Saving Throws
Saving throws have not gone away. If anything, they matter more in Oath-Bound than in vanilla AD&D 1e.
In vanilla AD&D, saving throws share resolution space with a number of other mechanical systems — alignment-dependent effects, class-specific resistances, and the broader hit point abstraction all do work that saving throws might otherwise handle. Some of that work has shifted in Oath-Bound. Where it has, saving throws pick up the load.
The Same Categories, Recalculated
The five vanilla saving throw categories are retained:
-
Death and Poison
-
Wands
-
Paralysis and Petrification
-
Breath Weapons
-
Spells
These are resolved using d100, consistent with the broader move away from the attack matrix and toward percentile resolution. The underlying relationships — which characters are more resistant to which categories of threat, and how that resistance improves with advancement — are preserved. The numbers are different; the shape is the same.
Additional categories exist in Oath-Bound to cover circumstances that the vanilla system does not address cleanly. These reflect the specific character of the setting — the oath economy, the nature of arcane and divine working in this world, and the kinds of harm that characters encounter here. The details are covered in the CRM.
Why They Matter More
A saving throw in Oath-Bound is often the only thing standing between a character and a consequence that the hit point abstraction does not govern. The decisive harm track — which covers non-combat injury, poison, disease, environmental hazard, and anything else the world does to a character outside of a combat exchange — uses saving throws as its primary resolution mechanism. A successful save does not negate what is happening. It expresses variance around a known outcome. But that variance can matter considerably, and the difference between a character who invests in their saving throws and one who does not is a difference that shows up at the worst possible moments.