Attack save DC confusion [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTimePost
MrAdam

03-28-06, 11:05 AM		Okay, so I'm working on a monster for my game, For The sake of argument lets call it "Radioactine Death Turtle" A monster with 15HD. And Let's say for the sake of argument I give Mr. Radioactive Death Turtle a breath weapon, say A cone of Atomic Hellfire. Now, this isn't first edition Ad+d where NOTHING had a saving throw and characters died by the gross, so ,being the bastion of fairness I am, I to give my Radioactive Death Turtle's cone of Atomic Hellfire a reflex save for half damage...now the part I can't figure out is How do I figure out the save DC for Death Turtle's (and any other monster I might be working on) breath weapon?
Spike_Fightwicky

03-28-06, 12:11 PM		Okay, so I'm working on a monster for my game, For The sake of argument lets call it "Radioactine Death Turtle" A monster with 15HD. And Let's say for the sake of argument I give Mr. Radioactive Death Turtle a breath weapon, say A cone of Atomic Hellfire. Now, this isn't first edition Ad+d where NOTHING had a saving throw and characters died by the gross, so ,being the bastion of fairness I am, I to give my Radioactive Death Turtle's cone of Atomic Hellfire a reflex save for half damage...now the part I can't figure out is How do I figure out the save DC for Death Turtle's (and any other monster I might be working on) breath weapon?

The formula for figuring out the DC for a breath weapon (and many other Special Attacks for that matter) is as follows:

Breath Weapon DC = 10 + 1/2 the creature's hit dice + Creature's Constitution modifier.

So for your turtle, the breath weapon DC would be 17+Con mod (10 + 7 [15HD/2] + Con Mod].

Relevant rule:

Breath Weapon (Su): A breath weapon attack usually deals damage and is often based on some type of energy.

Such breath weapons allow a Reflex save for half damage (DC 10 + 1/2 breathing creature’s racial HD + breathing creature’s Con modifier; the exact DC is given in the creature’s descriptive text). A creature is immune to its own breath weapon unless otherwise noted. Some breath weapons allow a Fortitude save or a Will save instead of a Reflex save.