D&D 5E Are 5e Saving Throws Boring?

[Todd Roybark]

The distinction between ability check and Saving Throw is so blurred as to be nearly meaningless.
Announce someone is making a Saving Throw at the gaming table, and nobody pays much attention...too hum drum, too common.
Announce that someone is Death Save, and the arm is being yanked off the proverbial record player and the whole table is watching with rapt attention.

I love Death Saves, simple yet, evocative and thrilling mechanics.

Saving Throws used to be more like this.

How do people feel about trying to make the mechanic more flavorful?

 

[Tony Vargas]

I don't much care making a mechanic 'more flavorfull' by making the consequences of failure more dire.
It's like making a new spell, item, or class feature 'more interesting' by just making it flatly better than prior alternatives.

To make a save more flavorful, go all G&A on it - let the player describe how they resist or avoid the effect. What deep convictions they call upon to overcome fear or break free of domination? What dazzling move saves them from the dragons lethal breath? Heck, you could even flash back to the special preparations they made, or secret taught by an old mentor that helps them survive a deadly poison or horrid curse....

 

[happyhermit]

It's not the mechanic that makes the difference between death and saving throws, it's the consequences. People wanted less save or die/really really suck, so it's the default now. If you increase the consequences it has a higher chance of producing a record scratch moment, but then you would have to adjust how many times saving throws are called for. One record scratch is cool, but if it keeps happening every few minutes it can get really old really quick for a lot of people.

 

[Salthorae]

The distinction between ability check and Saving Throw is so blurred as to be nearly meaningless.
Announce someone is making a Saving Throw at the gaming table, and nobody pays much attention...too hum drum, too common.
Announce that someone is Death Save, and the arm is being yanked off the proverbial record player and the whole table is watching with rapt attention.

I love Death Saves, simple yet, evocative and thrilling mechanics.

Saving Throws used to be more like this.

How do people feel about trying to make the mechanic more flavorful?

It's just the erosion of the consequences from Save/Die/Super Suck spells mostly going away. The stakes on saves are lower, but not altogether gone.

I would say that saves can still be narratively compelling if the scenario has set them up right.

 

[Coroc]

The fact that most characters now only have one strong save in the meaning of it is of the big three (Co, Wis, Dex) which get challenged most often maybe contributes to the whole thing:

If you are proficient in a save then you are pretty likely to make it, whereas if you are not and got a weak attribute then you need much luck. Since otoh you do not get many save or die effects anymore, the whole saving throw mechanic becomes routine. Not necessarily boring, but unlike in previous editions (not 4e)
it is less meaningful, it is rather like a hit or miss not like back then life or death.

 

[Sadras]

How do people feel about trying to make the mechanic more flavorful?

1. Colour
2. Up the Stakes, one option would be to use Degrees of Success, fail by 5 or more and the effects are doubled or something cool.
3. Introduce Sanity to assist perhaps in a flatter bonus all around as they use some of their ASI to pump that stat up. Also Sanity leads to Madness

 

[Don Durito]

What can you expect from a mechanic that only exists because it's a sacred cow?

 

[NaturalZero]

I honestly preferred the 4e version where every spell was an attack roll. Rolling critical hits on your spells is a lot more satisfying than watching the DM roll dice behind a screen and declare that the spell effect fails.

 

[Coroc]

I honestly preferred the 4e version where every spell was an attack roll. Rolling critical hits on your spells is a lot more satisfying than watching the DM roll dice behind a screen and declare that the spell effect fails.

Ask your dm for open rolling. I love it, I used to use a screen to be able to fudge things in emergencies, but I do not do that anymore. So much more fun and tension for the players and for me also.

 

[NaturalZero]

Ask your dm for open rolling. I love it, I used to use a screen to be able to fudge things in emergencies, but I do not do that anymore. So much more fun and tension for the players and for me also.

It still completely eliminates the ability to crit with spells. Having choices that allow me to roll a 20 for special effects is much more satisfying, IMO, than the DM just telling me something succeeds or fails. Not to mention that there's a ton of design space for bonus effects like wild magic or meta magic upon critical success of magic casting. Just the idea of having special riders and additional effects that proc on a spell crit is much more juicy than the saving throws we have now.