Considering a boost for halfling save bonus

[Plane Sailing]

Funny old thing this. Dwarves get a +5 saving throw bonus against ongoing poison damage. That crops up *a lot*.

Eladrin get a +5 saving throw bonus against ongoing charm effects. Hmm, that doesn't seem quite so common. Out of about 15 powers in the PHB that have the charm keyword, only about 4 have a 'save ends' . For monsters, it is beneficial against Aboleth, ancient green dragons, some ghosts, some mind flayers, some nagas, some oni, vampires and some yuan-ti.

Poor old halflings (+5 saving throw bonus vs fear) only get the benefit against bloodfiends, the fearsome presence of dragons aftereffect, maybe one or two other things? There are lots of stuff with fear keywords, but which don't have any save.

An idea I'm kicking around is to stop these being save bonuses, and instead give the dwarf, the eladrin and the halfling a +5 bonus to their defence against attacks using the listed keywords. This would give them a wider benefit, and a more noticeable one, as in almost all cases the bonus will give them some additional protection against the attack (unlike at the moment were their boldness and steady nerves rarely come into play).

Obviously it would be somewhat better for the eladrin and halfling to have this kind of defensive bonus, but is it too good? What would the impact be overall?

Cheers

 

[ff6shadow]

I'm not sold on if it's balanced or not, but I do like the idea. Those features seem awefully wea as is.

 

[Stalker0]

Here's what I did for my game for both races.

They gain a +2 to defenses against these effects, and can use an action point to make a save as an immediate interrupt (against those effects).

 

[Rechan]

Here's what I did for my game for both races.

They gain a +2 to defenses against these effects, and can use an action to make a save as an immediate interrupt (against those effects).

An action? An action point, a move action, what?

 

[FireLance]

An action? An action point, a move action, what?

I think he means: when first affected by a [racially-relevant keyword] effect that a save can end, the character can make a save against that effect as an immediate interrupt.

I agree that the +2 bonus to defenses against [racially-relevant keyword] effects is a good idea, at least for eladrin and halflings.

 

[Rechan]

I think he means: when first affected by a [racially-relevant keyword] effect that a save can end, the character can make a save against that effect as an immediate interrupt.

Ah, so similar to the Hobgoblin's racial ability, but more specific to [racially-relevant keyword].

 

[Plane Sailing]

Here's what I did for my game for both races.

They gain a +2 to defenses against these effects, and can use an action to make a save as an immediate interrupt (against those effects).

That's a nice option (and it is interesting to see that I'm not the only one who felt that the eladrin and halfling bonus was a little... lacking... in applicability

 

[Stalker0]

Ah dang it, a typo!! I meant to say they can spend an action point to gain an immediate save.

 

[Rechan]

That's a nice option (and it is interesting to see that I'm not the only one who felt that the eladrin and halfling bonus was a little... lacking... in applicability

I've felt similar. I like your suggestion of doing it with defense.