Saving throws

A saving throw is your roll to resist something aimed at you: a spell, a creature's ability, an item's on-hit effect, a poison. There are three, and each one uses an ability:

Save	Ability	Resists, for example
Fortitude	Constitution	poison, disease, death effects, petrification
Reflex	Dexterity	area damage such as fire and lightning, traps
Will	Wisdom	charm, domination, fear, sleep and other mind-affecting effects

How a save is rolled

You roll 1d20 + your saving throw against the DC of the effect. A total equal to the DC or higher succeeds.

A natural 1 does not fail automatically, and a natural 20 does not succeed automatically: only the total counts.
Every save prints its roll in your chat log, for example SAVE: Name : Will Save vs. Mind Spell : *failed* : (7 + 18 vs. DC: 32).
Immunity skips the roll. A creature with Death Magic Immunity, Disease Immunity, Fear Immunity, Mind Spells Immunity or Poison Immunity is not affected at all by an effect of that kind, and no save is rolled.

Your saving throw

Everything below adds together:


Base save	from your class levels, see below
Ability modifier	Constitution for Fortitude, Dexterity for Reflex, Wisdom for Will
Items and effects	at most +12 from one item, and at most +20 in total from all items and effects
Luck of Heroes	+1 to all saving throws
Divine Grace	+ your Charisma modifier, only while you are lawful good
Dark Blessing	+ your Charisma modifier, only while you are evil
Spellcraft	+1 per 10 Spellcraft against spells cast from a spellbook, within what is left of the +20 cap

Some feats add a bonus against one kind of effect only - Fearless, the Hardiness feats, Snakeblood, Strong Soul and Still Mind. The full list, and how Spellcraft is counted, is on Magic.

Base saves

Every class has strong and weak saves; its class page says which. The base save grows with your levels in that class:

Class level	1	10	20	30	40
Strong save	+2	+7	+12	+17	+22
Weak save	+0	+3	+6	+11	+16

Past level 20 every save, strong or weak, grows by +1 per 2 levels. With more than one class, the base saves of each class add together. Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes and Great Fortitude add to the base save.

Saves for half, and Evasion

Many damaging effects allow a save for half damage. Evasion and Improved Evasion change that for Reflex saves:

	Save passed	Save failed
No feat	half damage	full damage
Evasion	no damage	full damage
Improved Evasion	no damage	half damage

The DC you face

Spells: 10 + the spell's level + the caster's casting ability modifier + Spell Focus feats, with the exceptions listed on Magic.
Creature abilities such as breath weapons, bolts and auras: on Monster abilities, and on each ability's own page.
Item on-hit effects from a set: on Item sets.
Legendary on-hit properties: the wielder's character level + 5.