4e Schrodinger's Bonus to Saving Throws

[HMS Invincible]

My DM has this habit of boosting saving throws to match my save penalty, and my wizard dislike it since instead of getting a spell off, I get nothing for my trouble. I'm a lvl 12 bloodmage.

I was thinking of setting up a variable teaser penalty like -6 or -4 to saving throws. That lets me figure out his saving throw bonus without risking my orb of imposition power. Then I hit him with my orb of imposition. What item power should I use that has a save ends effect? I don't want to have to change my spell selection, but I'll change any encounter power if I have to.

[Thajocoth]

Knowledge check. If they're an elite, they have +2 and if they're solo they have +5. At most, they could have an extra +2 racial. (So a Solo Warforged would have +5 for most things and +7 for ongoing damage.) You only need the lowest knowledge check (15 in Heroic, 20 Paragon, 25 Epic) to get if they're Standard, Elite or Solo. Another 10 should give you the exact number. If tou get the lowest level of knowledge for them and he adds more than 2 to what you expect, he's doing something wrong and you call him out on it. He's negating your build otherwise, and you might as well not have a character to play if he does that. It's just like making every enemy immune to Sneak Attack damage or immune to being marked. Point this fact out to him if need be.

Granted, if you're able to neutralize every encounter too easily, that's problematic too. I remember a Bard who took the "Healing Battery" Daily at each Daily Power level... Slap one on the biggest target and there's no longer a threat of losing the battle. In future games I run, I'll tell anyone who picks a Bard that those are "Until the end of your next turn. Aftereffect: Same condition (save ends)", because they're just too powerful otherwise. If he feels like your save penalty build is too powerful, he should discuss that instead of fudging numbers to undo it.

[Aron Times]

Stop.

This method is going to lead into a rapidly-escalating arms race that nobody can win (technically the DM wins, but the game will have fallen apart by then, so everybody loses).

Assuming an 18/18 int/wis orb wizard, you should be able to impose a -5 penalty to saving throws with your Orb of Imposition. If you have Spell Focus, this goes up to -7, and with an Orb of Ultimate Imposition (post-errata), the target's first saving throw is at -9 and the rest at -7, which is still pretty bad for the target.

A common solution to this problem would be to limit the Orb of Imposition's save penalty to the first save, similar to the Orb of Ultimate Imposition nerf and the psion's equivalent of Spell Focus (Dominating Mind, which applies -2 only to the first save). Ask your DM if he'll nerf Orb of Imposition this way; it is a compromise between the broken power of the orbizard and the balance desired by 4e.