Saving Throws: An End to the Madness

As better explained by The Man in the Funny Hat, the AD&D saving throw system may be quirky and the categories poorly explained, it is not without logic. It does the opposite of the 3rd Edition D&D system, which while elegant in organization loses something in the change-over. Should not a Magic-User, Mage, or Wizard be more resistant to magic than others? How do your reflexes help you dodge out of the center of a 30' diameter ball of flame? Still there must be something simpler than the big chart. And why are paralyzation and poison lumped together?

Much like Dave Arneson and Swords & Wizardry, I have become a fan of the single saving throw progression. People have charted the AD&D saves and there's a pattern to them that roughly goes from 15 to 7. Some classes are better, some are worse. When someone pointed out that the Rod/Staves/Wands saves for all classes is 1 better than their spells saves, it clicked. We might as well remove the column from the chart and convert it to a bonus. Why not do that with all of the saves?

Let's start at 15 for everyone at 1st level, and drop by one each level until the target is 5. I suppose there's math to make this work as an ascending bonus, but let's get the math right first. Next up, modifiers:

• Poison: Dwarves get a bonus, perhaps based on Constitution like in AD&D. For now let's make it +3.
• Death Magic: This includes negative energy attacks. Clerics get +3 due to their link with the higher and lower planes.
• Petrification, Polymorph: This is pretty much the same for everyone in AD&D, so no class bonus. Perhaps Constitution as a tip of the hat to System Shock checks.
• Rod, Staff, Wand: We'll say all magical items effects give you +1 to the save. Maybe we note this with some of the items (Wand of Fireballs), but not others (a bonus to saves versus the Staff of the Magi - I think not!)
• Breath Weapons: Breath Weapons are nasty. In AD&D, this is the hardest save at 1st level and the hardest at 17+ for most classes. We'll include this as necessary on the specific monster. Is a hell hound attack as hard to avoid as an ancient red dragon?
• Spells: +3 for Magic-Users, +3 for Dwarves, +2 for Hobbits... err Halflings.

Modifiers for Special Cases:

• Charm and Illusion effects: Give the Wisdom attribute bonus (for TSR, I've standardized this like BEX D&D)
• Dodge-able effects: This is a DM's call as to when it applies. Perhaps give Thieves a +2 on save for dodge-able effects (lightning bolts, wands, etc). Perhaps give everyone their Dexterity Adjustment. Like the Defensive Adjustment in AD&D, this works better when it's not applied across the board.

What else should be included?

Love/Hate the Ranger

I've got a love/hate relationship with the Ranger. Not as much hate as Blackrazor, but certainly not as much love as... well, anyone talks about "dual wielding" and "strikers".

Blackrazor's got some good points. The AD&D Ranger *is* just a fighter with bling. I like using some ability score requirements to keep the class unusual and special, but making that the only disadvantage compared to a parent classe "makes the rich richer". The characters already with an advantage in better attribute get Ranger bling as well. The slower level advancement has merit, but I'm trying to avoid multiple advancement charts in the Tactical Simulation Rule set. Trying to "power up" the Fighter for balance's sake isn't the answer either. While the Fighter could use some love, I don't want the arms race of later editions.

Archetype is a messy word, but I don't think Rangers out of place in any game that involves Halflings. If you let pseudo-hobbits in, why not pseudo-Aragorn? Aragorn was clearly the model for the Stategic Review version that shows up similarly in the AD&D Player's Handbook. Like everyone, I passed through a phase where I wanted the Ranger to be Robin Hood, as a scout or hunter class. Perhaps there should be a lightly armorer archer option, but then why hold onto the name? I've gone back and forth on the quirks of the Ranger: starting hit dice, d8 Hit dice, use of spells and other powers. Nowadays I'm apt to keep them - an artifact of Gygaxian quirkiness. Perhaps the spells and magic powers are part of a class branch, like in The Magestic Wilderness or a pseudo Prestige Class (I've always throught Ranger Lord has a neat ring to it). Or they represent a secret martial order, like the Paladins of Mithras. We'll leave creation of another class to another post.

Where to go with the Ranger:

* This brilliant idea from Blood of Prokopius.
* Using armor as a mix of AD&D weapon proficiency slots with the armor categories 3rd and 4th edition. Fighters are proficient in all armor, but Rangers need to spend slots to get access.

* Starting Weapon Restrictions, a la Unearthed Arcana.

* Attribute requirements remain, but not quite as stringent: Strength 12, Wisdom 12, Constitution 12.

* Multiple attacks versus sub-1HD creatures? Followers? Creation of a keep/stronghold? Not for the Ranger.

You'll see a little of all these in the Tactical Simulation Ruleset.

Training for New Levels

(Weird ideas I tried to rescue)

• Upon gaining sufficient XP for a new level, the character can "immediately" roll for new hit points.
• All other class abilities and improvements require training.
• Training takes one week of time, regardless of level.
• The "Trainer" must be at least one level higher than the character he/she is training.
• Upon reaching "Name Level", the character must spend the same amount of time and money, but does not need a trainer.
• Training costs [Current Level x 1000 GP]. Loans can be made, and *some* trainers will accept goods or services in lieu of coins.
• Magic-users and Illusionists automatically gain one new spell upon completing training. This can be of any level they can cast, does not require a Spell Learning Test, does not require a fee to scribe into the spellbook, BUT must be from the Player's Handbook.

Notes from Aria

I pulled out one of my favourite unplayed games, Aria, for some reading fun. Here are some notes that people may find interested or relevant:

* Traditional AD&D "leather armor" is cuirbouille, or leather boiled in oil. It shares the same etymology as the 'cuirass'.

* Aria uses an "encumbrance multiplier" to translate weight into D&D style encumbrance. The boxspring for my bed has a low weight, but high encumbrance multiplier; a sack of ball bearings is the opposite.

* Included in the armor chart for each type is it's "fit tolerance", representing how much physical variation one can have and still wear a given suit of armor. Plate has a low fit tolerance (as Sigurd knows!) and Ring Mail is among the highest. Interestingly, leather armor (cuirbouille) also has a low fit tolerance, since the boiling treatment makes it rigid. Aria, in all it's detail-loving glory, has scores for height, frame, and physique that tie into the fit tolerance: Conan probably won't be fitting into a suit of Plate armor made for Arwen any more than Sigurd would.

* Weapons have both a reach and speed score. Gary would be proud! Each weapon type lists its attack modes: maces "crush", hand axes "chop", knives "stab" and "slash". Many weapons have multiple attack modes. Armors are rated in their defense versus each mode (crush/chop/slash/thrust, etc).

Quote from (Original) D&D

"Final Note: If sea monsters or monsters of the sea do not get a ship, perhaps it will sail off the edge of the world!"

Vecna = Vance

In games of Dying Earth, (player character)magicians must resist their Arrogance attribute in order to share spells with other magicians.

There must be a good way to work this into D&D.

Initiative

(Moving some older posts from my shared Iron Rations blog)

"Round-by-round initiative was key to the whole combat action system though. Everyone declared their actions, THEN initiative happened. That injected a whole element of uncertainty into the game. Did you plan to boldly advance towards the altar or hang back near the door where you could restrict the enemy? If you decided to advance and the other side got the initiative you could end up in a heap of trouble, but hanging back could seriously hamper your ability to achieve some goal or other. Switches of init between the two sides also promoted the possibility of sudden reversals of fortune and gave combat an uncertain and rather chaotic caste. And of course the whole thing raised heck with magic users, especially if they were planning on using any of the longer casting time high level spells."

Dungeon Ideas from Rpg.net

* Libraries
* Lunatic asylums, hospitals and sanitoria
* Prisons
* Fortresses, military installations, docks, hangars
* Places to keep very, very valuable things - Like museums
* Opera houses
* Gigantic war-machines
* A siege-world/land where vast fortifications, earthworks and trenches cover the area where an Iliad-style generational siege once took place, now abandoned and infested with fell creatures.
* City sprawl submerged in flood and fire; current city sits on top ( in places ) two to three diff levels of ancient buildings. 2,000 year old aquaducts still run, cutting and weaving through a plan centuries old. Would be very easy to envision flooded submrged aquaducts pushing out debris and dirt in such an environ, clearing out blocks of ancient ruined city through abandoned sewers. A perfect home for cultists and what ever evils they summoned, deep beneath the city above?
* Crashed/Sunked Ship
* A previous civilization's holdfast/retreats, built in anticipation of an apocalyptic invasion of monsters/demons
* The catacombs of Paris, before they were turned into giant ossuaries, were limestone quarries - the stone that was used to build parts of Paris was quarried far beneath its foundations.

(Old Rules for) Rotes

Rotes represent the tutelary incantations taught taught to Magician and other spellcasters during training sessions with their mentor and other masters. These spells and rites form the core of the magical skills during segments of the practictioners expanding knowledge and can easily be called back during times of need.

Rotes can be cast without preparation or prayer. They still expend the requisite energy of a prepared spell of the same level. If call spells of that level have been cast, the practitioner has no energy left to cast the rote. Note that rotes require the same casting time, somatic and material components, or any other requirement of a normal spell, except for the lack of preparation.

Example: Amrikol is a 3rd level magician. He therefore knows all the First and Second level rote spells. While exploring a dungeon, Amrikol and his companions run out of torches. He can cast the 1st level Rote spell "Light" by sacrificing the Sleep spell he prepared that morning. He has already cast his single prepared 2nd level spell, so he could not have cast a 2nd level Rote.

Sample 1st Level Magician Rotes: Affect Normal Fires, Detect Magic, Light, Mending, Protection from Evil, Read Magic, Shield, Ventriloquism

The Function of Saving Throws

An excellent explanaion of Saving Throws by The Man in the Funny Hat:

1E save categories are a combination of the SOURCE of the effect being saved against and the effect itself, then it looks at your class to determine what your chances to avoid/mitigate those effects are. Rate of improvement in any given category for a class tends to be a jumpy and irregular. Adjustments to saves are very few. 3E doesn't care what the source is - it looks only at the end effect, then it assigns all effects into one of three categories. There are only two rates at which those categories can then improve, good and poor. All classes have one good save, one poor save, and then one which will either be one or the other of those. At low levels your governing STAT will be the biggest factor in determining your chances of successfully saving in those three categories, and only at mid-higher levels will your class be the bigger factor. Other adjustments to saves from protective spells, items, Caster level/spell level of the source, and specific class features are numerous and outweigh both stat and general weighting due to class.

1E is actually simpler, has few adjustments (look up the number and roll), but it's also irregular in progression and generally idiosyncratic/not-very-intuitive. 3E, though it uses fewer categories and is superficially more intuitive, is actually deeply more complicated and rather strongly de-emphasizes class as the determining factor of success in favor of ability scores, items, and a wide variety of adjustments.

Key to understanding saving throws in D&D is understanding their origin of the save in wargaming. The effect being saved against is first and foremost looked upon as a foregone conclusion. Explosion goes off next to you - you're dead. Dragon breathes on you - you WILL take X damage. Spell is cast upon you - the effect WILL manifest. For spells, it doesn't even matter what the level of the caster is or what the level of the SPELL is. The chance to save is based on the victims class and the type of effect. The saving throw is then granted as a last-ditch attempt to either reduce the severity of the effect or perhaps just avoid it altogether. AD&D says, "The precise reasons why your save is set at the level it is aren't even all that important since it's all about what class your character is." 3E looked at things rather differently. The effect being saved against is NOT really a foregone conclusion. The whole process is a much more fiddly determination of success in a direct contest between caster or item and the target. Caster level/spell level sets the initial chance of success, THEN it's adjusted a zillion ways by the category of the final effect, the class of PC, his defensive spells, skills, items, circumstance bonuses, etc. etc., yada, yada, yada.