Low will save problems

[Maldur]

For some reason our party ended up light in the will save department.
What can we do to reduce our vulnerability to confusiions, fears and other problems stemming from a low will save?

 

[Tatsukun]

Oh, I thought this wouild be a post abotu buying too much DnD stuff!

For will saves? Cloaks of resistance are pretty cheap, if you have fighters, maybe they can afford the feat.

Other than that, protection from evil is nice for some stuff, there are other buffs that will do it too. (long list)

Or, just give teh DM lots of free pizza and slowly repeat (you will not take advantage of our low will saves, you will not take ...)

-Tatsu

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Well, the easiest way to bolster a vulnerability is through purchasing the right magic items.

-Cloak of Resistance (+to all saves)
-Helm of Continuous Protection from Evil (will require DM approval, but would protect against mind-control.)

There's Iron Will, of course, in the Feat department.

Multiclassing can help mitigate this problem. Start multiclassing into something with a strong Will save. Or have someone multiclass into paladin and pick up the Aura of Courage to protect against Fear effects. A bard can be useful against Fear effects as well.

Certain spells protect/defend against mental attacks. Protection from Evil, Magic Circle Against Evil, Bless, Remove Fear, etc. etc.

 

[Crothian]

Leave the weakness. I once set up a group so they'd all have a low will save. They all wanted to play fighter types and I convinced them to all lower their wisdom to raise another stat. No one released it until around third level when they fought their first opponent with hold person.

Best ways are Iron Will, Multi class, or a magical item.

 

[hong]

Leave the weakness. I once set up a group so they'd all have a low will save. They all wanted to play fighter types and I convinced them to all lower their wisdom to raise another stat.

Mang, you have stupid players.

 

[Len]

No one released it until around third level when they fought their first opponent with hold person.

I realised the same thing last week when my rogue/Shadowdancer was killed (temporarily) after failing to save against hold person.

I am having trouble figuring out how to mitigate this weakness. I'm loath to exchange my cool Cloak of Whispers for a cloak of resistance.

 

[Scion]

Get resistance added to the cloak then. Expensive? yes. But, it makes you like that item that much more and might take some interesting rp in order to get it done.

As for the problem above if we are allowed to play with the ruleset a little (not breaking anything, just creating things) then I would suggest a ring of mettle for will (I believe some prcs break it up) that also grants a bonus to any will saves (resistance bonus, wont stack with cloak but it can be much higher for the same price). I'd make one for fort saves as well and have a really expensive one that does both. The reason for mettle is purely flavor of course

Ring of evasion is 25k and is 'much' more useful. I'd probably pop each of the rings above at 25k with a +6 resistance bonus and the combined one at 70k.

Just in general though a cloak of resistance +5 is 25k and a +6 wisdom item is 36k, so for the low, low price of only 61k + two slots you can have a +8 to your will save. If that doesnt help plug the hole....


Or, failing all of that, you can have your guys turned into creatures who are naturally immune (undead, constructs, plants, whatever). You will likely wind up losing something though, but it is an option.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Scion offered some good suggestions, item-wise, but there are a few more:

Standard of Heroism (Complete Warrior): +2 morale bonus to all saves for the wearer and companions within a certain radius. The +2 morale bonus to attacks and skill checks helps too.

Crystal Mask of MindArmor (X-Psi HB): +4 insight bonus to will saves for about 11kgp

Stone of Good Luck or 0-wishes Luckblade: about 20kgp for a +1 luck bonus to all saves.

So, with a +5 cloak of resistance, Crystal Mask of Mindarmor, Standard of Heroism, and the luckblade/stone of good luck, you would end up with +12 to your will save and +2 to many of your companions' for about 100kgp. Leaving the Standard and the Luck bonus out, you still have +9 for about 36kgp. Pretty cheap, all things considered. If you want more, the periapt of wisdom is less expensive than the luckstone or standard for the bonus it provides but it takes up a neck slot, only provides the bonus to will saves, and doesn't have the other benefits of the luckstone/luckblade or the standard. An Ioun stone of +2 wis is also a better deal per will save and doesn't take a slot but is limited to +2.

There are some other good mechanisms for boosting will saves:

Spells: At low levels, Remove Fear can be cast pre-emptively for a +4 bonus to saves. At mid levels, cloak of Bravery (Complete Warrior, cleric 3) provides a +1/clvl bonus to saves against fear to all allies and Heroism provides a +2 morale bonus to all saves (and attacks and skill checks) to one target, at high levels, Greater Heroism (Sor/Wiz 6), and Hero's Feast provide immunity to fear. Hero's Feast provides a +1 morale bonus to all will saves as well. At very high levels, mind blank offers almost complete immunity.

Prestige Classes: Occult Slayer (Complete Warrior) offers considerable protection against mind-effecting magic. Three levels of Holy Liberator (Complete Warrior) also offers good protection. The Pious Templar (Complete Divine) has good will saves as well though it doesn't offer immunity to wide classes of spells like the Holy Liberator or Occult Slayer.

 

[Methos of Aundair]

I had a player who wasn't happy about their low will save and had another pc create her a Dagger of Defiance out of the Magic of Fearun. It kind of irked me some since that lone dagger makes her immune to all fear and compulsion effects. Interesting thing was she was around 10th level before she ever fell victim to a hold person and just because it took her out of the fight she just had to have this dagger. Oh well, she spent 6,302 gp for something that hardly ever benefits her (or had rarely ever in the past).

She was upset since at 10th or 11th level her Will save was a +3 and even though she was a fighter/dualist she didn't wish to waste a feat on Iron Will.

To each their own.

 

[Epinephrine]

Leave the weakness. I once set up a group so they'd all have a low will save.

We once consciously set up a party like that for a short (2-month) campaign. It was our first experience with Eberron, and we wanted to evoke a "hapless adventurers thrown into trouble by their own cluelessness" atmosphere. When it ended, the party looked like

Ranger, wis 7 (spell-less, but I didn't care as he was only level 8)
Bard, wis 7
Artificer, wis 8
Fighter, wis 10

Role-playing an entire party of such dim-bulbs was amazing fun, from the first CR 2 pit trap we encountered and spent a half-hour in real time getting past (okay, so how do we get the adamantine warforged out?) to the final adventure where we were just completely strung along by imprisoned demons and devils. The DM was merciful with the Will save spells but merciless with Sense Motive checks.