Combat - How Does It Work?

In the TTRPG version of Pathfinder, combat is turn-based. Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous offers both turn-based and real-time-with-pause options for the player, however, the underlying architecture of both options still use the turn-based system from the tabletop.

Combat takes place in rounds, with one round being equivalent to approximately six seconds of real-world time. Each round, the characters can use a number of different actions.

## Action Types

**Standard Action** – this is one of the two main actions characters will use in combat, and the most broadly applicable. A Standard Action covers most things characters would want to do in combat, such as making an attack, casting a spell, or using an ability.

**Move Action** – this is the second of the two main actions that characters will use. Each character has a speed (typically 30ft for player characters). They can use their move action to move up to their speed each round. If you want to move further, you can use your standard action to move as well. Some abilities can be used as move actions as well.

**Full-Round Action** – this combines the Standard+Move Actions into one long Action. Usually, this will be to make a Full Attack, which lets you make multiple attacks with your weapons (compared to the Standard Action’s one attack). Some spells, such as summoning spells, also take a Full Round Action to cast.

**Swift Action** – some abilities take only a short amount of time to complete, and can be used as Swift Actions. A character can use one Swift Action per turn in addition to their Standard and Move Actions. You may not always have abilities that can be used as a Swift Action, though, and thus it is more situational.

**Free Action** – Free Actions are things which take a very short amount of time to complete, and you can technically use an unlimited number of them per turn. Things like toggling rage or defensive fighting are Free Actions.

**Immediate Action** – these Actions trigger off some sort of criteria, and usually happen automatically once the criteria is met. The most common example is the Attack of Opportunity, but there are others.

## Turn Order

Turn order in Pathfinder is determined by a character's Initiative Roll. Whoever rolls the highest Initiative goes first, in both turn-based mode and real-time-with-pause mode. Initiative is calculated as:

**d20 roll + Dexterity Modifier + Other Bonuses**

Characters then act in order from highest to lowest Initiative. You have the option of delaying your turn to a later point, if you wish.

During the first round, a character who has not acted yet is considered Flat-Footed, which generally lowers the Armour Class and makes them vulnerable to abilities like the rogue's Sneak Attack.

## Attacking an Enemy

### Hitting an Enemy

To hit an opponent with a melee weapon, the calculation is (usually):

**Base Attack Bonus (BAB) + Strength Modifier + bonuses from buffs/magic weapons/feats/etc**

And for a ranged weapon:

**BAB + Dexterity Modifier + Other Bonuses**

BAB increases as you level up your class. Some classes, like fighters, increase their BAB every level, so will be better at landing hits with weapons. Other classes, like wizards, only increase it every other level, so they will be worse at hitting with weapons. Others, like the rogue, fall in between. As you get higher in level, the difference between high and low BAB classes becomes more pronounced. When your BAB increases past a certain threshold, you get additional attacks when using a Full Round Action to attack.

### Damage

The main exception to the roll-a-d20 rule is damage. Weapons and spells have a certain dice associated with them for damage (e.g. a longsword is a d8, while the Shocking Grasp spell is 1d6 per class level). Like with d20 rolls, you'll have a modifier to boost your damage as well. When hitting with a melee weapon:

**Weapon dice + Strength Modifier + Other Bonuses**

Some abilities, such as the rogue’s Finesse Training, let you use your dexterity modifier for damage instead of strength. Ranged weapons and spells generally do not add an ability modifier (just dice roll + other mods). The exception is composite bows and throwing weapons (which both add strength).

### Spells and Saving Throws

When it comes to attacking with spells, there are two main kinds. One is the "touch" spell - these work similarly to weapon attack rolls, and can be either melee or ranged, depending on the spell (e.g. Shocking Grasp is a melee touch spell, while Acid Splash is a ranged one). You use the same to-hit calculations as for the weapon attacks above, but generally don't add an ability modifier to your damage.

The other kinds of spell are the "save based" spells. Rather than you rolling to try and hit the enemy, the enemy must roll to try and resist/dodge the spell effects. This is called a Saving Throw. There are three kinds: Fortitude (resisting body-based effects like poison/disease), Reflex (dodging fireballs) and Will (resisting mind-based effects like mind control). To make the save, they roll a d20 and add their modifier:

**Base Save + Relevant Ability + Other Bonuses**

The Base Save for players comes from their class. Like BAB, they increase as you gain levels. Some classes will progress certain saves faster than others. For example, the wizard is better at Will Saves, while the rogue is better at Reflex Saves.

### Armour Class

Armour Class (AC) refers to how hard the enemy is to hit – in order to land a hit on them, you must beat their AC with your Attack Roll. There are three main kinds: normal AC, Flat-Footed AC and Touch AC.

A creature’s normal AC adds all of its relevant bonuses together. It is typically calculated as:

**Base 10 + Armour Bonus + Dexterity Modifier + Other Bonuses**

Flat-Footed generally means you've caught the enemy by surprise or have otherwise thrown them off-balance. They lose their Dexterity and any Dodge bonus to their AC. Catching enemies Flat-Footed is very helpful against small, speedy opponents with high Dexterity.

Touch AC means the ability doesn't need to strike anywhere important - it just needs to touch the foe to take effect. They lose any Armour, Shield and Natural Armour bonuses. In Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, enemies often have high Natural Armour bonuses, so targeting Touch AC can be very helpful.

### Weaknesses and Resistances

Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous features demons as a very common enemy, which means you also frequently have to deal with some other combat nuances: Damage Reduction, Resistances, and Immunities. Weaknesses are related, but come up less frequently.

Damage Reduction (DR) will be written something like this:

**DR 5/cold iron**

What this means is that the enemy will take 5 less damage from all sources, except weapons made of cold iron. There's a lot of different kinds of DR. If your damage number is reading x (reduced), you are likely running into DR issues.

Resistances are similar to DR, but for magic-based damage. Something with Fire Resistance 10 takes 10 less damage from fire magic. Immunity means they completely ignore damage of that kind (for example, most demons are immune to poison and electricity). Weaknesses mean they take twice as much damage from the listed source.

Spell Resistance (SR) is another kind of resistance demons often have. It is a DC that the spell caster must beat for the spell to work at all. The roll is a d20 plus their caster level. Some spells (such as Acid Splash) ignore SR and can be very useful for getting around it.

### Other Bonuses

The term "Other Bonuses" crops up frequently in the modifier calculations. There are too many to go over in one article (see a more detailed breakdown here), but these are some examples of common and important ones:

**Bonuses from feats:** Weapon Focus gives +1 hit with the chosen weapon

**Buffs:** Bless gives a +1 bonus to hit

**Debuffs:** Evil Eye hex can give -2 to one of enemy hit, AC or saves

**Equipment:** A +1 weapon gives +1 to hit and damage

**Positioning:** Flanking an enemy with an ally gives +2 to hit

One important thing to note is that most bonuses have a "type". Bonuses of the same type do not stack - only the highest one applies. Bless and Heroism both give morale bonuses to hit, so only the highest (Heroism) would apply. Bless and Prayer give different bonus types (morale for Bless and luck for Prayer), which means they will stack together. If no type is specified (i.e. it just says "bonus"), it is untyped and will stack with anything.