Inanimate objects and saving throws

[tsumechk]

I'm guessing this has already been asked, and that it's probably addressed somewhere in the DMG, but for the life of me I can't find it anywhere, so the question is do inanimate objects get saving throws against things like ongoing damage, such as Alchemist's Acid (just an example)? I know that in 3.5 unattended non-magical objects couldn't, but not so sure about 4e.

[Badgerish]

In 4ed, objects are kinda unaffected by damage, unless the GM decides to treat the object "as a creature" for the attack (to prevent people from sneak-attacking stone walls or knocking down doors with arrows). As such, if you choose to treat an object as a creature for an attack that includes ongoing damage, you should continue to treat it as a creature for saving throws.

What type of object and what type of situation is this? Is it happening in-combat or outside of it?

If you drop Alchemist's acid on the ground, it doesn't burn forever, but do you need to keep making saving throws and tracking what is happening? Will it make a difference one way or the other?

[allonym]

Not sure where you're getting that from, Badgerish - in 4e, objects have HP and defences just fine. Mostly it's never statted because it's irrelevent, but things that you might actually want to damage can be targetted and damaged as usual.

Objects are immune to psychic, necrotic and poison damage, and are immune to attacks against their will.

For saving throws, in 4e, they basically act as a means of timing the length of an effect. Obviously, the vast majority of effects would do nothing to an object, but I see no reason why an object would not be afflicted by, say, ongoing 5 fire damage, and save against it as usual. However, object defences, vulnerabilities, and the effects of powers against them are much more open to DM interpretation and ruling than creatures.

[incandescent]

allonym hit the high points, but page 65 of the DMG has the object rules, which are mostly tables for calculating hit points (usually a base amount modified by multipliers based on size and composing material).

EDIT: object defenses usually don't matter much, especially for bigger objects. Their AC drops into auto hit territory and their fortitude tops out around 20ish I think. As stated they do not have a will defense and are unaffected by anything that targets will.