Rules Review

To my players: I've created this page to highlight some areas of the rules that I felt needed greater attention. In some cases, this might be to correct how we've done something in past games. In others, it might be to point out significant changes between D&D v.3.5 and Pathfinder. Some of these topics are touched on elsewhere on this wiki, but discussed at greater length here. (CRB = Core Rulebook.)

Conditions

Whenever an attack, spell, or other effect imposes a condition, see Appendix 2: Conditions (CRB 565-568) for a summary of the effects. This appendix includes all conditions defined in the core rules, including (but not limited to) dying, entangled, fatigued, grappled, sickened, etc.

Cover

Cover that grants a +4 bonus to AC (which can include soft cover from creatures between you an the target; Core Rulebook 195-196), is a separate modifier from the -4 penalty for shooting or throwing into melee (CRB 184). 

The Precise Shot feat (CRB 131) eliminates the penalty for firing into melee. Improved Precise Shot (CRB 128) allows you to ignore the cover bonus to AC granted by anything less than total cover or concealment. 

Damage

Minimum Damage (CRB 179): If penalties reduce an attack's damage to less than 1, the hit deals 1 point of nonlethal damage.

Massive Damage (CRB 189): Massive damage is an optional rule in Pathfinder, but I will be using it. The threshold for the save (Fort DC 15) is half total hit points (minimum 50) from a single attack.

Dying (CRB 190, 566): A dying character (at negative hit points but not dead) must make a DC 10 Constitution check on his turn to become stable. The character takes a penalty to this check equal to his negative hit point total. On a failure, he loses 1 hit point.

Dead (CRB 190): When a character's current hit points drop to a negative amount equal to his Constitution score, he is dead. [This replaces the flat -10 threshold in v.3.5.]

Magic Item Creation

Please be aware that the item creation rules have changed a great deal between D&D v.3.5 and Pathfinder. Instead of expending XP, casters make a skill check (usually Spellcraft) to determine success or failure, much like in crafting mundane items. For the full rules, see CRB 548-553 or the Pathfinder Reference Document [ignore any section with a "Source:" byline after the header, as those parts aren't core rules].

The chief changes are:

• • Nothing in Pathfinder reduces your XP total. Instead of spending XP, casters make skill checks to create magic items (usually using Spellcraft). The DC is 5 + the item's caster level. Failure means the time and materials were wasted, while critical failure (by 5 or more) means the result was a cursed item.

  • Every magic item has prerequisites for its creation, including an item creation feat, usually one or more spells, and occasionally other things (minimum caster level, ranks in a skill, etc.). Another caster can provide some or all of the spell prerequisites. For each prerequisite that you don't fulfill, the creation DC is increased by +5 (except the feat, which is mandatory). This gives spellcasters more flexibility in what they can craft. (Exception: You can't create a spell completion or spell trigger items--potion, scroll, wand, or staff--unless you know the spell[s] yourself.)

  • You can also speed up the creation process (4 hours per 1,000 gp value instead of 8 hours) by adding +5 to the DC.