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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
Player Core / Chapter 8: Playing the Game / Damage Rolls

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.

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.