What does a Fortitude save feel like?

[Seiji]

Reflex and Will saves have very easily pictured representations in-game. A pit trap suddenly opens up beneath your character, you succeed your reflex save, and she quickly hops to the side to avoid it. An aboleth attempts to enslave your character, you succeed your will save, and she feels an alien presence invading her mind but fights it off mentally.

A wizard casts Flesh to Stone on your character, you succeed on your fortitude save, and nothing happens. The wizard looks confused; something was definitely supposed to happen. Your character felt...what? A stiffness of the joints?
A large viper springs out and sinks its fangs into your character's leg before being slain. Your character worries about the consequences of this, but you made your fort save so there are no consequences. What does your character feel or think about that? Maybe she was lucky and that was the viper that shoots blanks?
Fortitude: These saves measure your ability to stand up to physical punishment or attacks against your vitality and health.
The things that feel like you should stand up to them with your "toughness"; starvation, drowning, death, either use Constitution checks or their own mechanics. The things a character finds themselves making fort saves against most often in-game are exotic magical effects and poisons. So what does making a Fortitude save feel like?

[Lalliman]

Fort saves for poisons sorta make sense except in the fact that they're hugely game-ified. A powerful immune system does increase your ability to withstand poison... it's just that poison is usually sufficiently potent that it doesn't matter. A snake isn't gonna evolve a venom that's only gonna kill its prey 50% of the time and be shrugged off otherwise. Except in the world of D&D, they do, because game play.

Where other effects are concerned, they needed some way to defend against it. Reflex and will make even less sense against petrification, so fort it is. This bugged me about Pathfinder's kineticist and its Foe Throw ability. Apparently a healthy physique and strong immune system protects you against being telekinetically picked up and thrown.

To answer your question, I imagine you'll feel the partial effect, like your skin turning stiff and hard, but it'll disappear again as your body fights it off. When bit by a snake, you'll likely still feel nauseous, but shrug it off shortly after. That's what happens when you get a disease: you feel the symptoms for a while, but then your immune system destroys the virus before it can do any real harm. Assuming you pass your real-life fort save that is. It's the same but super sped up.

[Broken Crown]

Well, what does resisting a disease or poison feel like to you?

Do you faint, vomit, get a chill/fever, or suffer a bad headache (failing the save), or do you tough it out and get through the day without any debilitating effects (making the save)?

Have you never thought, "Ooh, I'm going to be sick," only to realize afterwards that you weren't? That's making a Fortitude save.

[Nifft]

Yeah, it feels like when you don't catch a cold.

Difficult thing to qualify.

[Seto]

In the case of poison, I'd say something like "You feel your blood heat up while coursing through your veins, and your heartbeat intensifies until you feel it rush to your brain, but it eventually goes away". I have no idea if that's how you feel when bitten by a snake, but that's how I picture it.

In other cases, depends on the effect. Feel nauseous but power through it. Or even feel nothing at all, but see other party members who failed their save vomit all over the place.

[Seiji]

To answer your question, I imagine you'll feel the partial effect, like your skin turning stiff and hard, but it'll disappear again as your body fights it off. When bit by a snake, you'll likely still feel nauseous, but shrug it off shortly after. That's what happens when you get a disease: you feel the symptoms for a while, but then your immune system destroys the virus before it can do any real harm. Assuming you pass your real-life fort save that is. It's the same but super sped up.
That's a good description. I guess I've had too many DM's who either say "nothing happens" or simply move on when the saving throw succeeds.

Have you never thought, "Ooh, I'm going to be sick," only to realize afterwards that you weren't? That's making a Fortitude save.
I never thought of that way. :smallbiggrin: That's brilliant imagery.

[Psyren]

I never thought of that way. :smallbiggrin: That's brilliant imagery.

And it's not just for avoiding a cold - it's also for things like getting queasy on a roller coaster or feeling briefly carsick, but overcoming it.

[AmberVael]

I imagine it is going to vary wildly depending on what you're making a save against.

I mean on one hand you can have a save against poison which may just involve something tasting funny, on the other you have a save against the Flensing spell which is going to feel like your skin being stripped off because your skin is getting stripped off.

[Necroticplague]

Generally, FORT saves feel like "X begins to happen, but you shrug it off/ it stops suddenly" Some Examples:

Poisons: "You feel your muscles spasm for a moment before they return to normal"
(Fail would be "You can feel your muscles beginning to lock up")

Disease: "You feel a brief hot flash"
(Fail: "You feel like you're on fire!")

Petrification: "You feel yourself very heavy for a moment."
(fail:"You begin to feel incredibly heavy as you slow down until you find your own weight to great to move with")

Many Death Effects: "You shudder momentarily as your heart skips a beat"
(fail: "You feel a sharp pain as your heart gives way")

Negative Levels: "You feel your soul being drawn from you body before snapping back into its rightful place inside you."
(Fail: You feel tired and heavy as pieces of your soul are torn off)

Immortal Fortitude: "You take the hit, but your unyeilding reseliences refuses to allow you to fall."
(Fail:"you Fortitude gives way under the assault as you die.")

[Segev]

I always think of it as the heroic ability to "power through" something. Sure, you're poisoned or sick, but you don't have time for that right now, so you simply ignore it. The weakness that sweeps over you from that Strength damaging effect is something you shake off rather than allowing it to set in. Your body is strong and mighty enough to shrug it off like a mere papercut.

For things like petrification, I actually see it almost like "breaking" it. That is, you turn to stone, but it doesn't go more than skin deep, so you Gargoyle out of it almost immediately. The magic tries to turn you into a frog, but you flex your muscles to force yourself out of that false skin before it can even condense around you. Or it tries to turn you into a tree, but you clench your teeth and squeeze the internal growth back into your own shape.

Disintegration starts to work, but your body is just too tough and it comes to a halt long before it turns much of you to dust; the difference between a brown recluse bite getting to cover your body and your immune system forcing it to stop at a small area.

But yeah, it's generally a combination of physical endurance and strength, letting you ignore or power through things which afflict your body in negative ways.

[OldTrees1]

A Fortitude save feels like coasting out a mild incident of a severe allergic reaction without taking emergency medication. You feel the early warning symptoms that herald the more severe symptoms. Then come the more severe symptoms that slowly build, but then they start to die down(on a successful save). Eventually the symptoms disappear entirely (except for lingering Fort Save for partial effects).

For those of you who can't picture such an event, a less precise but more common example would be surviving a moderate case of the Flu.

[Seiji]

Generally, FORT saves feel like "X begins to happen, but you shrug it off/ it stops suddenly" Some Examples:

Poisons: "You feel your muscles spasm for a moment before they return to normal"
(Fail would be "You can feel your muscles beginning to lock up")

Disease: "You feel a brief hot flash"
(Fail: "You feel like you're on fire!")

Petrification: "You feel yourself very heavy for a moment."
(fail:"You begin to feel incredibly heavy as you slow down until you find your own weight to great to move with")

Many Death Effects: "You shudder momentarily as your heart skips a beat"
(fail: "You feel a sharp pain as your heart gives way")

Negative Levels: "You feel your soul being drawn from you body before snapping back into its rightful place inside you."
(Fail: You feel tired and heavy as pieces of your soul are torn off)

Immortal Fortitude: "You take the hit, but your unyeilding reseliences refuses to allow you to fall."
(Fail:"you Fortitude gives way under the assault as you die.")
Good, colorful descriptions. I've got to show this thread to the people I play with IRL, now.

For things like petrification, I actually see it almost like "breaking" it. That is, you turn to stone, but it doesn't go more than skin deep, so you Gargoyle out of it almost immediately. The magic tries to turn you into a frog, but you flex your muscles to force yourself out of that false skin before it can even condense around you. Or it tries to turn you into a tree, but you clench your teeth and squeeze the internal growth back into your own shape.
I love this idea. :smallsmile: That's the kind of heroic stuff I want my tough-guy character doing. That's how a "tank" can have a moment in the spotlight.