Rules (Apath)

Unofficial rules compendium

Rule Zero

The following are NOT used in my games.

• Massive Damage
• Fortitude save to avoid death from Coup de Grace.
• Resurrection.

Abilities

Incorporeal An incorporeal creature takes full damage from force and positive energy attacks, such as positive channeled energy and searing light.

Low-Light Vision This allows the creature to see in dim light as if it was normal light. Outdoors at night, it sees as on a cloudy day.

Increasing Abilities by Level

As long as you use your level-granted ability increase (normally gained at levels 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20) for an ability increase resulting in a score of 15 or less, you get two ability improvements, neither of which can give you an attribute score exceeding 15. You can apply both improvements to the same ability score, as long as your final score ends up at 15 or less.

Racial and inherent attribute modifiers are considered part of the ability score for this rule; it does not matter if you arrived at the score trough a racial or inherent modifier.

Alignment Proximity

In addition to normal alignment proximity, the neutral alignment is considered one step away from all other alignments. This gives additional alignment options to divine casters with alignment restrictions. A neutral divine caster can worship a deity of any alignment, and a neutral deity can have worshipers of any alignment.

Metamagic

Forget the original metamagic rules except when creating magic items.

All classes apply metamagic as the spell is cast, not when it is prepared. A spellcaster can apply metamagic that brings the effective spell level of a spell up to the highest level of spell he can cast, without using a higher-level spell slot. The caster can apply the same metamagic feat several times to the same spell, with additive effects. Applying metamagic does not affect casting time. Heighten Spell, Persistent Spell, and other metamagic save DC modifiers applies only to the initial saving throw—any later saving throws use the basic save DC.

Crafting Magic Items

Magic items are crafted at the rate of Caster Level times 5 gold pieces per hour or cl times 200 per week. This means a higher-level character crafts magic items faster. The break-even point is at level 5. To participate in a crafting project, a character must spend at least 4 hours a week or one hour per day on it. This time is sufficient to provide the prerequisites for the project. Anyone with a caster level can contribute time (and thus value) to the project, making this good work for low-level apprentices.

Combat Rules

First Combat Round

If both sides are aware of each other before the start of a combat, neither side is flat-footed. The mutual flatfooted condition that is the default applies when two sides encounter each other without being prepared, such as after opening a dungeon door, moving around a bend in a forest, or when one side suddenly turns hostile. At any time when initiative could reasonably have been rolled beforehand and it was only by convenience that combat was started at this time, creatures are not flat-footed.

This is generally the case in boarding actions.

Attacks of Opportunity

Combat in three dimensions is fast and fluid

Creatures that are not standing stable on the ground - such as when standing on a slippery or tight surface, prone, flying, or swimming, or climbing - do not get to make any attacks of opportunity triggered by movement. Water walk and air walk count as swimming and flying respectively for this rule.

Charge

Charging is a special standard action that allows you to move your speed and attack during the action. Charging, however, carries tight restrictions on how you can move.

Movement During a Charge You must move before your attack, not after. You must move at least 10 feet (2 squares) and may move up to your speed directly toward the designated opponent. Your turn ends after a completed charge.

You must have a clear path toward the opponent, and nothing can hinder your movement (such as difficult terrain or obstacles). You must move to the closest space from which you can attack the opponent. If this space is occupied or otherwise blocked, you can’t charge. If any line from your starting space to the ending space passes through a square that blocks movement, slows movement, or contains a creature (even an ally), you can’t charge. Helpless creatures don’t stop a charge. You can’t take a 5-foot step in the same round as a charge.

Attacking on a Charge After moving, you may make a single melee attack. You get a +2 bonus on the attack roll and take a –2 penalty to your AC until the start of your next turn. A charging character gets a +2 bonus on combat maneuver attack rolls made to bull rush or overrun an opponent. Other combat maneuvers do not gain a bonus from charging.

• Lances and Charge Attacks: A lance deals double damage if employed by a mounted character in a charge. Note that the lance has been house-ruled to not have reach.
• Weapons Readied against a Charge: Spears, tridents, and other weapons with the brace feature deal double damage when readied (set) and used against a charging character.
• Swinging Charge from Ropes or Vines: As a standard, you can swing using a rope, vine, or similar aid within reach toward an opponent and make a single melee attack. You must move at least 20 feet (4 squares) and you must start on elevation that is equal or higher than that of your opponent. Your movement provokes attacks of opportunity as normal. Your turn does not end at the end of a swinging charge.
• Pounce: It is a full-round action to make a charge and make a full attack at the end (including rake attacks if the creature also has the rake ability). All attacks must be against the same target. Only creatures with a special ability like pounce are allowed to do this.

Readied Actions

Readying an action (and subsequently performing a readied action) does not affect initiative in upcoming rounds.

Trip vs. Fliers

A flying creature that it tripped becomes disoriented and immediately plummets downward a distance equal to it's flying speed. This movement does not trigger attacks of opportunity. If this causes the creature to touch down, it lands prone. A creature cannot take off and fly while prone.

Giants Throwing Rocks

Humanoids of the giant subtype with the racial ability to throw rocks make such attacks as touch attacks.

Size in Combat

Size Code	Range Multiple
Fine	x1/3
Diminutive	x½
Tiny	x2/3
Small	x1
Medium	x1
Large	x3/2 (+50%)
Huge	x2
Gargantuan	x3
Colossal	x4

Movement

A creature that is Large or larger can overrun a creature of a smaller size category simply by moving into that creature's space. This is a part of movement and does not require a separate action. This is treated as an overrun combat maneuver, except that the target is always allowed to let the larger creature pass, even if the creature making the overrun has the Improved Overrun feat. If the larger creature spends a standard action making an overrun, the full benefits of the the Improved Overrun feat apply.

Size and Range

The range increment of ranged weapons are affected by a character's size. The given range of each weapon is for a Small or Medium-size character. The following table give range multipliers for characters of different size.

Damage

Coup de Grace

A coup de grace does not involve a death save, but can be done against objects.

Critical Stacking

Effects that improve critical hits do stack, except spells and weapon abilities that double the threat range of a weapon. So the keen weapon property and Improved Critical feat do stack, and both stack with bless weapon, but the keen weapon property and the spell keen edge do not stack.

Damage to Objects

Objects can suffer critical hits and coup-de-grace, but the critical multiple is always x2. Weapon damage to unattended objects is halved, except if the object is judged to be particularly susceptible to this kind of attack - which generally only applies to a few weapons.

Cutting blades and are good against grass, brush, cloth, rope, and other very soft materials (Hardness 0), notably the cutlass, dagger, scythe, and sickle.

Picks are good against soft materials such as wood or earth (Hardness 1-5): heavy pick, light pick, and pickaxe.

Hammers work against stone and metal (Hardness 5+): earth breaker, light hammer, and warhammer.

Axes are good for working with wood; shaping, building, and felling, but not the brute destruction needed here.

These two rules tend to cancel out, as you usually do coup-de-grace to objects. It does not apply to constructs, even if they have hardness they are not objects. Neither do weapons you are trying to sunder take half damage.

Falling Damage

An elephant takes much more damage falling than a squirrel does. The normal falling damage increment is 1d6 for a creature of medium size, but falling damage scales with size at twice the usual rate; each size category change halves or doubles falling damage.

Acrobatics can reduce damage by more than one increment; each multiple of 15 on the Acrobatics roll removes another increment of falling damage.

Size	Diminutive	Tiny	Small	Medium	Large	Huge	Gargantuan	Colossal
Falling damage die	nil	1	1d3	1d6	2d6	4d6	8d6	16d6

Hit Points & Healing

Hit point damage does not really represent wounds. A character is only wounded once he has taken 50% of his total hit points in damage (also known as being Bloodied), and even then the damage is not serious. Only at negative hit points does damage represent actual wounds.

Bloodied

A character that has taken 50% or more of his full hit points in damage is considered bloodied. This has no game effect, but is generally clearly visible - the character receives his first actual wound. A duel fought to "first blood" is fought until one side is bloodied in this way. It is generally considered honorable to retreat or surrender once you have been bloodied. It is also a kind of a rite of passage - a character who has been bloodied in combat at least once is considered a veteran and may receive a honor similar to the purple heart.

Dying

A character taking damage resulting in negative hit points gains the dying condition and may bleed to death unless stabilized.

A character on negative hit points exceeding its Constitution + Hit Dice is dead.

An creature that is helpless and prone always succeeds at saving throws against damaging area attacks.

The optional rules for Massive Damage are not used.

Rest & Healing

A creature at positive hit points recovers all hit points from daily rest. As long as any of these conditions are fulfilled, daily rest restores all hit point damage:

• Has over 50% hit points remaining (not bloodied)
• Succeeds at a DC 15 Fortitude saving throw
• A successful Heal check (DC 15) for Long Time Care

If the character is unconscious or none of the above options succeed, healing proceeds normally.

Equipment

Double Weapons

Both ends of a double weapon counts as a single weapon for spells and enchanting. Minor variations can be enchanted into each end, such as a weapon that is flaming in one end and frost in the other.

Armor

The times to don armor should be read in rounds (full-round actions) rather than minutes.

Drugs

All drugs cost 1/10 normal. Strong persecution can drive drug prices up, to a maximum of the normal price. Even so, drugs are usually cut down to 1/10 to get a recreational effect. A recreational dose gives only mood effects and has its save DC reduced by 10.

Against any drug a successful save negates any penalties imposed. A save that fails by less than 10 has the normal negative effects. A save that fails by 10 or more indicates addiction. In addition, a die result of 1 indicates a risk of addiction; roll the save again, and if the second check fails, addiction has occurred.

Traps

The base cost of a mechanical trap is CR^2 x 10 gp.

Equipment Chapter

Equipment

Genral Rules

Feats of Endurance

A character may use his Fortitude saving throw in lieu of Contitution bonus for checks to pass stunts like Constitution checks made to continue running; Constitution checks made to avoid nonlethal damage from a forced march; Constitution checks made to hold your breath; Constitution checks made to avoid nonlethal damage from starvation or thirst.

This is basically the same tasks the Endurance feat applies to, and the bonus from Endurance applies to such checks.

Metric Measurements

This translates some of the Pathfinder measurements into metric units for easier real-life comparisons.

Distance

Map Scale

The standard map we use has a scale of 23.3 mm = 1 square = 5 ft = 1.5 meters. This gives a scale of approximately 1:65.

Commercially printed maps tend to use the scale of 1 inch = 25 mm = 5 ft. = 1.5 meters. Scale 1:60.

Movement

Translation of the Movement Table of the SRD into metric measurements:

One Round (tactical)	15 feet	20 feet	30 feet	40 feet	60 feet
Walk	5 m	6.5 m	10 m	15 m	20 m
Hustle	10 m	15 m	20 m	25 m	40 m
Run(x3)	15 m	20 m	30 m	40 m	60 m
Run(x4)	20 m	25 m	40 m	55 m	80 m
One Minute (local)	15 feet	20 feet	30 feet	40 feet	60 feet
Walk	50 m	67 m	100 m	133 m	200 m
Hustle	100 m	133 m	200 m	267 m	400 m
Run(x3)	150 m	200 m	300 m	400 m	600 m
Run(x4)	200 m	267 m	400 m	533 m	800 m
One Hour (overland)	15 feet	20 feet	30 feet	40 feet	60 feet
Walk	2.5 km	3 km	5 km	6.4 km	10 km
Hustle	5 km	6.5 km	10 km	13 km	20 km
Run(x3)	7 km	10 km	15 km	20 km	30 km
Run(x4)	10 km	13 km	20 km	25 km	40 km
One Day (overland)	15 feet	20 feet	30 feet	40 feet	60 feet
Walk	20 km	25 km	40 km	50 km	75 km
Hustle	40 km	50 km	75 km	100 km	150 km
Run(x3)	60 km	75 km	115 km	150 km	230 km
Run(x4)	75 km	100 km	150 km	200 km	300 km

Temperature

Not many temperature measurements are given in the SRD, but here are a few translations.

Spells

• Endure Elements makes temperatures from -45 C to +60 C comfortable.

Weather

• Extreme Cold is defined as below -30 C.
• Severe Cold is defined as -30 C to -15 C
• Cold Weather is defined as -15 C to 5 C.
• Moderate Weather is defined as 5 C to 15 C.
• Warm Weather is defined as 15 C to 30 C.
• Hot Weather is defined as 30 C to 45 C.
• Severe Heat is defined as 45 C to 60 C
• Extreme Heat is defined as above 60 C.

See Also

Other rules-related Apath Pages.

• Feats
• Technology and firearms
• Ship Combat - Abstract Ship Combat
• Spells

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