the order of saves

[Raspen]

When a spell is cast on your guy do you get to know the DC of the save befor you roll or after and what is required for info from the GM

excample: say your an elf wizard and a another wizard cast dominate monster on you and you fail your spellcraft to know what it is... does the GM have to tell you what the DC is befor you roll? can you use your moment of pres. after you find out? do you ask if its an enchantment befor you tell him your total adding the +2 or do you say i get +2 vs enchments if that spell is an enchtment?

what is the right way of doing things

 

[Hypersmurf]

When a spell is cast on your guy do you get to know the DC of the save befor you roll or after and what is required for info from the GM

Generally, you don't know the DC.

"Make a Will save."
"I get... 22?"
"Okay."

If it's a targeted spell, the character will know that he saved against a hostile effect, assuming 22 was sufficient. If he failed his save, or if it were not a targeted spell (an area spell, for example), the character may not have any knowledge that a spell exists.

(The player obviously knows he rolled a save against something; this is not character knowledge, and should be kept separate.)

Moment of Prescience states that the decision to use the bonus must be made before the roll is made.

So in this case:
"Make a Will save."
"Hmm... my Will save is pretty good, so I think I'll save MoP for later. I won't use it. [roll] I get... 22, or 24 if it's an Enchantment."
"You feel a tingle, as though you just shrugged off a hostile invasion of your mind..."
"Can I make a Spellcraft check?"
"No - there was no effect to observe, and you didn't see whatever might have caused it."

-Hyp.

 

[frankthedm]

Also the DM may roll some saves for you in secret. Diseases are the most common ones of this nature.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

We usually do not know the DCs beforehand. That is by the book.

But sometimes the DM gives us the DC as a shortcut to save time when he wants to keep the game moving. As the DM has more important things to worry over than your PC's oddball modifiers, it is considered correct form to politely mention ones that might apply.

"My Will save totals to 18. I get another +2 for being an Elf if it is an enchantment."

 

[MarkB]

Also, if you're using Eberron-style action points, it's important not to know the DC in advance, because you can choose whether or not to spend an AP even after you've made your roll, providing you don't yet know whether it was a success or not.

 

[Jack Simth]

So in this case:
"Make a Will save."
"Hmm... my Will save is pretty good, so I think I'll save MoP for later. I won't use it. [roll] I get... 22, or 24 if it's an Enchantment."
"You feel a tingle, as though you just shrugged off a hostile invasion of your mind..."
"Can I make a Spellcraft check?"
"No - there was no effect to observe, and you didn't see whatever might have caused it."

-Hyp.

Are you sure about that last line?

25 + spell level After rolling a saving throw against a spell targeted on you, determine what that spell was. No action required. No retry.

 

[frankthedm]

Are you sure about that last line?

If it was a spell, they would have that option. Supernatural abilities get around that.

 

[Jack Simth]

If it was a spell, they would have that option. Supernatural abilities get around that.

True. Of course, in his metagame mind, with a DM that follows RAW very carefully, the player knows whether or not that successfully resisted effects was Su or not simply by finding out if a roll was possible (or finds out (later, the hard way) that it wasn't actually resisted - except that then, there wouldn't be that tingling of something thrown off... hmm...).

 

[Plane Sailing]

As a DM I'll often tell people the DC in order to impress upon them the horrendousness of the situation that they are attempting to save themselves against (or alternatively that it should be an easy save).

Other times I'll not tell them, or I'll tell them after they have decided whether or not to use an action point in the Eberron campaign.

So as DM I use dramatic imperative. At least one of the people who DMs for me almost never tells the DC.

It can be a matter of style and dramatic imperative, but it is always in the DMs hands. The Player/PC never has a right to know.

Cheers