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Archives of Nethys

Archives of Nethys

Pathfinder RPG (1st Edition) Pathfinder RPG (2nd Edition) Starfinder RPG

Rules Index | GM Screen | Player's Guide
Chapter 8: Playing the Game

Damage Rolls

Source Player Core pg. 406 2.0
Strikes, spells, hazards, and all number of other dangers can deal damage, which can kill creatures and destroy objects.

Damage decreases a creature's Hit Points (HP) on a 1-to- 1 basis (so a creature that takes 6 damage loses 6 Hit Points). The full rules for losing HP can be found in the Hit Points, Healing, and Dying section on page 410.

Damage is sometimes given as a fixed amount, but more often than not you'll make a damage roll to determine how much damage you deal. A damage roll typically uses a number and type of dice determined by the weapon or unarmed attack used or the spell cast, and it's often enhanced by various modifiers, bonuses, and penalties. Like checks, a damage roll—especially a melee weapon damage roll—is often modified by a number of modifiers, penalties, and bonuses. When making a damage roll, you take the following steps, explained in detail below.
  • Roll damage dice indicated by the weapon, unarmed attack, or spell, and apply the modifiers, bonuses, and penalties that apply to the result of the roll.
  • Determine the damage type.
  • Apply immunities, weaknesses, and resistances the subject has to the damage.
  • If any damage remains, reduce Hit Points the target has by that amount.

Step 1: Roll Damage Dice

Source Player Core pg. 406 2.0
Your weapon, unarmed attack, spell, or even a magic item determines what size and number of dice you roll for damage. For instance, if you're using a normal longsword, you'll roll 1d8. If you're casting a 3rd-rank fireball spell, you'll roll 6d6. Sometimes, especially in the case of weapons, you'll apply modifiers, bonuses, and penalties to the damage.

Damage rolls for melee weapons and unarmed attacks typically add your Strength attribute modifier.

Melee damage roll = damage die of weapon or unarmed attack + Strength modifier + bonuses + penalties

Damage rolls for ranged weapons typically don't add an attribute modifier, though you add your Strength modifier to damage rolls for thrown weapons or half the modifier to damage rolls for ranged weapons with the propulsive trait.

Ranged damage roll = damage die of weapon (+ Strength modifier for a thrown weapon or half Strength modifier for a propulsive weapon) + bonuses + penalties

For damage rolls with spells, alchemical bombs, and similar items, you don't add an attribute modifier unless otherwise noted.

Spell (or similar effect) damage roll = damage die of effect + bonuses + penalties

As with checks, you might add circumstance, status, or item bonuses to your damage rolls, but if you have multiple bonuses of the same type, you add only the highest bonus of that type. Again like checks, you may also apply circumstance, status, item, and untyped penalties to the damage roll, and again you apply only the greatest penalty of a specific type but apply all untyped penalties together.

If the combined penalties on an attack would reduce the damage to 0 or below, you still deal 1 damage. Sometimes there are other considerations, described below.

Adding Damage Dice

Source Player Core pg. 406 2.0
Each weapon lists the damage die used for its damage roll. A standard weapon deals one die of damage, but a magical striking rune can increase the number of dice rolled, as can some special actions and spells. These additional dice use the same die size as the weapon or unarmed attack's normal damage die.

Counting Damage Dice

Source Player Core pg. 406 2.0
Effects based on a weapon's number of damage dice include only the weapon's damage die plus any extra dice from a striking rune. They don't count extra dice from abilities, critical specialization effects, property runes, weapon traits, or the like.

Increasing Die Size

Source Player Core pg. 406 2.0
When an effect calls on you to increase the size of your weapon damage dice, instead of using its normal weapon damage dice, use the next larger die, as listed below (so if you were using a d4, you'd use a d6, and so on). If you are already using a d12, the size is already at its maximum. You can't increase your weapon damage die size more than once.

1d4 » 1d6 » 1d8 » 1d10 » 1d12


Persistent Damage

Source Player Core pg. 406 2.0
Persistent damage is a condition that causes damage to recur beyond the original effect. Like normal damage, it can be doubled or halved based on the results of an attack roll or saving throw. Unlike with normal damage, when you are subject to persistent damage, you don’t take it right away. Instead, you take the specified damage at the end of your turns, after which you attempt a DC 15 flat check to see if you recover from the persistent damage. See page 445 in the Conditions Appendix for the complete rules regarding the persistent damage condition.

Doubling and Halving Damage

Source Player Core pg. 407 2.0
Sometimes you'll need to halve or double an amount of damage, such as when the outcome of your Strike is a critical hit or when you succeed at a basic Reflex save against a spell. When this happens, you roll the damage normally, adding all the normal modifiers, bonuses, and penalties. Then you double or halve the amount as appropriate. As normal, round down if you halve the damage (though 1 damage halved remains at a minimum of 1 damage).

When doubling, the GM might allow you to roll the dice twice and double the modifiers, bonuses, and penalties instead of doubling the entire result, but this usually works best for single-target attacks or spells at low levels when you have a small number of damage dice to roll. Benefits you gain specifically from a critical hit, like the extra damage die from the fatal weapon trait, aren't doubled.

Step 2: Damage Type

Source Player Core pg. 407 2.0
Once you've calculated how much damage you deal, you'll need to determine the damage type. The smack of a club deals bludgeoning damage. The shock of a lightning bolt spell deals electricity damage. Sometimes you might apply precision damage, dealing more damage for hitting a creature in a vulnerable spot or when the target is somehow vulnerable.

Damage Types

Damage has a number of different types and categories, which are described below.

Physical Damage

Damage dealt by weapons, many physical hazards, and a handful of spells is collectively called physical damage. The main types of physical damage are bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing. Bludgeoning damage comes from weapons and hazards that deal blunt-force trauma, like a hit from a club or being dashed against rocks. Piercing damage is dealt from stabs and punctures, whether from a dragon's fangs or the thrust of a spear. Slashing damage is delivered by a cut, be it the swing of the sword or the blow from a scythe blades trap.

Ghosts and other incorporeal creatures have a high resistance to physical attacks that aren't magical (attacks that lack the magical trait). Furthermore, most incorporeal creatures have additional, though lower, resistance to magical physical damage (such as damage dealt from a mace with the magical trait) and most other damage types.

Energy Damage

Many spells and other magical effects deal energy damage. Energy damage is also dealt from effects in the world, such as the biting cold of a blizzard to a raging forest fire. The main types of energy damage are acid, cold, electricity, fire, and sonic. Acid damage can be delivered by gases, liquids, and certain solids that dissolve flesh, and sometimes harder materials. Cold damage freezes material by way of contact with chilling gases and ice. Electricity damage comes from the discharge of powerful lightning and sparks. Fire damage burns through heat and combustion. Sonic damage assaults matter with high-frequency vibration and sound waves. Many times, you deal energy damage by casting magic spells, and doing so is often useful against creatures that have immunities or resistances to physical damage.

Two special types of energy damage specifically target the living and the undead. Vitality damage harms only undead creatures, withering undead bodies and disrupting incorporeal undead. Void damage saps life, damaging only living creatures.

Powerful and pure magical energy can manifest itself as force damage. Few things can resist this type of damage—not even incorporeal creatures such as ghosts and wraiths.

Spirit Damage

Directly affecting the spiritual essence of a creature, spirit damage can damage a target projecting its consciousness or possessing another creature even if the target's body is elsewhere. The possessed creature isn't harmed by the blast. Spirit damage doesn't harm creatures that have no spirit, such as constructs. Many effects that deal spirit damage also have the sanctified, holy, or unholy trait, all of which are described in the sidebar on page 36, and on pages 456 and 462.

Mental Damage

Sometimes an effect can target the mind with enough psychic force to actually deal damage to the creature. When it does, it deals mental damage. Mindless creatures and those with only programmed or rudimentary intelligence are often immune to mental damage and effects.

Poison Damage

Venoms, toxins and the like can deal poison damage, which affects creatures by way of contact, ingestion, inhalation, or injury. In addition to coming from monster attacks, alchemical items, and spells, poison damage is often caused by ongoing afflictions, which follow special rules described on page 430.

Bleed Damage

Another special type of physical damage is bleed damage. This is persistent damage that represents loss of blood. As such, it has no effect on nonliving creatures or living creatures that don't need blood to live. Weaknesses and resistances to physical damage apply. Bleed damage ends automatically if you're healed to your full Hit Points.

Precision Damage

Sometimes you are able to make the most of your attack through sheer precision. When you hit with an ability that grants you precision damage, you increase the attack's listed damage, using the same damage type, rather than tracking a separate pool of damage. For example, a nonmagical dagger Strike that deals 1d6 precision damage from a rogue's sneak attack increases the piercing damage by 1d6.

Some creatures are immune to precision damage, regardless of the damage type; these are often amorphous creatures that lack vulnerable anatomy. A creature immune to precision damage would ignore the 1d6 precision damage in the example above, but it would still take the rest of the piercing damage from the Strike. Since precision damage is always the same type of damage as the attack it's augmenting, a creature that is resistant to physical damage, like a gargoyle, would resist not only the dagger's damage but also the precision damage, even though it is not specifically resistant to precision damage.

Precious Materials

While not their own damage category, precious materials can modify damage to penetrate a creature's resistances or take advantage of its weaknesses. For instance, silver weapons are particularly effective against werecreatures and bypass the resistances to physical damage that most devils have.

Step 3: Apply Immunities, Weaknesses, and Resistances

Source Player Core pg. 407 2.0
Defenses against certain types of damage or effects are called immunities or resistances, while vulnerabilities are called weaknesses. Apply immunities first, then weaknesses, and resistances third. See page 408.

Step 4: Reduce Hit Points

Source Player Core pg. 407 2.0
Any remaining damage reduces the target’s Hit Points on a 1-to-1 basis. More information can be found in the Hit Points, Healing, and Dying section on page 410.

Nonlethal Attacks

Source Player Core pg. 407 2.0
You can make a nonlethal attack to knock someone out instead of killing them (see Knocked Out and Dying on page 410). Weapons with the nonlethal trait (including fists) do this automatically. You take a –2 circumstance penalty to the attack roll when you make a nonlethal attack using a weapon or unarmed attack that doesn’t have the nonlethal trait. You also take this penalty when making a lethal attack using a nonlethal weapon. Spells and other effects with the nonlethal trait that reduce a creature to 0 Hit Points knock the creature out instead of killing them.