Why are you green? Are you a frog?
1. no. Damage from combat is damage. If it was a fireball, then he rolls a reflex save.
2. Pretty much.
It'll say "saving throw" "none."
3. Yep.
1. Do saving throws apply to all Damage that the PC's may take? For example, in hand to hand combat, would our Barbarian recieve of a fort or ref save after a monster had rolled to hit against his AC, and succeeded? Or does the AC represent the only chance to shrug off weapon damage?
No save for normal attacks. Just have to hit the AC.
2. If a spell or attack does not have a listed saving throw for half dmg or something of the like, does it mean that it does not allow a saving throw?
In the spells description it will say (none) if there is no save. Otherwise it will list what is required.
3. Do monsters receive these saving throws in combat as well?
Yes as listed in there description.
Why are you green? Are you a frog?
sorry. It's the Dayquil talking.
Hi everyone,
I'm currently starting off a campaign with three of my friends and we're all pretty new to Pathfinder, I have assumed the mantle of GM, and I'm loving it so far, but there have been a few questions that my players have brought before me that I haven't quite been able to find the answer to.
1. Do saving throws apply to all Damage that the PC's may take? For example, in hand to hand combat, would our Barbarian recieve of a fort or ref save after a monster had rolled to hit against his AC, and succeeded? Or does the AC represent the only chance to shrug off weapon damage?
2. If a spell or attack does not have a listed saving throw for half dmg or something of the like, does it mean that it does not allow a saving throw?
3. Do monsters receive these saving throws in combat as well?
The idea of rolling a saving throw for every attack/spell/ability seems like it could make some sense, but it also seems like it would really slow down play if both PC's and Monsters were attempting saves for everything. I appreciate any clarification on this matter, thank you in advance for taking the time to read this.
-Matt
Hi there! I am a bit of a green GM myself though I've already campaigned a session and I have played quite a lot as a PC.
Question 1:
If I recall, fortitude is meant for taking poison hits and stuff like that. If you fail your fortitude save, you are poisoned and if not you are not poisoned.
Reflex is used for example when the ceiling collapses and you need to roll a check to see if you dodge it successfully.
Will is mainly used against spells or mind affecting abilities/spells
So bluntly, only AC and spell resistance will matter with damage.
Spell resistance are only applied to magical attacks.
Also some spells give you a reflex save to give half damage. For example Fireball. The DC would be the lvl of the spell + 10 + the main modifier of the spellcaster
Question 2:
It always says if it has a saving throw or not. If it says Saving throw: No. Then it simply does not have a saving throw.
Question 3:
Some do, depending on the monster. Look into a Bestiary or something similar to get the stats. It's always neatly written like : +3 fort, +2 ref, +0 will
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I don't know where you got that the Saving Throw would be used when attacking with weapons, but to me it sounds as if your coming from another rules set that had the regular Saving Throws be some sort of Defenses instead. This made it so the attacker was rolling for any offensive use of a power/spell/attack. It would have been a good way to do the overall mechanic if the execution would have been as good as the underlining idea behind it.
In Pathfinder, when you use martial weapons and powers (most likely through feats) it goes against AC or, when effecting a condition, like Dazzling Desplay, uses a skill against a static DC.
Saving Throws are done against spells, some/most supernatural abilites (mostly done as a particular spell) and breath weapons. Traps also have characters roll their Saving Throws, most using Reflex with some that have poisons that require Fort.
Some spells have saving throws that negates effects, others for half damage and some that are what is amusingly called "save or die" type, though PF has expanded most of the icon spells to require multiple saves before the X's go over the eyes.
Keep in mind, some spells, mostly rays, have the caster roll an attack instead. Magic Missile auto hits everytime, no Saving Throw.
As an addendum to #2: Monster stat blocks that list spells or spell-like abilities will not always list individual DCs. You will have to check the spell being used to know if it requires an attack roll (possibly against touch AC), if it requires a saving throw by the target(s), or both!
Let's look at a few first level spells:
Magic Missile requires no attack roll and allows no saving throw.
Hold Person requires no attack roll and allows a Will saving throw to negate its effects.
Acid Arrow requires an ranged attack roll (BAB+Dex Mod, plus remember to apply cover and shooting into melee penalties) against touch AC and allows no saving throw.
Shocking Grasp requires a melee attack roll (BAB+Str Mod unless they have Weapon Finesse, which turns it into BAB+Dex Mod) against touch AC and allows no saving throw.
A given NPC wizard might just have them listed in his block as
Spells:
1st level (DC 14): Acid Arrow, Hold Person, Magic Missile x2, Shocking Grasp
That listed DC only applies to Hold Person, since it's the only spell of the four that allows a saving throw.
I hope that helps clarify some things for you!
RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32
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If I recall correctly, D&D 4e had a mechanic where Fortitude, Reflex, and Will were static defense numbers in addition to AC, and a different defense was targeted depending on the power used.
Examples:
[Str vs AC] -> 1d20+Str Mod, compare to AC
[Wis vs Fort] -> 1d20+Wis Mod, compare to Fort
Could be the source of his confusion.
It's all really simple. You only roll a save when you are told to do so.
So bluntly, only AC and spell resistance will matter with damage.
Spell resistance are only applied to magical attacks.
Minor clarification:
Spell resistance means that it's just hard to cast spells against you. If the spellcaster can't overcome your spell resistance, the spell simply does not take effect. (It takes a separate roll, a "caster level check", to overcome spell resistance. That is in addition to any attack roll for the spell or a saving throw.)
Damage resistance is just subtracted from the damage that you take from physical attacks. So if you have damage resistance 5, you subtract 5 points from the damage rolled on every attack and apply the rest. Damage resistance usually has a weakness associated with it, which is basically a trick to bypass the damage reduction.
For example, a werewolf might have damage resistance listed as "5/silver", which means that you subtract 5 damage from every attack. If the attack uses a silver weapon, it bypasses the damage reduction, and you apply the damage from that attack. Most spells will ignore damage resistance: the spell will say what kind of damage it does, so if it is any kind of damage other than physical, the damage goes through. (For example, a spell that throws a large boulder at your target would do physical damage, and damage resistance would apply.)
Energy resistance is similar to damage resistance, but it only applies against attacks that use specific type of energy listed. So energy resistance listed as "Resist Fire 5" means that you subtract 5 points of damage from any attacks (magical or natural) that use fire. All other types of energy do full damage.
Yeah. And actually, I liked that mechanic a lot, it made combat more consistent.
One of the things I really HATE about 4th ed. "The Evil wizard cats a spell at you...DM rolls dice...you die." If it's save or die or save or suck, I want to roll the dice.
Hi everyone,
I'm currently starting off a campaign with three of my friends and we're all pretty new to Pathfinder, I have assumed the mantle of GM, and I'm loving it so far, but there have been a few questions that my players have brought before me that I haven't quite been able to find the answer to.
-Matt
You should know that most encounters are rated for 4 players (and one GM). That means your 3 players will have slightly more difficulty than is normal. Go easy on them, slowly ratcheting up the challenge (throwing more difficult beasties at them when they're fresh) so you can figure out how much they can handle.