Save or Die and The Ineluctable Eye of Healing

[Deleted]

I was watching yet another YouTube video about Save or Die being unfair. This one focused around poison. In rereading some early rules, I came across an item in Empire of the Petal Throne called The Ineluctable Eye of Healing. This item can be used to grant a successful saving throw against poison and disease with the caveat that it only works if you use the item (and expend a charge) BEFORE rolling the saving throw. It is also my understanding that Gary used Neutralize Poison this way, requiring the player to use it before making a save.

The reason I bring this up is that this mechanic, use a charge in lieu of making a roll, is very clean and can easily be applied to other areas. For example, instead of providing a +1 bonus, a Ring of Protection could provide 10 passed saves or even 10 auto-missed attacks against the wearer. It provides an interesting choice as the player would never know if his charge was needed or wasted. This mechanic would also scale well as it would be very valuable to low level characters but much less so as the character levels up and failed saves become more and more uncommon.

Do any clones do something like this already? `

[Starbeard]

I haven't noticed any magic items being used this way in any clones (or anywhere, really). I like it a lot, though; lots of ways to play with it:


Ring of Protection +1 (=10 charges): "Charges may cancel one physical attack or void one saving throw; must be used prior to making the roll."

Ring of Protection +1 (=10 charges): "Use a charge to give yourself AC0 against one incoming attack."

Ring of Protection +1: "Acts like a normal RoP; however, prior to an attack or saving throw, you may expend a charge to void the attack or save, after which the RoP must make its own saving throw vs 12 or be destroyed."

Ring of Protection +1 (=10 charges): "As the first one above—but you can choose to wait until after the roll, after which the RoP is destroyed forever."

Etc.