Dungeons & Dragons: Spell Save DCs Explained

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Dungeons & Dragons provides players a wide range of options when creating characters, from a player's choices of class, subclass, and races. Depending on the choices they make in character creation, there's a chance that a character will be able to wield magic and cast spells. Spells come in a wide variety of forms, providing services such as healing, dealing damage to one's foes, or providing out-of-combat utility.

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When choosing a character's spells, there's a strong chance that a spell may require one or more creatures to make a saving throw, in turn requiring the spell's caster to have a Spell Save DC. In order to help newcomers to spellcasting in Dungeons & Dragons, we're going to explain everything you need to know about Spell Save DCs in the fifth edition of D&D.

Short for Spell Save Difficulty Class, a Spell Save DC is the total number that a creature must roll in order to mitigate the effects of a given spell. For example, if a Wizard has a Spell Save DC of 14, and they cast Fireball, each creature within the range of that spell must make a Dexterity Saving Throw with a total result greater than or equal to 14 in order to not suffer the full brunt of the spell.

While different types of spells require different types of saving throws to be made, a caster uses the same Spell Save DC for each of their spells. So whether that Wizard was casting Fireball, Charm Person, or Thunderwave, the DC would still be 14, despite each of these spells requiring different types of saving throws to be made.

Calculating a character's Spell Save DC is quite a straightforward process, and it allows for a character's Spell Save DC to increase over the course of a campaign as they