Sla saves...

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Ok people something is seriously wrong here.... my Tiefling with 20 intelligence and 12 charisma uses his spell like ability... blindness (tieflings actually get darkness but that's beyond the point) so I use it on a goblin (bored) and it makes a fort save of 11... i look over and I see... "success" I go what in the name of... first of all usually spell like abilities go off of charisma so it should have atleast have been a 12... if it is a "wizard spell" it should go off of my intelligence making it a 16. Is there maybe a mod out there that fixes this problem?

 

What's a "Sla save?" Anyway, I return to the question posed.

It seems as if you expect save DC to be equal to the controlling ability, but that's not the case. Two formulae for determining DC are presented in the 3E DMG (p.94). Spell save DC (also in class descriptions in the PHB) is 10 + spell level + ability modifer, while save DC for monsters is 10 + 1/2 HD + ability modifier. Since the MM tends to give DCs in ability descriptions, I expect the latter formula is suggested for use in designing creatures.

Darkness, according to the IWD2 manual, is Brd 2, Clr 3, Sor/Wiz 2, and Mask 2. So, if we treat your darkness as a spell, the save against it would be 10 + 2 + 1 = 13 if it's a bard or sorcerer spell, 10 + 2 + 3 = 15 if it's a wizard spell, 10 + 3 + ? if it's a cleric spell. 12 is too low, but 16 is too high. The 16 just gives a +3 modifier if this were controlled by intelligence.

Since 3E tieflings get darkness (which doesn't admit a save), they aren't given any save DC. I don't know exactly what IWD2 does, particularly since we don't have enough data here to determine the precise DC. It might be DC 10 + ability modifier, which would be a DC of 11 if charisma is used. If this is a first-level character, it wouldn't be inconsistent with 10 + 1/2 levels + Cha mod, either. The IWD2 manual isn't forthcoming about the details of save DC, so I don't know what the game does, but I'm not sure there's a problem.

 

About saving throws, I've been wondering how the Club of Disruption works. What is the DC for its effect on monsters? I'd like to know if it's worth pounding those elder earth elementals (or whateva they are called) with the club, since if the monster has to roll a 1 for the effect to work, then I might as well try something else. This bugged me when I did Battle Square the first time, I fought every single lvl of it (didn't know about the tweak pack), and I had serious troubles killing the earth elementals, just too much health they had :C

 

The elementals have too good saves. I almost always clubbed them to death instead of them being disrupted. If you get a water elemental, time to save.
The demons and undead all however seem to get disrupted quite often.

For the squares, Improved Invisibility and Stoneskin are always the way out.

 

I believe the Lucerne Hammer, a halberd which I found in the Black Raven Monastery, is also disruptive to undead and outsiders. I remember it taking out the elementals outside the illithid citadel quite easily. In my last game, Kuldahar seemed easy because of that.

 

But does anyone really know the DC of the disruption effect? It was saved by CON, so succesfully disrupting an earth elemental must be a critical (such thing in saving throws? me not familiar with D&D rules other than the little from IWD 1&2)?

 

I dont know the disruption DC, but whatever the earth elemental's save, there's always that 5% chance for him to roll a natural 1 and fail the save.
So, yes, there are fumbles at saving throws.

If the DC is so low that you'd have to wait for a fumble to happen, you might as well take something else and destroy him normaly.

 

Yes, but during the time given in b square, killing the highest level earth elemental was extremely difficult with the char I had back then. I just couldn't dish out damage fast enough.