Improving an Item's Save?

Shin Okada

Explorer
Sometimes, an item must make a saving throw or destroyed. Usually the wearer/wielder can use his saving throw. But not always. For example, if a weapon is disarmed by Nightwalker and the monster attempts to crush, the weapon must make a DC 34 save or destroyed. Even if the weapon is an relic intelligent weapon with caster level 20, it's save bonus is only +12. Only natural 20 will save it.

Other than raising the CL, Is there any way to improve a magic item's save bonus?

Should save-bonus improving spells (say, superior resistance) work for an intelligent magic item? They are, in some ways, treated as NPCs.
 

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Cleon

Legend
Should save-bonus improving spells (say, superior resistance) work for an intelligent magic item? They are, in some ways, treated as NPCs.

Hmm…

Under RAW, an intelligent magic item is considered to have the Construct type, ergo it is a "creature" and can be affected by save-improving spells that target creatures, which I believe is most or all of them.

A non-intelligent magic item is just an object, so boosting its saves is a much trickier prospect. Offhand I can't think of any save-boosting spells that target objects. It'd probably be a lot easier weakening the attacker by lowering their DC-determining ability score.

However, the Crafting Rules on magic items allow for the creation of magic items with the effect "save bonus (resistance)" such as the cloak of resistance. It doesn't seem that much of a stretch to say the bonus can be applied to the item's saves instead of the wielder's.

You can also do that with a wish spell, since that can add to the powers of an existing magic item. Using a wish to give an item a +5 to saving throws would cost 7,000 XP if I understand the formula right. It'd only cost 1,000 XP to create an item with a +5 save bonus using standard magic item crafting, though that would also cost 25,000 gp.
 

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