Is the 30-day saving throw for Feeblemind done with a victim's original Intelligence saving throw or do they use the reduced one?

Question

As in, would their waving throw be Int + Proficiency bonus or -5 + Proficiency Bonus.

If it's the second, wouldn't this make Feeblemind essentially impossible to save from without a nat 20? (Assuming the caster has their casting stat maxed and has a proficiency bonus of +6)

This seems like it could wreak a lot of havoac on a small village without anyone capable of casting Greater Restoration?

@Wibbs what characters did you add? I can't tell. – Rob Rose Oct 19 '17 at 01:59 — Rob Rose, Oct 19 '17 at 01:59
@RobRose I removed the RAW tag – Wibbs Oct 19 '17 at 13:42 — Wibbs, Oct 19 '17 at 13:42
Natural 20 does not auto save. See this Q&A – KorvinStarmast Oct 20 '17 at 11:37 — KorvinStarmast, Oct 20 '17 at 11:37

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 18 '17 at 22:57

5

The save is made with an Intelligence of 1 i.e. -5 + proficiency bonus

If it's the second, wouldn't this make Feeblemind essentially impossible to save from without a nat 20?

The person who casts Feeblemind is at least 15th level (+5 or +6 proficiency) and probably has a +5 stat bonus giving a DC of 18 or 19. It is possible that the person has stats higher than 20 through magic items - the maximum being 30 of course which would give a DC of 23 or 24.

A natural 20 of a saving throw is not an automatic success - that only applies to Attack rolls. Therefore you need to be at least 5th (DC18) or 9th (DC19) level to ever recover. If you are lower level than this you will never recover - if you can save on a 20 or less you will recover eventually.

This seems like it could wreak a lot of havoc on a small village without anyone capable of casting Greater Restoration?

Yes

answered Oct 18 '17 at 22:57

Dale M

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Why would anyone wast Feeblemind on a small village, though? It's not as though small villages are havens for intellectuals. .... – KorvinStarmast Oct 19 '17 at 02:22
I was thinking getting a Lawful Good high-RP cleric to waste all their Level 5+ spell slots on curing the village right before a big battle. Additional conflict if the rest of the party doesn't think it's a good idea. – Rob Rose Oct 19 '17 at 23:27
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@KorvinStarmast Because no one would notice right away if you did it to a small village. Now you're free to make some of these people "disappear" for whatever nefarious purpose you have in mind (e.g. slavery, devil summoning rituals, sell their brains to mindflayers, recharge your phylactery...). By the time someone important from a larger town realizes something's wrong and checks in, you're already skipped town, there's no signs of struggle and there's no intelligent witnesses that would understand what's happened. – Doval Oct 20 '17 at 14:16
@Doval OK, good point. – KorvinStarmast Oct 20 '17 at 14:44
Makes for a nice plothook though - having some feral dragon hiding high in the mountains, possibly serving as a kind of guardian angle to the descendants of his former underlings - that'd be a weird encounter, and what happens once somebody succeeds at dispel magic? – Eamon Nerbonne Dec 28 '20 at 14:19

Is the 30-day saving throw for Feeblemind done with a victim's original Intelligence saving throw or do they use the reduced one?

1 Answers1

The save is made with an Intelligence of 1 i.e. -5 + proficiency bonus

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