Selectable saves. I would like some imput, please.

[mirivor]

I HATE the "all fighters suck at will saves, all rogues are dextrous, etc" stereotyping that the game assumes. So, I thought that maybe I would allow the players to select their good and poor saves. For instance, fighters are allowed one good and two poor saves; why not allow them to select the good one? It really won't make much difference except to obliterate that awful metagaming that PHB encourages for spellcasters. You know, "try and target giants and fighters with Will save spells, Rogues with Fort, etc.etc.".

Whaddya think?

 

[Cheiromancer]

What do you do with multiclassing and saving throws? Right now one of the features of a Fighter/Barbarian/Ranger multiclass is that you have really good Fort saves, but everything else is very poor.

Would your variant allow the character to get +3 will for two levels of Fighter, +3 reflex from two levels of Barbarian, and +3 Fort from two levels of Ranger? Or +9 to just one save?

 

[mirivor]

I suppose that you would get to select the good saves for every class that you took... If you were a figher1/rogue1/cleric1, your saves would be variable based on what you selected as your good saves for each class. This idea is really knew and I have not thought it through on a thorough basis yet, however.

You would get
+0, +0, and +2 as fighter
+0, +0, and +2 for rogue
+0, +2, and +2 for cleric

So assume we select Will as our good save for fighter, rogue. and will/fort for our cleric. You would have +2 fort, +0 dex, and +6 will as a 3rd level character... pretty high. I suppose this would lean a lot more toward single classed pcs, or maybe you only get to select your saves for your first class.

any suggestions?

 

[Thorindale]

As a house rule to spice up the fighter, I allow them to choose between Fortitude or Reflex as their Good save. Gives a difference between a Tank and a Mobile fighter-types.

 

[Jack Simth]

You are far from the first to think of this, although that link doesn't do so for the standard classes.

It's not particularly unbalanced, although it can lead rather easily to characters without any really poor saves (e.g., the high Wis cleric who selects Fort and Reflex; with Wis 18, con&dex 12, at 4th level, saves are (barring other effects, such as a cloak of resistence) Fort +5, Ref +5, Will +5) which can be a little more difficult for a DM to incapacitate.

 

[Jondor_Battlehammer]

You could grant either 1,2, or 3 good saves that the player chooses. This would be the same number of good saves the the class normally offers. These saves would not recive the 2 point kicker at first level, but go up at 1/2 as normal. The 2 point kicker would remain static on the good save that is standard to that class.

So a fighter could have Ref as his good save, with a max of +10 at 20th level, but would still get the +2 to Fort at level 1.

 

[ViciousPenguin]

It's not particularly unbalanced, although it can lead rather easily to characters without any really poor saves (e.g., the high Wis cleric who selects Fort and Reflex; with Wis 18, con&dex 12, at 4th level, saves are (barring other effects, such as a cloak of resistence) Fort +5, Ref +5, Will +5) which can be a little more difficult for a DM to incapacitate.

It may be notable that none of those aren't particularly high either.

 

[Dragonblade275]

I HATE the "all fighters suck at will saves, all rogues are dextrous, etc" stereotyping that the game assumes. So, I thought that maybe I would allow the players to select their good and poor saves. For instance, fighters are allowed one good and two poor saves; why not allow them to select the good one? It really won't make much difference except to obliterate that awful metagaming that PHB encourages for spellcasters. You know, "try and target giants and fighters with Will save spells, Rogues with Fort, etc.etc.".

Whaddya think?

I like the idea, Mirivor. I'd might use it at some point.

 

[Zzyzx]

I have used this, and just had to limit the players to not take a level of three different classes (since we don't use favored classes to limit multiclassing) and pick different favored saves.

Since characters in my campaign are not very "optimized" and more flavor-rich, this has never really been a problem. But you have to be aware of the danger of abuse.

I think the idea of nimble fighters, tough mages, and weak-willed clerics is great.

 

[Night Watchman]

You could grant either 1,2, or 3 good saves that the player chooses. This would be the same number of good saves the the class normally offers. These saves would not receive the 2 point kicker at first level, but go up at 1/2 as normal. The 2 point kicker would remain static on the good save that is standard to that class.

So a fighter could have Ref as his good save, with a max of +10 at 20th level, but would still get the +2 to Fort at level 1.

I really like this idea. It gets rid of the ridged rogues-must-all-be-as-dexterous-as-a-cat idea while still reflecting the results of the characters "training" in the abilities of a class. For instance, there are all types of fighters out there. Some are far more hearty than others, others are faster and still others have great strength of will. However, the very nature of their fighter training would cause them to have a greater fortitude even though one has the reflexes of a cat and another has the willpower of...something that has a lot of willpower. The point is that this mechanic would allow a greater flexibility in character creation while still maintaining the internal logic of each class in IMHO.