How to determine Saves

[Thyferra2680]

Here's my story. I got into D&D my senior year of High School, and I found out, I absolutely loved it. When I got to college, I found out that no one ran campaigns because they couldn't get people together enough.

Annoying. So I decided to get a few of my friends together, and I would attempt to DM a campaign.

Uh. Long story short... I'm not to great at DM-ing. Yet. But my friends still want to play, even if some turns take longer than they really should.

But that's neither here nor there. My question is, how do you determine saves?

For example, I was wandering the d20srd.org spell list for fun, and i found the Phantasmal Killer spell. What bothered me was the fact that I could not find the Fortitude save DC requirement to save from death by fear.

Another example was the cure wounds series. If you use them on undead that can save, they can attempt a will save to take half damage. What would the DC on that save be?

for those who this is tl;dr,
How do you determine DC for saves?

[Artanis]

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicOverv...tm#savingThrow, under "Saving Throw Difficulty Class"

[Draco Ignifer]

Saves against spells equal 10 plus the spell level plus the caster's appropriate bonus from their casting stat. So, if you have a cleric with 18 wisdom casting cure light wounds on an undead, the save would be 10 + 1 (level 1 spell) + 4 (+4 bonus for an 18 wisdom).

[Talya]

For example, I was wandering the d20srd.org spell list for fun, and i found the Phantasmal Killer spell. What bothered me was the fact that I could not find the Fortitude save DC requirement to save from death by fear.

Another example was the cure wounds series. If you use them on undead that can save, they can attempt a will save to take half damage. What would the DC on that save be?

for those who this is tl;dr,
How do you determine DC for saves?

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicOverv...tm#savingThrow

Saving Throw Difficulty Class
A saving throw against your spell has a DC of 10 + the level of the spell + your bonus for the relevant ability (Intelligence for a wizard, Charisma for a sorcerer or bard, or Wisdom for a cleric, druid, paladin, or ranger). A spell’s level can vary depending on your class. Always use the spell level applicable to your class.

[UMDPenguin]

for spells the DC is 10 + the spells level + the caster's casting ability modifier (int for wizards, wis for clerics and so on)

there can also be other bonuses such as gnomes getting +1 DC on any illusion spells they cast.

so, as an example, i am in a game playing a lvl 8 gnome wizard. my phantasmal killer has a DC of 22 (this is for both the will and the fortitude save) 10 + 4 (4th lvl spell) + 7 (i have 24 intelligence) + 1 (its an illusion spell and i am a gnome)

[Curmudgeon]

The rule for saving throws for spells has already been given twice, so I'll just add something that's used at the same time: the check for overcoming spell resistance. That's simply

d20 + caster level

So if the spell allows SR (most do) then that check is based only on the caster level, and has nothing to do with the level of the spell. Then if the spell also has a save (again, most do) that further check has nothing to do with the caster level, but depends on the level of the spell.

[Thyferra2680]

Thanks guys...

I might be asking stupid questions like this every now and then... Sorry about that.

[Craig1f]

Thanks guys...

I might be asking stupid questions like this every now and then... Sorry about that.

d20srd.org is a good site for figuring out this sort of thing. Figuring out the game can take a long time, and there are a lot of things to figure out.

Try to spend a little time on d20srd.org and read the rules.

This is a pretty basic question, and could have been answered there very easily. It's also easy to make your first character a barbarian, and then get more complicated after that.