Does being immune count as successfully saving?

[atomn]

If a creature/character is immune to some sort of magic, effect, etc. do they count as "successfully saving" against the magic, effect, etc.?

The Dread Witch PrC (Heroes of Horror) gets the ability that "any fear effect against which you successfully save is immediately targeted back at the source". If the character would have immunity to fear from another PrC, would they be considered to always successfully save or would they not be able to use that ability?

 

[Rhun]

I think this is one of those items that is up to the DM's discretion. The simple solution is:

You could say the PC is always immune to the fear, but still has to make a successful save to see if the effect is reflected back or not.

 

[Kurotowa]

I would think the latter. If you're immune you don't make a save, the effect just fails. It's more akin to have a specialized Spell Resistance. The effect fails entirely, even if the save isn't to negate.

 

[atomn]

Ah, good calls. So they would never be effected by it but would still have to make their roll to make use of the ability. That seems fair. Thanks guys!

 

[Rhun]

Ah, good calls. So they would never be effected by it but would still have to make their roll to make use of the ability. That seems fair. Thanks guys!

That is how I would handle it. If you ruled that because they are immune the effect just fails, you are unduly penalizing the PC by taking away one of his class features.

 

[atomn]

That is how I would handle it. If you ruled that because they are immune the effect just fails, you are unduly penalizing the PC by taking away one of his class features.

Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking.

 

[Xiam]

I would say it depends on the prestige class' feature of fear immunity.
A Platinum Knight i.e. counts as dragon concerning the frightful presence of dragons and is therefore immune. In detail this means he simply ignores the frightful presence of a dragon (see Frightful Presence Ex) and therefore wouldn't be throwing a Will Save.

 

[atomn]

I would say it depends on the prestige class' feature of fear immunity.
A Platinum Knight i.e. counts as dragon concerning the frightful presence of dragons and is therefore immune. In detail this means he simply ignores the frightful presence of a dragon (see Frightful Presence Ex) and therefore wouldn't be throwing a Will Save.

Yeah, that makes sense. The feature that I was concerned with is the Nightmare Spinner's ability which is a flat immunity to fear, similar to what a paladin has.

 

[Imre]

The spell doesn't simply fail. For instance, spell turning gives you effectively infinite spell resistance (for a short period of time). The attacker still makes a caster check, he simply can't succeed.

I think it makes much more sense to have the target auto-save then to have the spell auto-fail. The few effects, like 'Forbiddance', which actually cause the auto-failure of spells state that explicitly.

 

[Pazu]

Someone's been contemplating the same PrC combination that I've been thinking about lately...