There are many ways to go around explaining why, but the Sage Advice Compendium (page 8 as of 2.3) references that question directly.
Are attack rolls and saving throws basically specialized ability checks? They aren’t. It’s easy to mistake the three rolls as three faces of the same thing, because they each involve rolling a d20, adding any modifiers, and comparing the total to a Difficulty Class, and they’re all subject to advantage and disadvantage. In short, they share the same procedure for determining success or failure. Despite this common procedure, the three rolls are separate from each other. If something in the game, like the guidance spell, affects one of them, the other two aren’t affected unless the rules specifically say so.
If you have more questions regarding the matter, I'll be happy to follow through (and I'm pretty sure many more would like to chip in, if no one ninja'd my post already :p )
Related trivia: A Death Save is a saving throw (and thus benefits from a Ring of Protection, for example). Initiative is a Dexterity ability check (so the Bard gets half proficiency to it with Jack of All Trades).
There are many ways to go around explaining why, but the Sage Advice Compendium (page 8 as of 2.3) references that question directly.
Are attack rolls and saving throws basically specialized ability checks? They aren’t. It’s easy to mistake the three rolls as three faces of the same thing, because they each involve rolling a d20, adding any modifiers, and comparing the total to a Difficulty Class, and they’re all subject to advantage and disadvantage. In short, they share the same procedure for determining success or failure. Despite this common procedure, the three rolls are separate from each other. If something in the game, like the guidance spell, affects one of them, the other two aren’t affected unless the rules specifically say so.
If you have more questions regarding the matter, I'll be happy to follow through (and I'm pretty sure many more would like to chip in, if no one ninja'd my post already :p )
Related trivia: A Death Save is a saving throw (and thus benefits from a Ring of Protection, for example). Initiative is a Dexterity ability check (so the Bard gets half proficiency to it with Jack of All Trades).
Will ninja 100%!
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Is a Saving Throw an Ability Check?
If so, why?
If not, why not?
DCI: 3319125026
It is not.
There are many ways to go around explaining why, but the Sage Advice Compendium (page 8 as of 2.3) references that question directly.
If you have more questions regarding the matter, I'll be happy to follow through (and I'm pretty sure many more would like to chip in, if no one ninja'd my post already :p )
Related trivia:
A Death Save is a saving throw (and thus benefits from a Ring of Protection, for example).
Initiative is a Dexterity ability check (so the Bard gets half proficiency to it with Jack of All Trades).
Thank you for the answer and the source information.
DCI: 3319125026
Will ninja 100%!