[SixOfSpades]

Q'alooaith is right, Pirengle. Critical "Hits" and "Misses" only occur on To Hit rolls, not Saving Throws. Get your Saves to 0 or lower and you're guaranteed to make every Save, all the time. Barring things like Greater Malison or Save penalties, of course.

As for the whole bonus / penalty thing: Yeah, it's confusing as hell especially when a +2 bonus to Saves and a +2 penalty to Saves mean the exact same thing. That's why I try to avoid simply stating "+1": Wherever possible, I directly state if the modifier is good or bad, from the point of view of the person trying to make the Save.

Even more annoying are the spells that have Save modifiers, and don't mention it in their Descriptions (I think Hold Person is one).