D&D 5E What is a Dex save doing?

FormerlyHemlock · Oct 29, 2016

Someone casts Fireball. You make your Dex save and take half damage. Why?

And why does whatever you're doing not cost your reaction, not cost movement, and not change your fictional positioning (e.g. make you go prone)?

What is your Dex save physically doing?

Horwath · Oct 29, 2016

Hemlock said:
Someone casts Fireball. You make your Dex save and take half damage. Why?

And why does whatever you're doing not cost your reaction, not cost movement, and not change your fictional positioning (e.g. make you go prone)?

What is your Dex save physically doing?

reflex save is a suspension of reality to a degree.

You can think about fireball that it doesn't saturate the volume 100%, rather it spreads in jets of flame and you could squeeze between them and take less damage.

Why it doesn't take up reaction? Game mechanics. In 3.5e you had a feat that you could re-roll failed ref save but it required you to go prone.

Simply ref save is too little of a movement to be considered costing your move amount per round.
By same logic you could implement that dodging every attack costs movement or reaction.

Krachek · Oct 29, 2016

Make the player roll a dice!
Otherwise it's a game mechanic. Make sense? Not more than hit point or the rest.
Dont forget that the round of combat is around 6 seconds, it don't mean you only take one sword swing in 6 seconds, or stand freeze waiting your enemy to strike you.
The rules for combat are a poor abstract of a real combat

Prakriti · Oct 29, 2016

Dex saves on Fireball are hard to justify. Disintegrate makes perfect sense. You duck, dodge, or otherwise avoid the magical ray.

EDIT: For Fireball, I can think of a few in-game explanations. Maybe you brace yourself, so you aren't knocked silly by the full kinetic force. Or maybe you cover your face, so you don't get a blast of fire in the eyes.

Lidgar · Oct 29, 2016

Duck and cover in place (not prone, but crouch)?

Throw up your shield/weapon/cloak to help block the brunt of the damage?

Spin around so it hits your backpack instead of your face?

AaronOfBarbaria · Oct 29, 2016

I agree with half of what [MENTION=6855149]Prakriti[/MENTION] has said (the later half, to be specific).

In the case of area effects like fireball what a dexterity saving throw is representing is adjusting your body so that you are shielding the lesser protected parts with the more protected parts - such as turning your face away from the directional source of the harmful magic, or (as the shield master feat enhances the ability of) getting your shield between your body and the magic. Much like how in real life if you can quickly huddle into your leather jacket, a gout of flame is likely to cause you less serious injuries than if you hadn't interposed your jacket.

Fanaelialae · Oct 29, 2016

Hemlock said:
Someone casts Fireball. You make your Dex save and take half damage. Why?

And why does whatever you're doing not cost your reaction, not cost movement, and not change your fictional positioning (e.g. make you go prone)?

What is your Dex save physically doing?

In the case of a fireball I'd say it's whether the character is able to better protect his vital areas, such as covering his face with his arms/shield. Given that it's a 6 second round it's not out of the question that he might execute a quick diving roll and spring back to his feet (while roughly remaining in or returning to the abstract 5x5 square he occupies).

Ultimately though, hit points and saving throws are abstractions based more firmly in fiction than reality, so I would recommend not trying to overthink them.

jayoungr · Oct 29, 2016

As for why it doesn't cost your reaction, remember that a combat round is six seconds. A fireball is a quick burst of energy that only uses up a small portion of that time.

aco175 · Oct 29, 2016

I always thought you would do something to shield you from the full blast or the caster did not fill the whole area. The next question would be with thieves not taking any damage from making a save. This is another abstraction that gets hand-waved like a lot of other things to make room for fun.

dagger · Oct 29, 2016

What is the Dex save doing? I will tell you! Its sitting their waiting to screw you over!!!! Trust me, I know

D&D 5E What is a Dex save doing?

FormerlyHemlock

Hero

Horwath

Legend

Krachek

Hero

Prakriti

Hi, I'm a Mindflayer, but don't let that worry you

Lidgar

Gongfarmer

AaronOfBarbaria

Adventurer

Fanaelialae

Legend

jayoungr

Legend

aco175

Legend

dagger

Adventurer

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