Pathfinder (2e): Basics of Damage Part 1 (Critical Hits, Resistance, Weakness, & Immunity)

hello and welcome to basics for gamers presents the basics of damaged part 1 for Pathfinder 2nd edition in this video we will discuss the four step process for calculating and applying damage and in part 2 we'll expand on that discussion by covering some of the more interesting twists such as precision damage and persistent damage during an adventure players are likely to find themselves in conflict with all manner of dangerous enemies and if they're like my players this conflict will probably result in someone getting stabbed and when that happens damage is inflicted as you are probably already aware every creature has a number of hit points and when that total Falls to zero really bad things happen a future video titled the basics of life and death will cover how that works but for this conversation was important to understand as damage is the mechanism by which hit points are reduced and there's more going on there than just simple subtraction there is a four-step process for resolving damage step one is determine the base damage any effect that applies damage should include a number of dice to roll to determine the base damage in rare cases the effect will provide a flattened number without the need to roll dice but generally speaking you will make a damage roll step two is determined the damage type we'll talk about this more in a bit but there's no such thing as generic damage in Pathfinder all damage has at least one type for example slashing damage or fire damage this is important to know when you're dealing with step three which is adjust the base damage for any immunities resistances or vulnerabilities the target might have and in step four you apply the damage whatever total is remaining at the end of step three is subtracted from the targets current hit points in the first step we calculate the base damage of the effect and the best place to start that discussion is with weapon damage damage from weapon attacks is pretty straightforward if it's a melee attack like swinging an axe then base damage is equal to the weapons damaged ice plus the attackers strength modifier and if it's a ranged attack is just the weapons damaged ice you do not add any ability modifier to the damage for our ranged attack for example you do not add dexterity to a ranged attack as is done in some other games and there are a few ways to adjust this damage even further weapons with the thrown trait like javelins add your strength modifier to their damage even though they're arranged attacks but there is one notable exception to this weapons with the splash trait like acid flasks or bombs do not have any strength modifiers added to them even though they may be thrown if the weapon has the propulsive trait like slings and composite bows you add half your strength modifier to the damage or all of your strength modifier if that is a negative number and if the weapon has the two-hand trait the damaged ice increases to the listed value for example bastard swords have a base damage of 1d8 but when they're wielded with both hands that increases to 1 d12 and this is a change to its base damage die so any effect that further modifies as dice are based off of d12 for example a badger sword with a striking rune deals to d12 damage when wielded with both hands so in the first step we begin with a damage role for the effect but it's important to note that in Pathfinder 2nd edition there are only three instances that are defined as quote damage rolls and they are the damaged dice for a weapon unarmed attacks and for spell attacks I sometimes refer to this as the base damage to distinguish it from anything that's added on for example is a you have a flaming Warhammer if you hit a monster with it you might roll one die for the weapon damage and a roll another die for the extra fire damage but technically speaking the only quote damage role would be for the weapon and the reason this is important is four times when you see abilities like inspire courage that granted bonus to quote damage rolls this only applies to the weapon damage dice unarmed damage dice and spell what damage dice and not to any other effect that's tagged on to that base damage so inspire courage would add +1 to the damage of the flaming Warhammer not +2 there will be times when you need to double the damage or cut it in half for example when you roll a critical hit the damage is doubled this is pretty simple you just roll the damage as normal with all the usual bonuses such as a strength bonus for a melee attack and then you multiply that total by 2 and then any extra damage that only applies to critical hits is added on top of that for example weapons with the deadly trait inflict additional bonus damage on critical hits so say you have a strength modifier of +2 and score a critical hit with a rapier rapiers deal when d6 damage and have the deadly d8 trait on a critical hit you would roll the normal damage of one d6 + 2 and then double that total and then add the extra 1 d8 for the deadly trait the key to remember is you never double damage that only occurs on critical hits so you wouldn't double the one d8 from the deadly trait because it only applies to critical hits in the first place next let's consider a rogue using their dagger to sneak attack someone again will say they have a +2 strength modifier and their sneak attack deals 1 d6 damage if this rogue score is a critical hit with a sneak attack the damage would be the daggers usual 1 d 4 + 2 + 1 d6 for the sneak attack and then that entire total is doubled because sneak attack damage is not dependent on there being a critical hit it does get doubled and there will be times when you need to cut the damage in half such as when the target of a spell succeeds on their reflect save in these cases you simply divide the damage by 2 and rounded down remember the rule of thumb for Pathfinder is that you always round down unless you are specifically told to do otherwise damage and Petfinder is not generic in each source of damage should list its damage type there are many different damage types and we'll be covering the more common and straightforward of those in this video and the remaining damage types will be discussed in part two first there are three kinds of physical damage which are bludgeoning like being hit with a club or hammer piercing like being shot with an arrow are stabbed by a spear and slashing like being cut by an axe the damage listing for weapons show a letter B P or s next to the damage dice to represent the damage type so when you strike a skeleton with a war hammer you don't deal six points of damage rather you deal six points of bludgeoning damage energy damage works much the same way with acid cold electricity fire force in sonic damage so if that Warhammer I was just mentioning was a flaming war hammer it might deal six points of bludgeoning damage and four points of fire damage it's important to keep those separate rather than simply saying you hit the skeleton for ten points of damage and you'll see why it's important to keep those two damage poles separate when we get into step three the material a weapon is made out of is also important to note for example weapons made from adamantine cold iron or silver because of this some weapons will have more than one trade assigned to a single damage effect so let's consider that Warhammer and the skeleton again if it was a flaming silver Warhammer and it struck a skeleton we would note that it did six points a blitzing damage that also has the silver trait and in addition to that also inflicted four points of fire damage when a weapon is made of a special material like silver or cold iron that trait is applied to the weapons based damage type so it's silver and bludgeoning for six points of damage but the fire damage is merely fire damage and not silver fire damage those are the most common damage types that we will be using in this discussion about the four-step process for managing damage but there are a few more including alignment damage positive damage negative damage and precision damage that all will be covered in part two once you determine the type of damage being inflicted you can then check for any special resistances or weaknesses the target might have and it's important to note that these conditions are applied in a very specific order first you apply any immunities then you apply any weaknesses unless you apply resistances so first immunities when a creature is immune to a damage type damage of that type is completely ignored but only that specific type so if a creature that is immune to fire is hit by a flaming silver warhammer that deals six points of silver bleaching damage and four points of fire damage they'll ignore all of the fire damage but still suffer the six points of silver bludgeoning some creatures like uses might be immune to critical hits and I think that that is poorly named it might be better to think of it as immunity to critical damage because when a creature that is listed as being immune to critical hits is tricked by a critical hit it does normal damage instead of double damage and that's the only change if the critical hit includes other effects like a grapple then that target is still grappled so the critical hit occurs but not the critical damage that's how it works by raw however many argue that any damaging effects caused by a critical hit should also be ignored if the hit is immune to critical hits for example the extra weapon damage dice that are granted with weapons that have the deadly trait after all if the use is immune to critical hits because it doesn't have any vital organs then is there any reason why a weapon with a deadly trait would be more effective against it bottom line rules as written states that the only change is you do not double the damage in everything else triggered by the critical hit still occurs but as always jams can in shooter in the combat however makes the most sense after immunity's you apply weaknesses witnesses will include a value in their listing such as fire five whenever such a creature suffers fire damage you simply add five points to it so say you strike a monster that has a weakness of fire five with are flaming silver warhammer and raw six points of silver bludgeoning damage and four points of fire damage that would increase the fire damage by five making it nine points of fire damage for a total of fifteen when a creature has a weakness to more than one trait of a single damage effect they only suffer the single highest weakness value and this can be a little tricky so if a creature has two weaknesses say they have the witness silver ten and the weakness pledging five and you hit it with a flaming silver war hammer that deals six points of silver bludgeoning damage and four points of fire damage then that creature will suffer sixteen points of silver bludgeoning damage not 21 and four points of fire damage for a total of twenty because when more than one trait applies to the same damage effect in this case both silver and bludgeoning apply to these six points of weapon damage then you only apply the highest weakness and neither of those traits apply to the fire damage effect so it is not changed by the weaknesses even though fire was caused by a weapon that has those traits for its physical damage type but if a creature has the witness's fire fawn life and silver ten and is struck by our hammer it will suffer both of those weaknesses because they are separate damage roles in separate damage effects even though they're from the same attack the key to remember here is that this almost never occurs except when a creature is vulnerable to both a type of physical damage like bludgeoning piercing or slashing and also weak to the material the weapon is made of like adamantine cold iron or silver because then is one damage role but two traits that trigger two weaknesses and last after applying immunities in weaknesses you then apply resistances this works much the same way as weaknesses except you subtract the value listed from the damage instead of adding it so if you attack a creature that has resistance to bludgeoning ten and deals six points of bludgeoning and four points of fire damage with your trusty flaming Warhammer they will suffer 0 bludgeoning damage but would still take the four points of fire damage this is why we keep those damage poles separate and not add them together until step four and one more type of resistance that's worth mentioning is resistance to non magical attacks and a case like that you apply the resistance to normal weapon attacks but not to magical weapon attacks so say you're fighting a creature that has resistance five to non-magical weapons if you hit it with a normal hammer and roll six points of damage that will be reduced to only one but if you hit it with a plus one war hammer it has the magical trait and therefore none of his damage is reduced by resistance to non magical attacks so just to bring this all together remember that damage is applied in four steps step one is calculate the damage you roll the damage dice and add all the usual modifiers to it step two determine the type of damage at this step you're mostly just making note of the different traits of the attack for use in the next step which is step three where you apply immunities and then you apply witnesses and last you apply resistances and last in step four you reduce the targets hit points by whatever amount of damage remains after step three this would also be when you would apply the hardness of an object or shield the value of the hardness is deducted from the final total of damage and not individually for each different type is important to understand these steps so that you can answer questions like if I critically hit a monster that has a weakness to fire with my flaming war hammer do i double the extra damage from that weakness and the answer is no you don't even though a critical hit doubles all the damage that is not dependent on there being a critical hit that doubling occurs in step one and you don't adjust for a weakness or a resistance until step three so know that extra damage from the weakness is not doubled because that doubling happens in step one which is before the weakness being applied in step three and that's the basic foundation for how damage works in path wonder once again if you would like to learn about some of the more interesting twists to the system make sure you check out damage part 2 and that video covers persistent damage precision damage alignment damage non-lethal damage positive damage and negative damage before we close I'd like to take a moment to thank all of our patrons these videos would not be possible without their continued generosity and support members of the basics for gamers patreon community receive special benefits like getting to vote on the topics that we cover in the future and also they get to see these videos one week and ad-free before everybody else visit the links shown on the left of the screen and in the description if you'd like to know more about becoming a patron if you would like to support this channel and help it grow the easiest way to do that is by subscribing and clicking the bell icon so you get notified when new videos release and we can always be reached through our Twitter and Facebook pages too thanks for watching take care and we will see you soon with more basics of Pathfinder

Channel: How It's Played

Views: 29,147

Keywords: top 5, top 10, best, Pathfinder, 2nd Edition, PF2, 2e, Dungeons and Dragons, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, DND, Paizo, Game, Role-playing, RPG, games, gaming, how to, guide, basic rules, rules summary, Pathfinder rules, Pathfinder rules summary, how to play Pathfinder, critical role, critical roll, critical hit, critical damage, damage, hit points, death, immune, immunity, weakness, weak, resistance, resistant, vulnerability, basics4gamers

Id: RatgKc3s7ZU

Length: 18min 56sec (1136 seconds)

Published: Tue May 12 2020