What is a Reflex save

[Stalker0]

Also keep in mind that saves also reflect a certain amount of luck. Sometimes its not that you dodged the fireball, it was just a dud in that 5 foot square of yours

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

You see that's exactly the kind of situation that bothers me. Someone in a 10' wide pit, cannot dodge a 20 ft' fireball, it just doesn't make sense.

Unless ...

In that case, consider that the fireball spell does not produce a "solid" sphere of fire. Rather, it creates a swirling mass of fire that mostly fills a given volume. Someone who makes his or her Reflex save is able to stay mostly in the non-fire parts of that volume - dodging like Spiderman did.

A rogue or other character with Evasion, on a successful save, has stayed entirely in the non-fire parts of that volume.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Someone in a 10' wide pit, cannot dodge a 20 ft' fireball, it just doesn't make sense. Now I also agree that making sense is certainly not a requirement, but without some kind of physical movement to avoid being hit, this would make more sense as a fortitude save, IMHO.

They can move just fine within their square.

If they are in a two-and-a-half-foot-wide tunnel, on the other hand, they don't have room to move, and therefore can't make a Reflex save.

-Hyp.

 

[diaglo]

You see that's exactly the kind of situation that bothers me. Someone in a 10' wide pit, cannot dodge a 20 ft' fireball, it just doesn't make sense.

read my post further up...

they have rules concerning tight spaces and when reflex saves don't work.


in this case read some of the other responses... like Patryn of Elvenshae or Stalker0


make something up.

not all spells work all the time for max damage... that is the luck part. roll the dice and make something up.

 

[mvincent]

they have rules concerning tight spaces and when reflex saves don't work.

Where?

 

[Hypersmurf]

Where?

See "Evasion" in the Special Abilities section of the DMG.

-Hyp.

 

[diaglo]

Where?

from the SRD: EVASION AND IMPROVED EVASION
These extraordinary abilities allow the target of an area attack to leap or twist out of the way. Rogues and monks have evasion and improved evasion as class features, but certain other creatures have these abilities, too.
If subjected to an attack that allows a Reflex save for half damage, a character with evasion takes no damage on a successful save.
As with a Reflex save for any creature, a character must have room to move in order to evade. A bound character or one squeezing through an area cannot use evasion.
As with a Reflex save for any creature, evasion is a reflexive ability. The character need not know that the attack is coming to use evasion.


bolded above for emphasis

"As with" means it applies to reflex saves also...

 

[jrients]

The HERO system has a neat little maneuver called Dive For Cover that allows sudden movement. IIRC you make a Dex roll to determine how many hexes you move. For most characters one or two hexes was about the best you could do. In my experience the most common usage for Dive For Cover was to get out of the way of an area effect. One could abort to dive, using up your next action. Unless the attack happened on the same Speed as your last action.

Something like this could be written into the Reflex save or made into a Feat or adapted as a new action.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Something like this could be written into the Reflex save or made into a Feat or adapted as a new action.

There's a feat like that in Complete Adventurer called, I believe, "Dive for Cover."

The rules text is something like: Once per round, on a failed Reflex save, try again. Regardless of your success on the second attempt, you fall prone in your square.

 

[sfedi]

There's a feat like that in Complete Adventurer called, I believe, "Dive for Cover."

The rules text is something like: Once per round, on a failed Reflex save, try again. Regardless of your success on the second attempt, you fall prone in your square.

What if you are already prone?
Does it work too?