3rd Edition saves; who remembers reading the designers intent?

[Corran]

I distinctly remember reading an interview with one of the 3rd edition designers in which he made an interesting remark on saving throws.

According to him, the goal had been to balance the saves in such a way that 2 characters of the same level had a certain perecentage change to make or miss a good or bad save against each other, everything else being equal.

I can't remember the exact numbers unfortunately and would really like to know them. (Was it a 50% chance to make a good save, or was it 50% for the bad save?)

What I do remember is that the interview must have probably appeared somewhere around the launch of 3rd edition. I've checked the 'Countdown to 3rd Edition' articles in Dragon and also Google'd the Wizards, EN World and Monte Cook websites without any success.

If anyone could point me to where I could find the original text, I'd be very grateful.

Baring that, if anyone has a better memory than me, and recalls the numbers with some certainty I'd also like to know.

 

[frankthedm]

Good luck, maybe the olde eric noah archives may help . http://www.enworld.org/article.php?c=9

It reminds me of hearing that bigger/ smaller creatures were going to recieve the grapple/ trip size bonus to all STR bases checks.

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

Doing some quick math with those parameters (everthing else being equal):

6th level PC:

Good Save = +5 base +2 Stat bonus = +7
Bad Save = +2 base +2 Stat bonus = +4

6th level caster, 3rd level spell:

DC 13 + 2 Stat bonus = 15

The bad save is made on an 11-20 or 50%

 

[Corran]

The 50% seems to be about right, if you assume that the modifier on the save is just as good as the modifier on the spell DC, something that isn't going to be the case most of the time.

But as long as I can't find the original text it's fine to go on.