When does a saving throw against Death help?

[Serissa]

Feldspar jewelry gives a saving throw against death.  I'm curious about what spells and monsters would trigger that....

[ShiffDrgnhrt]

[lore]Phantasmal Killer[/lore]?
 
 [lore]Wail of the Banshee[/lore]/Soul Mother >.>
 
 [lore]Horrid Wilting[/lore]?
 
 Not [lore]Weird[/lore], thats only debunked by True Seeing
 
 What about... [lore]Power Word, Kill[/lore]?
 
 [LORE]Pointy Finger of Death[/LORE]
 
 OR!  How about the Pointy Finger of DOOM!

[merlin34baseball]

Instant death spells like wail of the banshee and such perhaps?

[ycleption]

If you look through the spell list in LORE, there is a line that says "descriptors."  My understanding is that anything with "death" in that line is considered death magic, so the jewelry should help.
As far as monster abilities, I could give a few guesses, but couldn't tell you for sure.

Edit: Did a query for "Descriptor(s): Death" which may not have gotten everything if the syntax is different in a spell, or if there's another descriptor in-between:
   1.  Circle of Death
   2. Finger of Death
   3. Power Word, Kill
   4. Slay Living
   5. Destruction
   6. Horrid Wilting
   7. Ray of Enfeeblement
   8. Wail of the Banshee

So yes, most of the "save-or-die" spells, but a few others too.

[Pibemanden]

Death stares like bodaks gaze too I think

[Eorendil]

I believe this applies to most effects that have an instadeat or save-or-die type effect.  Weird is an exception to that as its different.

Bodaks
A number of instant death spells.. power word kill, finger of death, Wail of the Banshee..
There are others.

[lonnarin]

I heard that the wolf yetis on that no-magic mountain have a death attack for which the Feldspar rings don't work against.  Haven't tested it yet to be certain though.  I have seen them work against a Bodak's gaze... Bjorn used to bank well off those teeth way back!  The Skald's death wail doesn't fget blocked by these rings however, or the shadow shield and death ward spells.  I doubt any of those spells or rings would work against a conjuration based death spell like Drown either.

[Skywatcher]

The wolf yeti's are monk based and do the monks quivering palm attack.  It's a fort save or die but not magic.

[Pibemanden]

Well they wont work against something that is just attack roll and if you are hit you die

[Blackguy]

buhu.. It strikes fear into my heart to hear people saying it protects against power word kill, it doesnt.

It doesnt protect you against weird, or horrid wiltering either.

It doesnt protect you against phantasmal horror either.

Your welcome to ask specific spells, and I'll say if it protects or not *smiles at all*

but.. rule is.. most spells that involve somekinda insta/death thingy WITH a save that is against death, that means no fear, no will, no other kinda save, but against death, it will help you with.

[Marswipp]

So that means Implosion is off the list?

[Eight-Bit]

Save vs Death bonuses are strange. Not all spells and effects that result in instant death have the "death" descriptor. This means that while you roll a save vs dying, it is not actually a save vs death. There are also saves vs death that do not allow for bonuses to be applied. To be honest it's pretty silly, but whatever, it's a NWN thing and there's nothing that can be done.

[Chongo]

Yeah it gets funky, especially when you throw in Layo customizations.
 
 Regarding Lonn's question, they use a super low quivering palm attack.  Whether this is called a vs. death or not depends on the wacky Layo alterations to quivering palm.  It was adapted at some point I believe to allow for greater 'realism' in certain aspects.  My understanding of this realism is that not a heck of a lot will block it save for critical hit immunity.  As far as the saving throw additives versus a quivering palm, no clue man.  I know Ketil has around a 32 base fortitude, a 35 or 36 fortitude vs. death (strong soul + items), and something like a 42 fort versus death related spells.... and when the adamantine brother comes arunnin' I usually hide even though he's only got a 33ish quivering palm.  I honestly don't know what *exactly* goes in there, I just know I've died twice to quiverings when I have epic fort feats and fort items up the wazoo.  Ask one of the code dudes.  Bottom line, be careful, and assume that despite the fact that your soul may be made of layered mithril - the quivering palm rattles your body to the point of unescapable and ugly explosion.
 
 As to the main question, it's useful.  Any non-altered spell or death action triggers this additive to the save.  I personally took strong soul and have 2 items on my high epic that give a + vs. death.  It's nice whacking trollocs while they cast wail without concern.  It also helps in those unfortunate circumstances where it's will save vs. death.  

[Varka]

as Pibemand said; Death stares like bodaks gaze too I think

Is that bodak gaze the same that those weird undead snakes have? just with a higer dc?

[Weeblie]

It's Save vs Death exactly when one uses nSaveType = SAVING_THROW_TYPE_DEATH when calling the save functions during scripting.

Opening up the toolset and checking the scripts for the spells should be quite trivial to determine the type of the saves (most spells haven't been changed on Layo). Otherwise... in game wise... it's not really possible to guess what sort of save it's going to be, unless one has already been hit by it (i.e. before one is seeing the "Fortitude/Will/Reflex Save vs. Death"-line).

Generally, saves vs death are given if the spell or spell-like abilities are really "outright killing you". Weird frightens you to death, so Weird isn't really the cause of your death. Implosion collapses you into a singularity but Implosion itself never killed you. Wail of Banshee just kills you... and hence the save is applied.

Fine lines, alright! But an explanation nonless!

[Crunch]

As far as implosion goes, I think it will help because when you save against it, it shows "save versus death magic".  However, death ward and the like don't help against implosion, so maybe there is more going on there.  

You might consider visiting the arena with some casters and asking them to hit you with their best shots.  I'm sure the Corathites could help you on that.  They'd even enjoy it.

[Weeblie]

Interestingily enough, Implosion is indeed saving vs death (which breaks my old theory... oh, well!). The death magic immunity from death ward and the like are instead bypassed by letting the death effect being of the supernatural kind instead.

[lonnarin]

Now if only there was an item which protected us from the GM kill wand, we can make snake and puppy dog give us piggyback rides!