving throws for a reason.
That's good to know. Thank you!
My experience is that Spell Resistance is hard to get permanently in any amount that will make a huge difference against a dedicated spell caster of any level to be challenging. Their saving throws and protective spells will probably work better. If they run into the enemy spell casters too soon, just have them use lower level spells so the DC's are lower and play it off as them not seeing the PCs as a real threat. They can then make their escape to rethink their strategies when the party doesn't immediately crumple.
Also, most of the offensive spells that don't have a saving throw require a to hit roll and/or are less dangerous.
Spells that don't have saving throws often require an attack roll. There's very little in the way of auto-hit, auto-effect spells, besides Magic Missile. Which isn't a huge threat.
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Spell resistance is a trap for PCs usually.
SR works off of caster level check, the for PCs, SR is usually 5 + character level. But NPCs are often higher level. Assuming PC and NPC are at the same level, it's only a 25% chance that SR will stop a spell.
This is in addition to that allies have to beat your SR as well for you to get buffs during combat. If you are a dwarf fighter, the caster wants to Haste, he would need to beat your SR. Suppressing SR is also a standard action that lasts only for 1 round. Which means that character cannot attack or cast a spell generally speaking.
SR also does not turn off automatically, so if the character with SR starts dying, another character might not be able to get a healing spell off successfully. Channeling still works fine, but at higher levels, you'll want a cleric to cast Heal.
Suppressing SR is also a standard action that lasts only for 1 round. Which means that character cannot attack or cast a spell generally speaking.
SR that's actually good is 10 + character level or higher, because that's closer to 50% failure on saves. There is no standard PC race that has that feature. In fact, the only race that has SR are dwarves, and the +2 to spells, spell-like abilities, and poisons is much better.
For a items, I think the 21 SR is the best so far. That's going to be close to 80% - 95% for an enemy caster to fail the check. But it costs 90,000, which is almost a +7 weapon.
SR for PCs are a bad choice. I would not advise taking it.
Thank you all for your help. I'll try to limit the higher-level spells till closer to endgame and stress less about SR.