On the nature of saves

[shadow_archmagi]

What saves do you know about? Obviously, reflex requires an action on the part of the target, so it's hard to dodge a fireball and not notice.

But spells like Illusion require that you be able to fail a save without knowing about it; otherwise there would be no point.

But what about, say, Blindness? If you don't go blind, would you know it was a spell, or would you just think you got some grit in your eye for a second?

[Shades of Gray]

As far as I know you can make a spellcraft check to see if you are affected by a spell.

I roll the will saves for my party when they would be affected by an illusion, so that they don't know if they passed or failed.

[Zaydos]

Succeeding on a Saving Throw

A creature that successfully saves against a spell that has no obvious physical effects feels a hostile force or a tingle, but cannot deduce the exact nature of the attack. Likewise, if a creature’s saving throw succeeds against a targeted spell you sense that the spell has failed. You do not sense when creatures succeed on saves against effect and area spells.


I'd say the reasons you don't with illusion are 1) they'd be pointless if you did and 2) because by the time they actually affect you they automatically are broken except for those which are quasireal (in which case you generally know something is happening if you succeed on either save).

So if you save versus blindness you know something tried to mess with you, but not exactly how or what.

[Divide by Zero]

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicOverview/spellDescriptions.htm#savingThrow

Succeeding on a Saving Throw

A creature that successfully saves against a spell that has no obvious physical effects feels a hostile force or a tingle, but cannot deduce the exact nature of the attack. Likewise, if a creature’s saving throw succeeds against a targeted spell you sense that the spell has failed. You do not sense when creatures succeed on saves against effect and area spells.
Edit: Note to self - refresh the page before posting next time.