A saving throw (or “save”) is a roll made by a character or monster to resist a harmful special attack or magical effect.

There are five saving throw categories, used in the following situations:

• Death or Poison (D): When targeted by a death ray or exposed to poison.
• Wands (W): When targeted by an effect from a magical wand.
• Paralysis or Petrify (P): When targeted by an effect that paralyses or turns to stone.
• Breath Attacks (B): When targeted by the breath of a Dragon (or other monster with a breath attack).
• Spells, Rods, or Staves (S): When targeted by a baneful spell or an effect from a magical rod or staff.

The description of a monster, spell, magic item, or other effect indicates when a saving throw should be rolled and which category is to be saved against.

Each character class has its own table denoting the saving throw values of characters of each experience level. See the Monster Saving Throws table.

The player or referee must roll 1d20 and try to get equal or over the appropriate saving throw value. A result less than the saving throw value is a failure.

Damaging effects: A successful save against an effect that causes damage means that the damage is halved. For example, a character caught in the blast of a Fire Ball spell inflicting 20 damage suffers only 10 damage on a successful save.
Other effects: A successful saving throw against an effect that does not cause damage means the effect has been entirely avoided or negated. For example, a character who makes their save against a Charm Person spell is completely unaffected.
Damage plus special effects: For attacks inflicting damage and a special effect (e.g. poison, paralysis), the saving throw only determines whether the character avoids the special effect—the success or failure of the save does not alter the damage. For example, a Snake’s bite still inflicts normal damage, even if the saving throw against the venom succeeds, and a Ghoul’s claws inflict normal damage if the save against the paralysing effect succeeds.
Poisons: A failed save against poison (e.g. a Giant spider’s bite) is fatal, unless noted otherwise in the monster description.