Game Mechanics Guide [Spoilers possible]

[TheZeisonSha]

Ability Damage

Most attacks will just reduce a target’s Hit Points, but some attacks inflict a more dangerous form of damage – Ability Damage. The most common Ability Damage dealt is poison, but diseases, curses and spells cause this kind of damage as well.
Ability Damage reduces one of a character’s Ability Scores. The character’s effectiveness is lowered until it is cured. If any ability scores are reduced to zero, that character will become incapacitated until the score is improved. In case of Constitution damage - a score of zero will result in death.
Ability Damage can be healed by resting, but it takes much more time. If you want to remove Ability Damage you should make use of Restoration spells or potions.

Damage Reduction

Damage Reduction (DR) should be self-explanatory, however there is a twist to it. Most DR is conditional and can be overcome by magic weapons made of certain materials for example. A Werewolf for example has a DR 5/silver, so it will ignore the first 5 points of damage, unless the weapon is made out of silver. Skeletons are quite resilient towards slashing damage or piercing damage, but damage dealt by bludgeoning weapons will affect them fully, this results as a DR 5/bludgeoning.
Barbarians gain a generic DR vs physical attacks when they level up, so for example when they’re hit, and their DR is 3/- three points of damage are always ignored on each physical attack.

Exhaustion

Exhaustion imposes a -6 penalty to Strength and Dexterity. An affected character cannot charge and will move at half speed. A complete rest will remove this fatigue, so does a restoration spell and restoration potions.

Cover and Concealment

Cover like a low wall or any other obstructions will protect characters and give them a +4 bonus to Armor Class and a +2 bonus to Reflex Saves. Cover is quite rare in Pathfinder: Kingmaker and usually protects you from ranged attacks.
Concealment is more common. If the location of a target is obscured (for example from Illusion magics) the concealed character or creature gains a defensive bonus. This bonus comes in form of a chance like 20% (Blur) or 50% (Displacement, Invisibility). To see if an attack hits, the attack is rolled normal, when the attack hits a d100 is rolled. If this roll is lower than the concealment, the attack misses. These concealment chances are quite potent as they can nullify physical attacks, so use them during your adventures.

Difficulty Class

Whenever a creature tries something which is not automatically successful, the Difficulty Class (DC) comes into play.
Sometimes it is a number you need to roll to avert some bad or really bad stuff to happen or it functions as a threshold for skills to succeed. The higher the DC, the harder the task. The roll needs to be on par or higher to succeed.

Sneak Attack

A sneak attack is a powerful attack that can be used every time a target is denied their DEX modifier to Armor Class. Even if a target has no modifier to DEX.
A target that is Flat-Footed or held, paralyzed, sleeping or webbed is vulnerable to Sneak Attacks. Also flanking provides the necessary condition. So, position your rogue accordingly.
Sneak attack damage usually adds a number of d6 to the damage roll and they’re applied to all attacks per round. However, this damage is NOT multiplied when hitting critical and ranged sneak attacks must be made from within 30 ft from the target. Ranged touch attack rolls can also be used for sneak attacks, so Acid Splash from a caster/rogue multiclass deals extra damage if used as sneak attack. Sneak attacks cannot be used against any concealed targets.

Critical Hits

Critical Hits are another source for spectacular damage. Usually an attack roll of 20 qualifies for a Critical Hit, but some weapons and classes possess a Critical Threat Range. Most bladed weapons can threaten with critical hits with a 19, too. Some even on 18 to 20. But only a roll of 20 is a guaranteed hit.
The Feat “Improved Critical” doubles the Critical Hit Range, so does the weapon enchantment “keen”. A longsword for example would have a threat range of 17-20.
After you roll a result in the threat range, the Critical Hit needs to be confirmed. A second roll is made and if this roll would hit the target (normally), the Critical Hit is applied. If you fail this roll, only normal damage is applied.
The damage dealt is determined by a multiplier that comes with the weapon. This multiplier can range from x2 to x4. A weapon entry usually reads like this 19-20/x2 which means the threat range is 19 and 20, and the damage is doubled.
As noted in the Sneak Attack entry, bonus dice won’t be multiplied. Weapon enchantments are neither multiplied as well. So, a Critical Hit from a longsword +4 will deal 1d8x2+4. Spells do not deal Critical Hits with the exception of Touch and Ranged Touch Attacks. These spells are considered to have a threat range of 20/x2.
Saving Throws against these spells are applied normally, but the critical damage is applied before the save. Let’s pick an example with the spell “Disintegrate”

Disintegrate deals 2d6 per Caster Level, the minimum level for the caster is level 11. The caster rolls a 20 on the attack, so he deals a guaranteed critical hit of 44d6 (11x 2d6, x2 due to critical). The victim is entitled to roll a Fortitude save to reduce the damage by half.

[TheZeisonSha]

Camping in Pathfinder:Kingmaker

There are four responsibilities in this section:

• Hunter - acquires additional rations when successful. Requires a Lore (Nature) Check with varying DC. The balance determines the number of rations you get. If your number of rations is less than the number of party members, the party will stay out until enough rations are retrieved. This may increase the camp duration! You can assign a second character by dragging the portraits on top into the empty box below the first assigned character. This will yield a +2 bonus to skill checks.
  
• Cooking – successful food preparation grants a positive effect lasting 16 hours to the specific character or the entire party. Depends on recipe. A Knowledge (World) Check vs. the meals DC is required. The Hearty Meal has a DC of 20. You can buy recipes throughout the game, but some meals may require specific ingredients.
  
• Camp Camouflage and Night Watch - reduces chance of an enemy attack on the camp. A Stealth Check vs the area’s DC. Failing the check, chances of a malicious random encounter will increase.
  
• Special Ability - every party member has their own special ability. For example, Jaethal will summon Undead to guard, Amiri will sharpen her weapons to get a Attack and a Damage buff and Linzi provides a +2 bonus to all camping skill checks.
  Don’t forget that saving and loading can make the difference when it comes to resting.

[TheZeisonSha]

Attack Bonus (Attack Roll)

The attack bonus tells how likely it is to hit an opponent. You roll a d20 and add Attack Bonuses to your roll. If the roll plus the bonuses exceed the target’s Armor Class you hit it.

The Base Attack Bonus varies on your class choice(s) and the character level.

Attack Bonuses can be a bit confusing since they’re situational sometimes and they can be gained from various sources.

Equipment is essential in determining Attack Bonuses, as an ample number of items can add these Bonuses.

A short list of conditions and their respective modifiers:

• Dazzled: -1 Attack Modifier
  
• Entangled: -2 Attack Modifier
  
• Flanking: +2 Attack Modifier *
  
• Firing a ranged weapon into melee: -4 Attack Modifier
  
• Invisible: +2 Attack Modifier
  
• Shaken or Frightened: -2 Attack Modifier

Combat Round: Actions

When you look at Pathfinder’s combat you’ll notice that the real-time combat is powered by turn-based actions. You have access to five action types: Free Actions, Swift Actions, Movement Actions, Standard Actions and Full-Round Actions.

You can perform an unlimited number of Free Actions, one Swift Action, one Movement Action and one Standard Action (which can be substituted for a second Movement Action). Instead of performing a Move Action and Standard Action the character can perform a Full-Round Action.

In addition, you can also take a Five-Foot Step if you haven’t taken a Movement Action (the reticle beneath the character shows this area), this action is tactical, and if doesn’t impose an Attack of Opportunity.

Free Action
Anything that doesn’t consume time or just inconsequential amounts. Dropping items, performing attacks of opportunity and cleaving are examples.

Swift Action
Swift actions take only marginal time spans, and most notably Quickened spell fall into this category. A single swift action doesn’t hamper the other actions in a round.

Movement Action
A character can move its movement speed in a single round. Wearing armor or carrying weight may reduce the movement, as does terrain. Humanoids usually move 30 feet; smaller humanoids move 20 feet. You can move more than the standard movement but expend the Standard Action for another movement.

Standard Action
Standard Actions are the most common action type: casting spells and attacking. Reading a scroll, using spell-like abilities, channeling energy, drinking potions are Standard actions, too.

Full Round Action
The Charge Attack is a Full Round Action, so are some higher level spells.

Energy Resistance and Vulnerability

Energy Resistance is similar to Damage Reduction and it tells you, a creature is resistant to a specific form of energy. Types of energy are acid, cold, fire and electricity. If a creature possesses Energy Resistance the only way to overcome it, is to use energies it has no resistances to.

Some races like the Aasimar have a natural Energy Resistance. And luckily for you, most enemies will rarely bombard you with a large array of elements, so Communal Resistance and Protection spells should suffice.
Energy vulnerability is more common, a creature suffering from it receives an additional 50% damage from sources it is vulnerable to. A creature hit with fire vulnerability suffers 150% damage from a Fireball blast if hit.

Todays mechanics were chosen by Snow. Thanks for the assistance!

[TheZeisonSha]

Range and Reach

These two terms are used in Pathfinder, when it comes to combat.

Reach
This term describes how a creature can attack other nearby creatures in melee. Reach comes in two variations: natural reach (for attacks with bare hands, weapons held in hands or other natural weapons) and reach with reach weapons. Large creatures have a higher natural reach than tiny creatures, but both can only threaten a relatively small area - obviously. Weapons like glaives extend the natural reach range a bit further - the aforementioned reach with reach weapon range, which also extends the threatened are by some margin. Both ranges play a vital role in melee, as they affect feats like Cleave etc.

Ranged
Ranged is basically everything beyond reach, however, ranged attacks are possible at very close range (with some drawbacks). The differences are: ranged combat threatens a very large area and it uses Dex to modify the attack roll (although some ranged weapons may profit from a high STR score).