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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

Assistive Items

Source Grand Bazaar pg. 67
Mobility items of all types are available all throughout Golarion.

Disabilities in Your Game

The items featured in this section, as well as the rules for sign language, are intended to be inclusive and accommodate any type of character in your adventures. The rules are intended to allow disabled characters to adventure alongside other adventurers without encountering significant roadblocks. While the rules here cover a wide range of scenarios, it's impossible to account for every possible experience of disability or situation that might come up at your table. By default, we recommend that, in an unexpected situation, you rule to allow the character with disabilities to participate fully in the story. For instance, if an area might seem difficult to reach in a wheelchair, you might think of a fun way to describe how the character manages it anyway using their traveler's chair mechanism, or if a character used a reading ring on a trap that triggers when read, you would rule they trigger the trap in the same way as anyone else would. However, players (including the GM) should work together to find the best way to tell the stories they wish to tell at their table. The options here might suit your group's needs exactly, or simply serve as inspiration to come up with your own unique approach. Pathfinder is a game for everyone, so every character should be able to enjoy the excitement, danger, and fun of adventuring!

Waiving Costs

Many adventurers make use of assistive items, whether to aid with disabilities, injuries, or for any number of other reasons. If your character has been disabled from birth or for a significant period of time before setting out on their adventure, your character begins with any assistive items they require as part of their backstory. These items don't count against your character's starting money. Your character can begin with only basic assistive items such as the basic hearing aid, basic prosthesis, and so on. If your character uses a wheelchair, they can begin with either a basic chair or a traveler's chair, with the impulse control upgrade if your character needs it due to mobility restrictions or other health conditions. Any items your character acquires from their backstory in this way likewise have no value when sold.

Canes & Crutches

Source Grand Bazaar pg. 67
Not to be confused with walking sticks (which are typically fashion items), canes and crutches provide various functions to best suit a character's needs. Mobility canes regularly bear a person's weight from the affected leg or legs, as do crutches. A basic cane or basic crutch has the same statistics as a club when wielded in combat. Other canes are additionally designed for heavy impact and combat use, and have their own statistics. All four of these items can be used as weapons, and you can apply weapon runes to them as normal. Using them as a weapon doesn't hinder their use as a mobility item in any way.

Hearing Aids

Source Grand Bazaar pg. 67
Hearing aids are made from a variety of materials, from metal to wood. The domed shapes, curved into receivers, bounce sounds back into the ear canal, improving the reception of sound for hard of hearing individuals. Magical models are imbued with a small charge of divination magic, helping to sharpen and amplify sound and filter out any interference—though this does not protect the wearer from effects like the deafened condition when caused by magic.

Joint Supports and Splints

Source Grand Bazaar pg. 68
Joint supports can be made from a variety of materials—leather, cloth, metal or wooden rods, and so on. So long as the material is flexible enough to bend with the affected joint, it can make a great support or splint. Supports are used for many reasons, such as an old wound, arthritis, or bone structure conditions. They provide stability and help the joint take impact from everyday strains such as walking, crouching, and using the arms or hands, as well as even more intense exercise like fighting, rolling, jumping, and sprinting. Supports and splints rely more on roleplaying than mechanics. Consider what kind of support best meets your character's needs.

Prostheses

Source Grand Bazaar pg. 69
A prosthesis is an artificial device designed to replace a missing or damaged body part. Prostheses are made from a variety of materials, including wood or metal for common prostheses and clockwork devices or rare materials for more expensive ones. Advancements in the prosthetic field mean that even the most basic of prostheses can provide the full range of functionality for a missing body part.

Reading Rings

Source Grand Bazaar pg. 69
Reading rings are small magic items that can be crafted into any design the wearer pleases and worn on any finger. They're made using a variety of materials, such as metal or wood, and are imbued with minor divination magic. These rings assist blind and low-vision wearers in reading books, tomes, and other such forms of writing, needing only to run the finger or hand wearing the ring over the pages to hear what's written on the page in their mind.

If the user is deafblind, the ring will instead translate the writing into tactile sign or another method for the user to glean the writing's meaning.

Vision Assistance

Source Grand Bazaar pg. 70
People with low vision use a number of different items to aid with correction. These items are made from a variety of materials and typically include glass lenses that help refocus light toward the user's eye.

Wheelchairs

Source Grand Bazaar pg. 70
Morhen's shop offers several types of wheelchairs, some designed for everyday use and others geared toward combat and adventuring. These chairs provide comfort and support when traveling. You can use the item for ambulatory needs or everyday tasks, however suits your character. Wheelchairs come in a variety of sizes to suit every person regardless of height or body type. Each wheelchair operates in the following ways.

Adjustable Seat Belts: These belts strap around your waist, knees, and shins to keep you in the chair if it's thrown, knocked, or handled roughly. You can open and release your belts with an Interact action.

Bulk Limit: A wheelchair is strong enough to support you and any amount of Bulk you could typically hold or carry. Your total carried Bulk includes all the items you are wearing, carrying, and stowing on your wheelchair. You take the usual effects when there's too much Bulk on you and your wheelchair: if you're carrying an amount of Bulk equal to 5 + your Strength modifier, you're encumbered, and you and your wheelchair can't hold or carry more than 10 + your Strength modifier. The wheelchair's own Bulk doesn't count against your Bulk limit while riding in the wheelchair; it's listed in case you need to carry the wheelchair separately.

Frame: A wheelchair is typically made from common materials like wood, but they can also be made from steel, other metals, or even rarer materials like mithral. The wheelchairs presented in this section are assumed to be made from durable wood.

Magic: The wheelchair is considered an extension of yourself. Spells or abilities that change your bodily form also apply to the chair, and it transforms with you so long as you're using it. You can choose what appearance this has. For example, when you transform with animal form, you can choose to have full mobility of your limbs or have the chair transform to become a wheelchair appropriate for that shape, such as wheelchair harnesses for dogs.

Movement: While using a wheelchair, you Stride at your normal Speed (listed in your ancestry, with any additional bonuses, penalties, and adjustments applied). You propel a wheelchair by using the hand rims. You can propel the wheelchair even while holding something in your hands, but not if you're restrained or otherwise unable to move your hands freely. You're still affected by difficult terrain and other terrain features. Any effect that would immobilize you, give a penalty to your Speeds, or similar by entangling or hindering your legs applies to the chair as well. You can use all of your actions while in a wheelchair. With the impulse control add-on, you can direct a chair with your fingers or nerve impulses instead.

Quick-Righting: If the chair is tipped or you're knocked prone while in the chair, you can right yourself using the Stand action, though in this case you are righting the wheelchair instead. An ally can use an Interact action to help right you, allowing you to Stand as a free action triggered by their Interact action.

Wheelchair Upgrades

Source Grand Bazaar pg. 71
A wheelchair can have upgrades added to its frame to improves its capabilities. The cost includes the installation of the upgrade.

Assistive Companions

Source Grand Bazaar pg. 72
Some users have encountered issues with using mundane wheelchairs in dangerous environments, or simply prefer a different aesthetic to their mobility items. To this end, magic users have crated a strange living being that resembles either a chair, or some cross between a chair and a beast with hairy paws or hooves, known colloquially as a “legchair.” Despite some desperate efforts from magic users, this is the only name that has stuck. A player who has access to an animal companion can choose a legchair as their companion.

Magical Prostheses

Source Grand Bazaar pg. 73
These magically engineered prostheses are tailored to go beyond just practicality for the avid adventurer. The various designs and uses mean that adventurers of all classes are bound to find a prosthesis geared toward their specific lifestyle. Additionally, some characters might want to make use of a magical prosthesis but not actually be missing the associated body part. In this case, a variant of the prosthesis is available that fits over the existing body part instead and uses the same statistics.

Related Rules

Mobility Devices (Source Guns & Gears pg. 90)