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Archives of Nethys

Pathfinder 1E | Pathfinder 2E | Starfinder

Rules Index
Chapter 4: Variant Rules

Stamina

Stamina's Impact

The main gameplay consequence of using these stamina rules is that a quick 10- or 20-minute rest can restore most groups to full or nearly full health via Taking a Breather and Treating Wounds as necessary, allowing more encounters with shorter breaks in between. Additionally, charismatic or otherwise diplomatic characters gain fun and useful ways to bolster their allies.

Because spells that heal Hit Points don’t restore Stamina Points, it’s a little harder to heal up completely in the middle of a fight. This can mean that fights become deadly after characters have been beaten down, possibly causing retreats to be more frequent, but the retreats themselves are shorter. The focus of the game can stay consistently within encounters, with less managing of time and resources outside of battle.

No-Limit Stamina

If you want a fast-paced, almost superheroic game, you can skip the Resolve Point component of this subsystem and simply make Taking a Breather and Rally free. This gives the characters a lot of staying power, meaning that the group will typically keep adventuring until they run out of spells for the day, rather than having the additional pressure of running out of Resolve Points. If you use this approach, omit the Steel Your Resolve feat, as it’s too powerful if there’s no cost to use it! Alternatively, if you want to keep it, you can require a character to Take a Breather before they can Steel their Resolve again.
Source Gamemastery Guide pg. 200
In some fantasy stories, the heroes are able to avoid any serious injury until the situation gets dire, getting by with a graze or a flesh wound and needing nothing more than a quick rest to get back on their feet. If your group wants to tell tales like those, you can use the stamina variant to help make that happen.

Stamina Points

Source Gamemastery Guide pg. 200
Stamina Points represent a character’s energy and readiness. They’re reduced by damage just like Hit Points, but a character always loses their Stamina Points first, and loses Hit Points only if they’re out of Stamina Points. If a character takes damage exceeding their remaining Stamina Points, the excess damage reduces their Hit Points. However, they lose any temporary Hit Points before losing Stamina Points.

Though Stamina Points and Hit Points function similarly when a character takes damage, a character recovers them differently. A heal spell restores Hit Points, not Stamina Points, and the actions described below (like Take a Breather) restore only Stamina Points, not Hit Points. A character regains all their Stamina Points after a full night’s rest. Hit Points still determine whether a character remains conscious—a character at 0 HP is unconscious, no matter how many Stamina Points they have. In addition to their ancestry Hit Points, a PC gains the number of Stamina Points and Hit Points indicated in the second and third columns of Table 4–21 at 1st level. Both values increase by the same amount at each level thereafter. This replaces the Hit Points a character gains from their class in a standard game.

Table 4-21: Stamina and Hit Points by Class

Alchemist,
Normal Class HPClass Stamina PointsClass Hit PointsClasses
6 + Con modifier3 + Con modifier3Sorcerer, wizard
8 + Con modifier4 + Con modifier4bard, cleric, druid, rogue
10 + Con modifier5 + Con modifier5Champion, fighter, monk, ranger
12 + Con modifier6 + Con modifier6Barbarian

Resolve Points

Source Gamemastery Guide pg. 200
In this variant, each PC also has a pool of Resolve Points, representing their intrinsic grit and luck. A character’s maximum Resolve Points is equal to their key ability modifier, and a character regains all their Resolve Points with a full night’s rest. In addition to spending Resolve Points to regain Stamina Points (as described under Stamina Actions), characters can spend Resolve Points in the following way.

Stabilize

Source Gamemastery Guide pg. 200
If a character is dying at the start of their turn, their player can spend 1 Resolve Point to stabilize at 0 HP, gaining or increasing the wounded condition as normal for stabilizing. At the start of the character’s next turn, they gain 1 HP and wake up (unless they started dying again). The character can act on that turn. Consider this an optional rule best suited for groups that have little access to healing. When using this rule, you might remove the ability for characters to use Hero Points to stabilize.

Stamina Actions

Source Gamemastery Guide pg. 200

Take a Breather

ExplorationStamina
Source Gamemastery Guide pg. 200
Cost 1 Resolve Point
You rest for 10 minutes and recover your stamina. After you complete this activity, you regain all your Stamina Points.

Rally

AuditoryEmotionExplorationLinguisticMentalStamina
Source Gamemastery Guide pg. 201
Requirements trained in Diplomacy, Intimidation, or Performance
You spend 1 minute encouraging your ally. Though this action typically has the auditory and linguistic traits, if you’re using the Performance skill, the GM might adjust the traits for this action to match the traits for your type of performance.

Attempt a DC 15 skill check. The GM might adjust this DC based on the circumstances, such as attempting to Rally an ally who just suffered a humiliating defeat.

Critical Success The ally can spend 1 Resolve Point to regain all their Stamina Points.
Success You can continue encouraging your ally for a total of 10 minutes. If you do, they can spend 1 Resolve Point to regain all their Stamina Points.
Critical Failure The ally takes 1d8 mental damage, but this can reduce only Stamina Points, never Hit Points.

Stamina Feats

Source Gamemastery Guide pg. 201
See here for stamina feats.

Other Creatures

Source Gamemastery Guide pg. 201
There’s no need to give Stamina Points to monsters that are expected to be encountered once and likely defeated. However, you might use Stamina Points for a recurring character, especially an NPC who fights alongside the PCs. Usually, it’s easiest to turn half the creature’s Hit Points into Stamina Points. While enemy healers still work as they’re intended to, players might be upset about the enemies’ ability to heal their allies to full Hit Points, while the PCs are left not being able to heal their allies’ Stamina Points. In this case, give more enemies Stamina Points to compensate.