3 Simple Ideas to Steal from Pathfinder 2e for D&D 5e
Header Image: Pathfinder 2nd Edition Core Rulebook by Paizo Publishing
There are a lot of great ideas within the pages of the Pathfinder Second Edition ruleset, and plenty of them are ripe for stealing for your D&D 5e games. While I think we should play a wide variety of games, not every table is willing to learn new rules. One of the best ways you can get better at being a Game Master, in my humble opinion, is from playing a wide variety of systems and finding new ideas that you like and want to implement in some fashion into your regular games. I run three games every week, two with D&D 5e and one with Pathfinder 2e. I enjoy both systems and see plenty of places where I can steal mechanics or ideas from one to put in the other; and this includes other systems I’ve run like FFG Star Wars, Starfinder, and others.
Most systems have several gems within their pages, and the more you expose yourself to new ideas, the better you can fine-tune a game experience for your table. I’m looking at Pathfinder 2e today, mostly because I’m quite enamored with its huge amount of options for players and GMs, but there are plenty of mechanics to be found in other games like Blades in the Dark or Tales from the Loop. These ideas are not in any particular order of greatness or simplicity.
On a side note, if you are interested in learning more about Pathfinder 2e, check out 2e.aonprd.com, Paizo freely makes all rules available to the public and it is wonderful just clicking around and being inspired by monsters, magic items, spells, ideas, and more.
Shield Block
The first one we are going to look at is something that can give fighters, druids, paladins, and others a bit more use out of their reactions beyond Attacks of Opportunity, as well as gives them a reason to think about their shield. The setup is simple, when they are successfully hit while they are wielding a shield, they can use their reaction to throw their shield up and block some of that damage. A portion of that damage is removed thanks to the hardiness of the shield, the rest of that damage is then given to the shield and its wielder.
Shield Block
Reaction
Source Core Rulebook pg. 266
Trigger While you have your shield raised, you would take damage from a physical attack.You snap your shield in place to ward off a blow. Your shield prevents you from taking an amount of damage up to the shield’s Hardness. You and the shield each take any remaining damage, possibly breaking or destroying the shield.
The mechanic is pretty easy to add in, we’ll update some wording and give those who are proficient with shields a bit more use out of it beyond it taking up a hand and giving them a +2 bonus to their Armor Class. This will mean that we get to look at making hit points for shields, so that’s exciting.
Shield Block
A creature that is proficient with shields can take a special reaction while they are wielding a shield. If they are successfully hit by an attack from a creature that they can see, they can use their reaction to impose their shield to block the attack. The shield reduces the amount of damage from the attack equal to its Damage Reduction, any remaining damage is then split equally between the shield’s hit points and the wielder. If this damage would reduce a shield’s hit points to 0, it is destroyed and the wielder would take any remaining damage leftover in addition to the normal damage they would take from the attack.
If you have a broken shield, that isn’t destroyed, over the course of a short rest, you can restore a number of hit points to the shield equal to two times your proficiency bonus. You must be proficient with shields and either Smith’s Tools for metal shields or Woodcarver’s Tools for wooden shields. A DM may decide you must be proficient in a different tool if you attempt to repair shields created from hide, scales, or are magical items.
Sample Shields
Wooden Shield; Damage Reduction 3; Hit Points 7 (2d6); Cost 5 gp
Iron Shield; Damage Reduction 5; Hit Points 10 (3d6); Cost 10 gp
Steel Shield; Damage Reduction 7; Hit Points 14 (4d6); Cost 20 gp
Darkwood Wooden Shield; Damage Reduction 7; Hit Points 10 (3d6); Cost 15 gp
Young Red Dragon Scale Shield; Damage Reduction 7; Hit Points 14 (4d6); Cost 50 gp; Special The shield is immune to fire damage.
Ancient Blue Dragon Scale Shield; Damage Reduction 10; Hit Points 21 (6d6); Cost 100 gp; Special The shield is immune to lightning damage.
Sentinel Shield; Damage Reduction 7; Hit Points 10 (3d6); Magic Item The shield has resistance to nonmagical bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage. If the shield is reduced to 0 hit points, roll a d20. On a 1, it is destroyed, otherwise, it is simply broken and must be repaired before you can gain the benefits of wielding it as a shield.
We had to create a few shields to use with the rule, as 5e doesn’t assign values to objects. The rules I leaned on for shield hit points are based on page 247 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide. Offering a few different types of shields to a player allows them to afford a few shields at a time, and also helps out druids who are stuck with wooden shields, as well as give you ideas about different materials that can be used. Not every shield has to be a cheap little steel shield you strap to your arm, instead, it could be one created from the bodies of monsters you’ve faced like the ferocious Ankheg, or maybe you can figure out a way to turn a Gelatinous Cube into a shield without it eating your arm.
Ability Check for Initiative
Why is it always the most dexterous creature gets to go first during an encounter? They may not even be the ones starting the fight, instead, it’s the barbarian barreling through a door or the bard attempting to lie to a noble as they slowly get into position to attack. Having initiative as a single thing really makes it so that anyone who isn’t good at things always sucks at it. It’s hard building my idea of a perfect wizard with horrible dexterity knowing that I’m always going to go last, which isn’t good! Wizards need to go first to throw down their battlefield control spells.
In addition, it doesn’t even make sense sometimes. You ever start a surprise round where the target of your attack is going before the assassin? This means, per the rules of the game, that the target of your attack has their reaction to use against the attack, which can be frustrating because they may not even know you are there. Of course, GMs can freely change and morph it, but they shouldn’t have to if there was just a better system for deciding who goes first, which brings us to one of my favorite ways to roll initiative.
Step 1: Roll Initiative
Typically, you’ll roll a Perception check to determine your initiative—the more aware you are of your surroundings, the more quickly you can respond. Sometimes, though, the GM might call on you to roll some other type of check. For instance, if you were Avoiding Notice during exploration (page 479), you’d roll a Stealth check. A social encounter could call for a Deception or Diplomacy check.
The basics of initiative is that a player’s default option for the roll is a Perception check, which helps dictate how aware of action are they. The other option is that the GM can decide that another skill would be a bit more suitable to be used. To go back to our previous example, an assassin would roll initiative by rolling their Stealth and their target would roll initiative by rolling their Perception. If the assassin wins, they get to go first because their target was unable to spot them. Easy peasy.
Another example could be the fighter bludgeoning down a door and running into a room. They want to make a huge entrance and so they get to roll an Athletics check as they smash down the door. Their check on the door is what is getting the fight started, so it helps them from going dead last when they were the ones to start the fight. The opponents on the other side of the door could roll Stealth, if they were trying to hide from the party, or roll Perception to see if they notice the party coming up behind the door. The other players could roll Perception for their initiative, or maybe they are helping the fighter and so they all roll Athletics for their initiative as they pile through the door as a team.
But not every initiative needs to be called from a physical skill a player has. Maybe the bard has decided they are going to use that silver tongue of theirs and try to sling together a series of lies as they slowly walk toward the BBEG. They're attempting to deceive that BBEG into thinking that they just want to talk, when in reality, they just want to stab them in the chest before they get a chance to respond. The bard would roll a Deception check, and then the BBEG would roll an Insight or a Perception check to start combat. The higher check wins out in this situation, allowing the bard to use their crazy charisma in battle.
If I still haven’t convinced you, well then your heart is made of solid stone.
Initiative
Initiative determines the orders of turns during combat. When combat starts, every character rolls a Wisdom (Perception) check to judge how aware they are of their opponents and the situation. The DM can decide, before initiative is rolled, that certain actions leading up to the encounter allow a creature to roll a different skill for their initiative. This could be that a rogue is attempting to escape their opponents notice and so they could roll a Dexterity (Stealth) check or that a creature is attempting to beguile someone with their charm, in which case they could roll one a Charisma (Deception, Performance, or Persuasion) check based on which one the DM thinks is most appropriate.
A simple change to combat that can allow greater freedom for players and how they approach an encounter. Instead of simply announcing they attack, they might try and see about using one of their many other skills to try and worm their way, hoping that they can use what they are good at it to get them into a fight just a bit earlier than just a Dexterity check.
Dying & Wounded
I think it’s safe to say we’ve all encountered this in an encounter. A character gets reduced to 0, on the cleric’s turn they cast healing word and give them a few hit points. The downed character then gets up, takes their turn, and then gets knocked down again. The cleric then casts healing word, and it repeats. There is no sense of danger, it’s just a character gophering between life and death with no consequences for it. It can be frustrating for the monster they are fighting and, let’s be honest here, it’s more than a little annoying as a GM and a player. When someone goes down and just easily gets up with no problem, it removes the drama. It removes the risk, and no longer is that concerning. It just turns into a thing that you do without even thinking about it.
What if we added a consequence for going down in a fight? What if we added more tension to being knocked out? The more you are knocked out, the worst it gets for you - which is a clear sign to your party that they need to do something instead of watching the whack-a-mole game going on for the 100th tie.
Wounded
You have been seriously injured. If you lose the dying condition and do not already have the wounded condition, you become wounded 1. If you already have the wounded condition when you lose the dying condition, your wounded condition value increases by 1. If you gain the dying condition while wounded, increase your dying condition value by your wounded value.
The wounded condition ends if someone successfully restores Hit Points to you with Treat Wounds, or if you are restored to full Hit Points and rest for 10 minutes.
So in Pathfinder 2e, you die once you hit Dying 4, and your Dying value increases by 1 every turn you fail a check to stay alive, very similar to D&D 5e. The main difference though is that when you are brought up from Dying, you gain a condition known as Wounded which is just used to track how many times have you been Dying since the last time you rested for a bit and healed some wounds. As you get a higher Wounded value, the closer you are to Dying when you get knocked back again. This is quite dangerous for those with parties who refuse to help them stop being knocked unconscious over and over and over again. Seriously, being knocked out and waking up that often is horrible for your brain and it’s amazing the number of head injuries these poor characters must live through.
The way we are going to adjust this for D&D 5e is simply to decrease the number of failed death saving throws that a player gets before they are dead. When they are knocked unconscious, they have to either make three failed death saves or three successful death saves. If they are brought up again and then knocked down, they automatically lose a death saving throw, but still need three successful saves but only two failed saves. Repeat; now they automatically have failed two death saving throws. They can not fail any death saves but must still make three successful death saves. Once they are brought to this point and are knocked down again, they must immediately make the death saving throw instead of waiting till the start of their next turn. So, this puts the danger up close and gives the party a very good reason to help their party, even if it means using a turn to drag their unconscious friend back away from the monster treating them as an arcade game.
Subsequent Death Saving Throws
Whenever you are healed, after being reduced to 0 hit points, you automatically gain a failed death saving throw. The next time you are reduced to 0 hit points, you automatically fail a single death saving throw. This failed death saving throw carries with you until you can take a short rest and expend hit dice or finish a long rest.
If you are reduced to 0 hit points again, you automatically gain two failed death saving throws. The next time you are reduced to 0 hit points, and you have taken a short rest to expend hit dice or finish a long rest, you automatically fail two death saving throws.
If you are reduced to 0 hit points a third time, without a short rest and expending hit dice or finishing a long rest, you must immediately make the death saving throw when you are knocked unconscious. On a successful save, you continue to live and must continue to make death saving throws at the start of each of your turns until you gain three successful death saving throws.
The danger of going down and coming back up continues to get deadlier and deadlier, automatically filling in failed death saving throws the more you get knocked down. It still requires three successful saves to stabilize, but it gets easier and easier to die until you take a short rest to patch yourself up and maybe deal with that horrible concussion that the BBEG gave you.
For your convenience, I’ve gone ahead and put these three rules into a fancy PDF.
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