Saving Throws

[Rowan]

I know they resist spells cast by monsters, but I'm not clear what or how. The Angband Manual doesn't seem very specific.

Often I play priests, and get 100% saving throws by mid-game. I'm not completely sure, but it seems like this blocks all stat-spells (conf, fear, etc) and negates all "Cause Wounds" spells completely (and brain-smashing?).

Spells that create actual phenomena in the physical world (storms, fireballs, lightning, etc.) don't seem to be affected, since it's not magic acting directly on the character's body.

Am I getting the right idea? This is just experience, not a precise note-taking study.

Also curious if that 100% is a true 100%, or if there are some high-power monsters whose spells still succeed. There are of course games out there with 100% protection items/stats that get trumped by ultimate bosses. Makes me nervous in Angband, going up against monsters whose "Cause Wounds" could one-hit-kill me if they ever worked.

[Derakon]

100% saving throw means anything that can be saved against using a saving throw will be saved against; there's no sneaking past it (in Vanilla, anyway). However, as you note, physical phenomena don't use the saving throw. There's a few situations in which you make a "DEX saving throw", for example to avoid being stolen from -- that's different from the saving throw you see on the stat screen, and the rules for how good your DEX needs to be to guarantee success depend on the situation in completely opaque ways.

Generally the stat screen throw is treated like a "will save" in D&D parlance, as opposed to a fortitude save (no corresponding concept in Angband) or reflex save (occasionally we use your DEX score to simulate this). Thus it can be used to resist spells or other effects that affect your mind.

[Rowan]

Nice! Then I had a pretty good understanding of the results without an understanding of the process. Thank you!