D&D 5E Frequency of Saves in the Monster Manual

[ccooke]

It felt like everything fell into this category. It felt like if a monster had 2 abilities that called for saves, one was Con and one was Wis or Dex. I know that's not true, but it's how things felt.

I'd say undead were lots of Con and Wis (fear) saves.

Dragons were a big mix of Dex, Con, Dex, Str, and Dex saves.

I can say about halfway through Dex, Con, and Wis were all about equal (Dex actually led), so the latter half of the MM is weighted heavily in favor of Con.

Thaumaturge.

So basically, you're saying that we can use "Something from the back of the MM" as a euphemism for "You're going to be terrified every time it hits you", right?
(Or is it just my groups that start to get nervous whenever they get a whiff of negative energy, poison or the like? Noticeably more so than for any other saves)

 

[Vicar In A Tutu]

A pity they didn't make Strength, Charisma and Intelligence saves more frequent (and important!).

 

[GX.Sigma]

I can say about halfway through Dex, Con, and Wis were all about equal (Dex actually led), so the latter half of the MM is weighted heavily in favor of Con.

Probably because dragons, demons, and devils (things that shoot fire at you) are all at D, and all the cool undead are near the end of the alphabet (vampire, wraith, spectre, etc.).

The appendices would probably be interesting, I bet there might be a few Str and Con saves in there (I think wolves and big cats have some thing where they knock you prone if they jump on you).

 

[MortalPlague]

Cannot XP, could someone get Thaumaturge for me?

Great report. It's really interesting to see the breakdown like this.

CON saves will be frequent from negative energy attacks, that is a certainty. But it also comes from poisons; there are lots of snakes, spiders, yuan-ti, etc in the second half of the MM. Also, petrification is also usually CON-based, so there's the Gorgon and Medusa among others.

 

[ZombieRoboNinja]

Good work Thaum! But let's all remember that plenty of monsters can cast spells too, so you might need to combine this info with the spells they tend to use to get a real picture of how often you'll face the various kinds of saves.

 

[Snapdragyn]

XPed, & thanks for the info.

Sounds like the Resilient (Constitution) feat will be a constant on all of my characters!

 

[Lalato]

I would love to overlay this with frequency of save or die and save or suck abilities. For example... there are a ton of Con saves, but if only a small percentage or save or die/suck then it's not as bad as it sounds. Might also be interesting to see this broken out by CR and monster type (Dragon, Giant, etc).

 

[AverageCitizen]

Did you count spells from spellcasters?

 

[mach1.9pants]

Did you count spells from spellcasters?

I didn't count spells for spellcasting monsters. Spells are their own thing.

Thaumaturge.

Did you read the OP?

 

[AverageCitizen]

Did you read the OP?

My anger management course requires that I respond simply "not as well as I thought I had".