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So today we had a couple enemies that were paralyzed. Our party cleric than casted Blessed Boundary, the enemies rolled a reflex save as per the spell. I’m just trying to figure out why is there a reflex save if the enemy is paralyzed? How is it avoiding the spell?
It has been thus for ages (3.5 at least). The deities' blessing is the most likely culprit.
I would also hazard a guess that it might be to prevent players from complaining if they did not get a save against something when they were paralyzed or stunned.
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There are some effects that you automatically crit fail against if you can't act. The only one I can think of off the top of my head is Engulf.
As for why Reflex saves don't even take a penalty, it's probably for balance reasons and ease of play. Paralyzed inflicts off-guard and can't act except for actions that don't require moving your body. Adding a Reflex penalty on top of that might severely restrict where the developers could use the condition.
It is interesting that paralyzed doesn't cause a penalty to reflex saves, and it might feel a little wonky, but it's probably for the best (more balanced).
It might be better to think of paralyzed as partially paralyzed. Imagine feeling your whole body stuck in molasses. You can move, but only a little, and very slowly.
Of course, the word paralyze doesn't necessarily evoke that, but if you imagine it that way it's easier to digest.
This isn't a new problem though. It kind of goes back to, if I imagine fireball being cast on someone that it's flat open plane with nothing to hide under, in, or behind and they're not moving from their square how can they even move someplace that would mitigate the damage from the fireball.....
Because that's simply how the rules work.
Most of the time, when you attempt a saving throw, you don't have to use your actions or your reaction. You don't even need to be able to act to attempt saving throws.The exact inworld reasons behind it is unexplained but examples given in the past is that paralyzed and stunned does not completely take away someone's ability to move their body, A paralyzed creature remains upright for example so they can still keep their balance.
As another example, if in-game paralysis was as complete as real world paralysis, targets would die of suffocation because their lungs would also be paralyzed.
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Best explanation is that reflex save also includes in-universe randomness, not just actual reflexes. That makes it match with how hazards that are immobile objects will have a reflex score for this sort of thing.
(It doesn't explain why there isn't a penalty, but it explains why there's still a roll.)
If you want a house-rule that isn't overly punitive, you can make it so that paralyzed creatures cannot get better than a regular success on a reflex save. It means that they'll always take at least some damage on a basic reflex save, but they aren't at additional risk of a critical failure when already in a bad situation.
(If that feels unfair to "upgrade a reflex success" classes, then have that feature allow getting a natural crit when it would normally be impossible. A rogue avoiding a fireball while paralyzed should at least be unlikely.)
Game reason: mechanics balance. We don't want Paralyzed to be an even bigger 'I win' button than it already is.
Narrative reason: unspecified. There have been a few presented, or make up your own.