Pathfinder (2e): Basics of Damage Part 2 (Precision Damage, Persistent Damage, & Alignment Damage)

hello and welcome to basics for gamers presents the basics of damaged part 2 for Pathfinder 2nd edition in part 1 we discussed the four step process for determining damage and in this video we're going to expand on that by covering a few of the u.s. familiar damage types starting with alignment damage alignment damage is a special kind of damage often associated with divine spellcasters in fiends there are four types of alignment damage chaotic evil good and lawful when a damaging effect applies alignment damage only creatures of the opposite alignment can be harmed so for example the clear of a good aligned deity attacks an enemy with divine lance in the description for the spell we see it deal with alignment damage based on the casters chosen deity in this case the spell inflicts good alignment damage which means it will only harm a creature that has one of the three evil alignments if the clerk is a devil with divine lance it will harm it because Devils are evil but if the same clerk shoots a divine Lance at a vicious cloaker it won't have any effect at all because clickers are a chaotic neutral and only evil creatures can be harmed by good alignment damage however lawful alignment damage would harm a clicker it is important to note that alignment damage comes from an effect and has nothing to do with a character's alignment take for example a good align cleric uhit's a monster that has the weakness good 5 with their hammer this attack will not trigger the monsters weakness because hammers deal blunt damage it doesn't matter what alignment the person wielding the hammer is the fact that their line is good does not trigger the monsters weakness too good but if that clerk was wielding a holy war hammer that deals an extra 1 d6 good damage then that would trigger the monsters weakness and apply an extra 5 points of damage positive and negative are two special types of energy damage these names can be confusing the new players but they're actually pretty simple positive damage only harms the undead and has no effect at all on living creatures or objects other game systems might call this holy aura radiant energy and negative damage is just the opposite of that negative damage only harms living creatures and has no effect at all on the undead or on objects other games you have played might have called this unholy or necrotic damage and some effects like heal and harm spells can also rejuvenate some creatures while at the same time harming others for example a heal spell can release a burst of positive energy that will heal any living creatures in the area while at the same time harming any undead in that area this how it works when dealing with positive energy or negative energy but when the effects specifically says the word damage like with positive damage then it has no healing effects at all and can only be used to harm Undead another damage type worth discussing is precision damage precision damage is additional damage offered by some special abilities in effects that increase the damage of a regular attack the key to remember here is that with precision damage it increases the base damage type for example the rogue sneak attack deals precision damage if a first level rogue performs a sneak attack with a dagger it will deal 1.d4 piercing damage for the dagger and 1 d6 precision damage for the sneak attack but these are not two different pools of damage you wouldn't apply one D for piercing for the dagger and then 1 d6 precision damage for the sneak attack instead the precision damage increases the base damage meaning this work would deal 1 d 4 + 1 d6 piercing damage when they scores snake attack with a dagger the distinction of increasing the base damage instead of applying it as 2 separate pools of damage is important when dealing with resistances and weaknesses for example say this rogue used their sneak attack against a skeleton with resistance 5 versus piercing damage if he treated the piercing and precision damage separately and the rogue rolled a 2 for the daggers piercing damage and a 6 for the sneak attacks precision damage you might be tempted to say that the skeletons resistance to piercing a 5 would nullify the daggers damage but the skeleton would still suffer the 6 precision damage from the sneak attack and that's not correct instead precision damage raises the base damage type of the attack that is associated with so in this case it would be 1 D 4 + 1 d 6 piercing damage to on one die and 6 on the other would be 8 piercing damage which is then lowered by 5 due to the skeletons resistance to piercing leaving only 3 points of damage another kind of damage worth discussing because it functions a little differently is persistent damage persistent damage is a condition that causes damage to reoccur more than once things like bleed damage acid or being set on fire could all be examples of persistent damage when you are under the effect of persistent damage you will suffer the listed amount of damage at the end of each of your terms after which you roll a DC 15 flat check and if successful you remove the persistent damage condition for example if you're hit with an attack that applies five points of persistent fire damage then at the end of your next turn you will suffer five points of fire damage and roll one d20 says this is a flat check there are no bonuses or penalties applied to this role it's just a straight one d20 if the die shows a 15 or higher then the persistent game is condition goes away and if the die shows a 14 or lower then it continues and at the end of your next turn you will suffer another five points of fire damage and roll another DC 15 flat check the good news is you're not at the mercy of one flat check every round to remove the condition you can also use assisted recovery assisted recovery can be taken by yourself or by an ally and cost two actions when you take the assisted recovery action you explain to the GM which you would like to do to stop the persistent damage and they determine what effect your action will have the normal result of assisted recovery is the afflicted character immediately makes an extra DC 15 flat check to end the persistent damage but the GM may grant additional bonuses depending on your specific circumstances say you're on fire and suffering persistent fire damage if you spend two actions on assisted recovery and explain to the GM that you're patting yourself down with leather gloves to smother the fire they may grant you an immediate DC 15 flat check if you say you open your water skin and you pour it on you they may lower the DC of that check to ten and if you spend the two of your actions to jump into a river then they may rule that the fire automatically goes out without the need for any additional flight check the GM is also free to make any other judgment calls that they think are appropriate such as increasing or decreasing the number of actions needed or automatically ending bleed damage once you're healed toufool also immunities resistances and weaknesses all applying to persistent damage in are considered separate from an effects initial damage so for example if you have a flaming warhammer that deal with 1d8 bludging damage plus 24 points of persistent fire damage and the target has vulnerability 5 to both bludgeoning and fire they will suffer 1d eight plus five glittering damage on the hit and another one before plus five fire damage at the end of their next turn as well as at the end of every other turn until the persistent condition ends that said the GM may rule that the persistent damage doesn't apply in some situations for example if attacking with a sword that deals slashing and persistently damage if the target has resistance to slashing and no actual damage is applied by the sword attack then the GM may rule that the additional persistent bleed damage doesn't occur at all as always the GM's are empowered to make whatever judgment calls they believe are appropriate for each given situation and last is good to remember that double damage caused by a critical hit does double the damage of any persistent damage also caused by that effect so if an alchemist throws an acid flask that deals 1 d6 persistent acid damage and scores a critical hit on that attack the unfortunate target of that attack is going to suffer to d6 acid damage at the end of each in every one of their turns until the persistent condition goes away in this video we discussed a few of the less common features of the damage system alignment damage is a type of damage that only harms creatures with the opposite alignment of the damage good damage only harms evil creatures chaotic damage only harms lawful creatures and so on positive and negative damage our types of energy damage positive damage harms the undead and has no effect at all on living creatures or objects and negative damage harms the living but has no effect on undead creatures or objects precision damage increases the base damage of an attack emphasis on increases a dagger that deals extra precision damage represents all of that damage as piercing is just more piercing and persistent damage is damage that reoccurs at the end of each of the victims turns after which they roll a DC 15 flat check to make it go away they or an allied can spend two actions to perform assisted recovery to grant more of these checks before suffering the damage at the end of their term 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 the 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 link 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: 16,066

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, damage, alignment damage, good damage, evil damage, chaotic damage, lawful damage, resistances, weakness, immunity, persistent damage, precision damage, sneak attack, basics4gamers

Id: maZBOi4VuU4

Length: 12min 17sec (737 seconds)

Published: Tue May 26 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/TheDivider99]

Thank you for your videos. They are very helpful and a wonderful contribution to the PF2 community.

[u/PlZZA_RAT]

I love these videos. I share them with my pathfinder 2e party all the time because we are all still figuring out the rules. Much easier to understand than when I try to explain things. Thanks for all the hard work!

[u/MrShcribbles]

Hey appreciate your videos, helps with learning pathfinder 2e . Learning foundry vtt software to host my campaigns.

[u/Dracon_Pyrothayan]

I'm really looking forward to the Poison/Disease video.

But I also wonder - why do you post the videos to Reddit so long after you post them on youtube?

[u/Xaielao]

Woh, I didn't realize persistent damage doubled on a crit. My friend who plays a bomber alchemist is gonna be ecstatic. :D

[u/Dognip2]

These videos are amazing. Im running a pathfinder campaign and these are my go to for learning the rules

[u/zalmute]

Great content and very helpful!

[u/1d6FallDamage]

Where does that art on the thumbnail come from?

[u/MnemonicMonkeys]

Wasn't this put up on Monday and yesterday? What's up with 3 uploads this week?