Saving throws

[Arathor]

Can anyone tell me how saving throws are determined or direct me to a website that could tell me? Do attributes like str. and con. have anything to do with it, or is it just race?

Thanks

[McHaggis]

Your class determines your saving throws. I don't know the Saving Throw Table by heart but IIRC fighters have the best overall saving throws and mages have the best throws vs. spells, but I don't know about stats in 2ED but at least in 3ED they do matter. I have a strange feeling in the back of my head that Wisdom would affect saving throws in 2ED. Somebody confirm this?

You must roll a greater dice than your saving throw is in order to avoid the effect. Let's take an example:

Your saving throw vs. death is 5.
Enemy casts a Disintegrate at you. (I don't remember if the spell has penalties)
So you must roll a dice greater (or equal) than 5 in order to not became a pile of dust. [img]smile.gif[/img]

If (dice roll) is more or equal than [saving throw] then you pass.
If (dice roll) is less than [saving throw] then you fail.

And about modifiers:
If you have penalties, they actually rise the number you must roll, of course.
And beneficial effects lower the number required.

Example:
Spells has a -4 to saving throws vs. this spell.
You have natural ST of 10.
You roll 13.

So the formula is: 10-(-4) must be 13 or lower in order to avoid the spell.
And 14 (10 + 4) is greater than 13 you rolled and thus you are reduced to a steaming pile of flesh.


Somebody PLEASE correct me if I'm mistaken. [img]smile.gif[/img]

*EDIT* A minor mistake, but now fixed. Go away! There's nothing to see here!

[ 06-18-2003, 04:39 AM: Message edited by: McHaggis ]

[Faceman]

it's explained in Dundee's FAQ and there are some threads around already dealing with that issue. just do a search.

To clarify McHaggis' post:
Every time something happens in D&D (attack, spellcast,...) a 1d20 (one 20-sided die) is rolled.
With attacks and saving throws you also get
Critical Hits and Misses meaning that on a roll of 1 you will fail your saving throw (miss your enemy) no matter what and on a roll of 20 you will make it (hit your enemy) even if your throw is up to 27 (which IS rather unlikely)

sidenote: The number in the character screen is your effective saving throw the number in the brackets is the modification from your base saving throw
e.g. 3 (-2) means that your natural saving throw (without enhancing items) would be 5 and you're wearing items/are under the influence of spells which reduce this by 2 so your saving throw at this time is 3.

[Dace De'Briago]

The saving throw tables make interesting reading if you are a sad statto (like me ).

For instance, a 21st level priest has saves versus paralysation, poison or death magic of 2! A wizard of the same level has a whopping save of 8!

Oh dear Mr Wizard.

Each of the classes has their strengths and weaknesses. An obvious example is that Wizards have a better save versus spells than warriors...

Just remember the general strengths and weaknesses of each class, and use the appropriate character for the job.

[Faceman]

and choose your equipment according to that
i.e. wear the Periapt of proof against poison if your poison saves are bad, the Necklace of Form stability if you have bad polymorph saves
there's no use for a -10 saving throw in one area when you got 13 in another

[Dr. Harius]

My memory has no knowledge of any stats affecting saving throws...If you want to see "the chart," go to a used (or new possibly) bookstore and look at Second Edition AD&D Players Guide (which BG is based on)...

[Dace De'Briago]

I think the stats *did* affect saving throws in BG1, but Bioware in their infinite wisdom decided to rule it out in BG2. Well done boys.

/me claps slowly

[SixOfSpades]

There are a great number of little details left out in BG2, as the game was finished in something of a hurry, and BioWare simply didn't have time to go around implementing every little thing (or even some of the big ones). 2 of the snippets that got left behind were "A high Wisdom score improves your odds of making your Saving Throw against mind-based spells, such as Confusion and Feeblemind," and "A high Intelligence score can allow your character a chance to Dispel enemy Illusionary spells, just by looking hard enough."

But one of the details that DID get through was "Dwarves and Halflings get bonuses to their Save vs. Death and Save vs. Spells, if they have a high Constitution score." The specific details are in one of the *.2DA files.....I forget which one at the moment.

The link in my sig will take you to a very thorough guide of BG2; Chapter 4 has the Saving Throws for each of the various classes (albeit only for the first few levels; I'll have to remedy that when I update the site). As has been said earlier in this thread, Priests get a bonus to their Save vs. Death, and Wizards get a bonus to their Save vs. Spells. But what's most important is that Warriors have the best Saves, because their Saves improve at a faster rate than anyone else's. And tacked on to that, Dwarves, Gnomes, and Halflings recieve bonuses to their Saving Throws, depending on what class they are.

It's a complicated game. Did you really expect an explanation of Saving Throws was going to be simple?