Saving throws represent your ability to avoid a physical, mental, or magical effect that is being inflicted upon your character. There is a separate saving throw for each of your six basic abilities. This saving throw is equal to your Ability Bonus plus the number of ranks you add to it over time. The higher the saving throw bonus, the better chance you have of avoiding an effect of that type.
Here is a summary of each save and how it affects your characters:
Strength – Prevents forces that would physically move you around, knock you down, or deform equipment (buffeting winds, earthquakes, warp wood spell, etc.)
Dexterity – Prevents damage when it can be physically avoided. It primarily represents the character's ability to instinctively dodge an effect coming his way. Likewise, it handles instinctive agility-based checks, such as catching oneself after slipping off a cliff.
Constitution – Prevents effects that are internal to the body (poison, polymorph spells, disease, etc.)
Intelligence – Prevents effects on the character's mental capacity (memory modification, confusion spells, spells that adjust the character's intelligence like feeblemind, etc.). Intelligence saves help you avoid being fooled by all types of illusions.
Wisdom – Prevents effects that dominate the players will or emotions.
Charisma – Prevents effects that dominate a player through social means, through enchantment, or through charm-based means.
When you start, you get 3 ranks to allocate to any of these six saving throws. As you advance, you will gain another three ranks for each level you gain. The maximum number of ranks you can allocate to any saving throw is equal to your character's level.
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