Saving Throws are very static in Palladium Books, where every lethal poison requires the same base roll as every other lethal poison, except for those that have penalties. Even worse though, is that bonuses and penalties to Saving Throws are actually reversed. For example, the base save vs. insanity is 12, but a character with a high M.E. attribute receives a bonus to this save, which actually decreases the number needed to save vs. insanity. For example, a +1 bonus to save vs. insanity results in the base value decreasing to 11.
It is true that the bonus could be viewed as not modifying the base value needed but modifying the character's roll instead, which makes more sense, but there are other modifiers that are also inconsistent. As wizards gain levels, they gain a bonus to their spell strength, which increases the save needed by people affected by their spells, effectively provided a penalty to their rolls, even though it is listed as a bonus for the wizard. Another inconsistency can be viewed with Horror Factor, where characters can have a bonus or a penalty depending on their race or class or abilities, but the base save they are rolling against varies widely depending on the creature. Some have a horror factor of 10, while others have a horror factor of 18.
In order to combine all of these together, I am revising the basic Saving Throws system in Palladium Books to resemble the system used in the d20 system. In the revised system, there are three things to remember, the first is the difficulty rating of a saving throw, the second is the modifier to the difficulty rating, and the third is the modifier on the character's roll. The modifier on the difficulty rating would be a rare occurrence, but is provided mainly as a way to convert existing published material to use these rules.
Whenever a character needs to make a saving throw, the GM must calculate the difficulty rating of the roll, which represents the number that the player needs to roll equal to or above in order to make the save. In most circumstances, the standard base save listed below is sufficient, but in the case of horror factor, it will be listed on the creature's statistics. The modifiers on the difficulty rating are a means to allow external sources modify the difficulty rating and to allow published material to remain useful. For example, a wizard's spell strength bonus is applied to the difficulty rating needed to make a save vs. a magic spell, whereas a disease's description may include a penalty that a character has to make to save vs. a disease; this penalty is instead added to the base difficulty rating of the disease. The third component of these rules is the modifiers on the roll against the difficulty rating of the saving throw. These mostly come from the player, which may possess a bonus to save vs. horror factor or have an attribute bonus to save vs. all types of magic. These bonuses are added to the die roll of the player and if the modified die roll is equal to or greater than the difficulty rating of the saving throw, then the save was made, otherwise it was failed.
One of the principles of this system is that the players do not know what the difficulty rating of the challenge is when they make a saving throw. The players know their own modifiers to the roll, such as attribute bonuses, but they do not know what value they are trying to defeat, the GM only has to tell them whether they passed or failed the savings throw. This provides a level of dramatic tension that does not currently exist; as the players can always try to calculate what value is needed based on what their bonus is with the base value that they know exists. Heavy use of the base difficulty ratings below creates a similar problem, so GMs are recommended to alter or change the difficulty rating depending on their own perception of the problem. For example, the players do not know how horrific a monster is, only that they have passed or failed their saving throw, eventually they may be able to figure it out, but it could several rolls.
The following is a list of the original saving throw values that are present in nearly all books published by Palladium Books. While some variations do exist, they are mostly cosmetic, such as not including a saving throw for magic in Robotech. These numbers can be a good guide for GM's when they determine their own difficulty ratings or they can be completely ignored.
Although saving throws can be difficult to make, all is not lost. Characters with high attributes have bonuses towards one or more saving throws. The following list relates each saving throw to the attribute that provides a bonus to it and in some cases, no attribute provides a bonus for that particular saving throw.
Related to Horror Factor, Awe Factor is used when encountering a creature of immense power or beauty. Often mislabeled as Horror Factor, Awe Factor is just as dangerous and can often produce similar results, but in slightly different ways. For example, instead of quivering in terror after failing a horror factor saving throw, a character may be paralyzed by beauty after failing an awe factor saving throw. It is important to note that it is up to the GM to determine whether a creature's Horror Factor has been mislabeled and whether to use all or some of a character's bonus to save vs. horror factor in a saving throw vs. Awe Factor. In addition, as characters gains experience, they are less susceptible to Awe Factor. All character gains a bonus of +1 to save vs. awe factor at levels 3, 6, 9, 12, and 15.
This category of saving throws covers all types of diseases, from the common cold to magical diseases. The saving throw can be used to determine whether a character is infected with a disease, how badly they are infected, and even how quickly they get over the disease. Since diseases cover a wide range of virility and infectiousness, the difficulty rating for diseases should be wildly different.
This saving throw is only useful in special circumstances. Because there is no general saving throw for how tough a character's body is to withstand various stresses, each one basically needs its own saving throw. Electrocution is an example of such a saving throw. If a character is electrocuted by any means, they have to make this save or they will fall unconscious. If the fail their save roll by more then 10 then their heart has stopped, leading to death unless they have immediate medical attention.
This saving throw is appropriate for both cold and hot temperatures and the effects are similar. In extreme heat, the body overheats and there is a good chance that the character will lose consciousness, a save vs. extreme heat is the only thing that prevents the character from falling unconscious and mostly likely dieing from the heat. Extreme cold is similar but instead of overheating, the body begins to shut down from the cold. If the character fails the save vs. extreme cold, they will fall unconscious and die from hypothermia.
Closely related to insanity, some creatures are incredibly horrific to look at and thus have a horror factory. There mere sight of such a creature could cause normal people screaming or render them paralyzed with fear. The exact value of a creature's horror factor is listed in the creature's description, but if it is not, then it doesn't have a horror factor. Some situations may also be horrific or terrible for the characters to handle and the GM should feel free to apply a horror factor to that as well. An example of such as horrific scene could be the aftermath of a demon attack. After constant exposure to the same horrific creature or experience, the character should either adapt better to it, which would cause its horror factor to decrease and eventually disappear entirely, or the character should begin to develop insanities and phobias based on the bad experiences. In addition, as characters gains experience, they are less susceptible to Horror Factor. All character gains a bonus of +1 to save vs. horror factor at levels 3, 6, 9, 12, and 15.
Some things are too hard for the mind to handle and insanities may result. A traumatic experience can cause a character to develop mental problems and constant exposure to something horrific may cause a phobia to develop. The saving throw for this category is often used to determine whether a character can develop a given insanity based on the situation. The difficulty rating should reflect how horrific the situation is given the circumstances. A minor horrific experience should have a correspondingly low chance of developing a phobia by having a low difficulty rating, whereas a major traumatic experience should have a much higher chance of developing insanities by having a much higher difficulty rating.
Magic is a broad category of supernatural occurrences and covers spells, rituals, wards, magic tattoos, and a host of other magical categories. The most common two types of magic saving throws are spells and rituals, and almost all magic falls within those two categories and some spells can be cast as either spells or rituals. Higher level wizards cast more powerful spells increase the difficulty rating needed to save vs. spells cast by them.
There are some races, creatures, and classes that provide bonuses to magic or certain types of magic, such as just on saves vs. wards, but any bonus to save vs. magic from a high P.E. attribute is applied to saves vs. all types of magic. Magical fumes are usually enchanted gases and powders. Circles represent powerful magic and are much harder to save against then regular magical spells. Wards, while strong type of magic, are not as powerful as rituals or circles. Wards are exclusively used by the Diabolist OCC from Palladium Fantasy, and although some spells may use the word "ward" in their title, they do not count as true wards.
Some things hurt. Some things hurt really bad. For things that hurt a lot, such as certain martial art holds, a character may need to make a save vs. pain. If the character fails the save vs. pain, then the pain is too great and they lose consciousness, although they can be revived almost immediately by an outside source. In most circumstances, this roll is not necessary and its effects are so great (instant loss of consciousness), that the GM should use caution when using it.
The untrained mind is easier to manipulate then a training mind. Unlike magic, where all creatures have a certain level of natural resistance, those that have never trained their mind in the use of psionics are virtually defenseless against it when compared to even the least powerful psychics. All minor and major psychics receive a bonus of +3 to save vs. psionics and all master psychics receive a bonus of +5 to save vs. psionics.
Soul Drinking is a terrible power that is often only found in rune weapons, although some other powerful magic items have this ability. The weapon or item with this ability is capable of draining the very life force of the target. Failing this save means the target has been absorbed by the weapon or item and is forever trapped in the weapon or item.
There are a large number of toxins and this category included lethal poisons, such as arsenic, non-lethal poisons, such as poisons that incapacitate, but do not kill, and harmful drugs, such as addictive drugs. Being exposed to a toxin, such as by injecting a drug or by ingesting a poison, causes a save vs. toxin to determine how effective the toxin was.