Combat in Pathfinder: Kingmaker is covered on this page.
Combat Information
General
Combat happens in real time, but you can pause the game at any time to assess the situation and give orders to your companions. To pause or unpause the game, press Space. Click on an opponent in order to attack them.
Dice rolls
Most of the game's mechanics are based on the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game System, and use dice rolls to determine the results of actions. The most common die has 20 sides and is used for both checks and attacks.
Initiative
When a battle starts, each combatant makes an initiative check. The higher their initiative, the earlier the character can act. Initiative scores can be viewed in the Combat Log. Combat is divided into rounds, with each round lasting 6 seconds.
Attack Roll
An attack roll represents your attempt to strike your opponent on your turn in a round. When you make an attack roll, you roll a d20 and add your attack bonus. (Other modifiers may also apply to this roll.) If your result equals or beats the target’s Armor Class, you hit and deal damage.
The result of an attack roll depends on many factors: wielded weapons, the combatant's abilities, etc. An attack succeeds if the result of an attack roll equals or exceeds the target's Armor Class.
Damage
The amount of damage dealt in the case of a successful attack depends on the weapon's stats and other factors, such as buff spells. Attack roll results and damage numbers can be found in the Combat Log.
Armor Class
Your Armor Class (AC) represents how hard it is for opponents to land a solid, damaging blow on you. It’s the attack roll result that an opponent needs to achieve to hit you.
Your AC is equal to the following:
10 + armor bonus + shield bonus + Dexterity modifier + other modifiers
Note that armor limits your Dexterity bonus, so if you’re wearing armor, you might not be able to apply your whole Dexterity bonus to your AC.
Sometimes you can’t use your Dexterity bonus (if you have one). If you can’t react to a blow, you can’t use your Dexterity bonus to AC. If you don’t have a Dexterity bonus, your AC does not change.
The higher a character's Armor Class, the more difficult it is to successfully attack them. It combines many faders, such as equipment stats, Dexterity bonus, passive abilities, etc.
Critical Hits
When you make an attack roll and get a natural 20 (the d20 shows 20), you hit regardless of your target’s Armor Class, and you have scored a “threat,” meaning the hit might be a critical hit (or “crit”). To find out if it’s a critical hit, you immediately make an attempt to “confirm” the critical hit—another attack roll with all the same modifiers as the attack roll you just made. If the confirmation roll also results in a hit against the target’s AC, your original hit is a critical hit. (The critical roll just needs to hit to give you a crit, it doesn’t need to come up 20 again.) If the confirmation roll is a miss, then your hit is just a regular hit.
A critical hit means that you roll your damage more than once, with all your usual bonuses, and add the rolls together. Unless otherwise specified, the threat range for a critical hit on an attack roll is 20, and the multiplier is ×2.
Exception: Precision damage (such as from a rogue’s sneak attack class feature) and additional damage dice from special weapon qualities (such as flaming) are not multiplied when you score a critical hit.
Health and Death
Each character has a certain number of hit points (HP). When a character's HP value drops to 0, they lose consciousness. After combat is over, the character will get up and can be controlled again. A character's HP value can drop into negative numbers. A character can survive some negative hit points, but if their amount becomes equal to their Constitution score, the character dies. To resurrect them, you will need a special spell.
To restore lost hit points, you can use healing spells, potions, or rest. Healing potions can be bought from merchants or obtained as trophies after combat. Healing spells are accessible to the following classes: bard, druid, cleric, inquisitor, paladin and ranger.
To use expendable items, such as scrolls, potions, and rods, open a character's inventory and place them in the quick slots on their belt. Return to the main screen and click the Belt button on the action panel to access these items. You cannot use an expendable item on the inventory screen.
Advanced Combat
Spells: To use a spell, click on its icon in the action panel or in the Spells menu, and then on the target (your companion or an enemy, depending on the desired effect). For clerics, druids, magi, paladins, rangers and wizards, spells are prepared in advance and expended when cast. The character must then rest before casting it again Bards, inquisitors and sorcerers can use their spells several times per day, but their spell repertoire is limited. Spells have various characteristics, such as range, duration, school, etc.
To review all the spells available to a character, open their spelibook by pressing B. When a character acquires a new spell or ability, it automatically appears in the first free slot on their action panel (for spontaneous casters it happens as soon as they get it, for casters who have to prepare their spells, it happens when they prepare it for the first time). If you remove a spell from the action panel, it won't appear there automatically again.
Abilities: Most characters have usable abilities, which may be limited to a certain number of charges. To use an ability, click on its icon in the action panel or in the Special Abilities menu, and then on a target. (You might target a companion or an enemy, depending on the desired effect.) Some abilities do not revile targeting, or can be switched on and off.
Attack of Opportunity: Some actions performed close to an armed opponent can provoke an additional attack upon your character even when it's not the opponent's turn. Such actions include, among other things, casting spells, attempting to move away from an opponent, and shooting ranged weapons.
Tactical time flow: By holding down Shift+Space while the game is paused, you can make time move slowly, for better combat control.
