As I'm sure we all know, Charisma-dumping is a very common thing in PF, unless you're a Sorcerer or Ninja or the like. Dumping every other stat has immediate tangible effects ... low carry capacity, poor AC/Reflex, poor HP/Fort, poor Skill Points, poor Will Save.
Dumping Charisma only really affects a handful of skills, and often there's someone else in the team who is specialized in those skills. Most other skills, everybody has to try; everybody has to try to jump the chasm, climb the wall, swim the lake, spot the ambush. You can't just designate a party jumper or someone to make all the Fortitude saves, but you can designate a party social-skill guy.
My idea is related to how I see Charisma; predominantly as a function of the character's courage and confidence. If anybody here has played the HERO System/Champions, it's Presence.
My idea is to create a fourth save category, the Fear Save. As the name says, it's what you use to defend against all fear-based effects. This obviously includes any spell with the fear descriptor.
Unlike the Will save, classes would good Fear saves would be those that primarily melee or otherwise put themselves in harm's way regularly. Fighters, Barbarians, etc get good Fear saves, Wizards and such get poor Fear saves.
Obviously, any bonus that was previously to Will saves vs Fear Effects becomes a Fear save bonus. I'm debating if generic Will Save bonuses should also apply to fear saves, or if I should create feats like 'Indomitable Courage' to mimic Great Fortitude etc.
A few notes (sorry for the negativity, I'm not fond of adding a 4th save):
You'd have to get rid of the item that gives immunity to fear (cant remember the name), as well as any other ability that does so.
While this will discourage dumping CHA, I think it will just make people more MAD than they already are; I try very hard to make balanced characters (IE, even my SAD-s are stated MAD-ly) and on a 20 pt buy, I would never be able to keep my 4 saves decent. It already costs SIGNIFICANT investment to keep 3 saves at the "bare minimum" so as to have all 4 saves decent... I see it as impossible. Considering how rare fear effects are, I would tend to think it would still be dumped.
Now, I believe the kirthfinder system has something similar, you might want to check it out. I didnt like it, but it's similar to what you propose.
Nothing wrong with constructive negativity.
I've never really seen anybody concerned with their saves outside of making sure they have a Cloak of Resistance, so that never really occurred to me. I've never taken a feat/ability/item solely to boost my saves in my life (aside from the aforementioned cloak). I can't recall the last time I saw anybody take one of the +2 to a save feats without it just being because it was a prerequisite for something else.
Nothing wrong with constructive negativity.
I've never really seen anybody concerned with their saves outside of making sure they have a Cloak of Resistance, so that never really occurred to me. I've never taken a feat/ability/item solely to boost my saves in my life (aside from the aforementioned cloak). I can't recall the last time I saw anybody take one of the +2 to a save feats without it just being because it was a prerequisite for something else.
That's surprising to me, because I would say 90% of my builds have at least one of those feats (my minimum saves are save=HD, otherwise you cant survive average CR-equal DCs). Then again, I like "balanced" characters; I dont like leaving weaknesses that cant be filled. It's my theorycrafting tendencies that make me that way, so I may ot be in the average.
If you want to tie something to charisma I would look at something like tactics or morale ratings. they can provide benefit or detriment to an entire group of PCs/NPCs without adding a 4th save
There's just no getting around dump stats, it's natural when there's a scarcity of PB. I think a better solution would be akin to 4e's two-stat system for saves.
That way you can be pretty balanced but still prioritize differently, including Cha instead of Wis.
Big proponent of fear saves using will, but only for the sake of keeping things simple. If you decided to make a fear-focused game, like a ravenloft/horror kind of thing, I could see implementing a separate feat mechanic.
That's surprising to me, because I would say 90% of my builds have at least one of those feats (my minimum saves are save=HD, otherwise you cant survive average CR-equal DCs). Then again, I like "balanced" characters; I dont like leaving weaknesses that cant be filled. It's my theorycrafting tendencies that make me that way, so I may ot be in the average.Nothing wrong with constructive negativity.
I've never really seen anybody concerned with their saves outside of making sure they have a Cloak of Resistance, so that never really occurred to me. I've never taken a feat/ability/item solely to boost my saves in my life (aside from the aforementioned cloak). I can't recall the last time I saw anybody take one of the +2 to a save feats without it just being because it was a prerequisite for something else.
We're pretty laid back about optimizing in general, and operate on the theory that the DM should adjust his challenges to the capabilities of the PCs, not the other way around. An entire party with, say, low Fort saves means 'I need to use poisons and such rarely' not 'I'm going to ream them with poisons'.