Pathfinder Remaster Becomes Much More Deadly Due to Rules Clarification

Pathfinder players are looking at a much more deadly future due to one small rules clarification found in the new Player Core rulebook. Later this month, Paizo will release the first of its Pathfinder Remaster Core Rulebooks, which serves to strip out OGL-related content from the game’s core rules and also make some minor revisions and clarification to existing rules. One such clarification has many Pathfinder fans surprised as it almost assuredly result in the death of more player characters. 

The rules clarification involves the rules around the dying condition and the associated wounded condition, which are used to determine how close a player is to death. When a player character reaches zero HP, they gain the dying 1 condition and have to make checks to determine whether or not that condition increases or decreases on their turn. When a player reaches dying 4, they die under most circumstances. When a player loses the dying condition (either from being healed or by making successful recovery checks), they gain the wounded 1 condition or increase their wounded condition value by 1 if they already have the wounded condition. Should a player re-gain the dying condition (from having their HP hit zero again), they add their wounded value to their base dying condition. So if a player has the wounded 1 condition, they’ll start at dying 2 instead of dying 1. 

However, the Player Core rulebook points out that the Wounded condition also comes into effect whenever a player fails a recovery check, they increase their dying condition level by 1 plus the number of the Wounded condition. So if a player is already wounded 1, and they re-gain the dying condition, they not only are at dying 2, they can’t fail another recovery check or they’ll automatically reach dying 4 and thus die once again. 

It’s up for debate whether this change is a totally new interpretation of the rules or simply a clarification as how the rules were intended. The Core Rulebook mentions adding your wounded value to your dying value whenever you take damage while dying, while the GM Screen and Condition cards published by Paizo uses the Pathfinder Remaster interpretation. However, it’s clear that most Pathfinder players were using the more gentle interpretation of the dying rules up to this point, which only added the wounded condition value when a player re-gains the dying condition. It’s almost certain that a lot more Pathfinder characters are going to die if tables adopt the new dying system.

Pathfinder 2E’s rules were meant to make death saving throws (or recovery checks) more meaningful and prevent the yo-yo effect that comes with healers who can instantly bring a character to consciousness with a single spell. However, many players on Reddit and on Paizo’s own message boards are worried about the increased lethality that this will bring to the game. It certainly adds a new level of controversy to Pathfinder, along with a fierce debate over rules interpretation to an update that was supposed to bring increased clarity to the game.