Bonus attack roll for creatures


Rules Questions


Hey!

I'm New to Pathfinder and roleplay games, I was thinking about a thing when I played with My friends who also are New to this.
When a creature should roll against someone AC, I believe he should have some kind of bonus on the D20 roll?

How should I calculate to get the correct attackroll bonus?

Regards, Chilichici


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Chilichici wrote:

Hey!

I'm New to Pathfinder and roleplay games, I was thinking about a thing when I played with My friends who also are New to this.
When a creature should roll against someone AC, I believe he should have some kind of bonus on the D20 roll?

How should I calculate to get the correct attackroll bonus?

Regards, Chilichici

The monster in the Bestiary already have the number calculated. For example, the typical orc has:

Quote:

Melee falchion +5 (2d4+4/18–20)

Ranged javelin +1 (1d6+3)

So when making a melee attack, the standard orc uses a falchion. When making the attack roll, you roll the d20 and add his attack bonus, in this case +5. If the attack hits, the damage rolled is 2d4+4. The attack is a possible critical hit if the die itself comes up as an 18, 19, or 20.

Likewise, the standard orc uses a javelin as a ranged weapon. When attacking that way, you only add +1 to the d20 attack roll. The damage is 1d6+3, and since there are no numbers after a slash next to the damage, a critical hit is only threatened if the die itself comes up as a 20.

For monsters you make yourself, their attacks are calculated the same way as a player characters attacks are. Unless noted, all creatures follow the same rules for everything.


attack roll rules


Okey!
So if they don't have any weapond that gives + in attack they do not have any +?
I mean, if it does not say something on that attack.

Thanks for a good answear, will help alot!


Chilichici wrote:

Okey!

So if they don't have any weapond that gives + in attack they do not have any +?
I mean, if it does not say something on that attack.

I'm not sure what you mean. Are you talking about magic weapons adding a + (an enchantment bonus) on attacks?

Take a look at the Graven guardian. It's a good example with an attack line that reads as follows:

Melee +1 keen scimitar +10/+5 (1d6+5/15–20 plus bleed) or slam +9 (1d6+4)

From this, we gather that the graven guardian wields a magic weapon, more specifically a +1 keen scimitar. The bonus this weapon grants is already factored in to the guardians attack bonus and damage.

So when attacking, the guardian has +10 on its attack roll, deals 1d6+5, threatens a critical hit on a 15-20 and deals bleed damage. If making a full attack, it can also make an additional attack at +5 (dealing the same damage).

We can 'reverse engineer' why the attack line looks like it does. At the bottom of stat block, we can see that the guardian has Strength 16 (i.e. a Str modifier of +3) and a base attack bonus of +6. Together with the +1 enchantment bonus from the magical weapon, this adds up to +10.

You can also see that the graven guardian has a slam attack which it can use instead of attacking with its scimitar. It is strictly worse, having +9 to hit with no additional attacks and damage of only 1d6+4. Still, its a back up should something happen to its scimitar.


Even if something has +0 to hit, or a negative to hit, it will show it in the stat block, like the Skeleton or the horse


Okey, think I got it, so in Pathfinder, every creatures +attackroll always shows at the attack. I never have to calculate it myself? I believe in DnD you have to calculate yourself? So if it says as on the horse, -2, It is just a straight -2 on the roll.
And if we take the guardian, why does it first say +1 for wep enchantment, then +10/+5? Shouldent I calculate with the +1 also then or is it already in the +10/+5?

And I really don't get why there is a +10/+5? Why both? Can he attack twice or?


Chilichici wrote:
And if we take the guardian, why does it first say +1 for wep enchantment, then +10/+5? Shouldent I calculate with the +1 also then or is it already in the +10/+5?

The +1 (or any other +#) before the weapon means that it is a magic weapon. In this case, it isn't just a normal scimitar, it is a +1 keen scimitar. The +1 is already included in the given statistics. Any bonus that applies at all times is already included - you would only need to do the math is the monster has an ability it can turn on or off, like the Power Attack feat.

Chilichici wrote:
And I really don't get why there is a +10/+5? Why both? Can he attack twice or?

Yes, it does mean he can attack twice with a Full Attack action.


Chilichici wrote:
Okey, think I got it, so in Pathfinder, every creatures +attackroll always shows at the attack. I never have to calculate it myself? I believe in DnD you have to calculate yourself?

DnD is a broad term. There have been several editions, after all. However, I would wager a guess that in most of them bestiaries and adventures were written in such away that you could use a monster stat block on the fly, without doing lots of maths just to get it to work.

What can happen (both in Pathfinder and various editions of DnD) is that you come across something like this:

»The Dark Halls of Horror are home to Cold-stricken Shadows. These variant Shadows have the Advanced template and deal Dexterity damage with their touch attack instead of Strength damage.«

This means the GM has to look up the monster stat for Shadows and find the Advanced template. The GM then applies the template to the monster, which involves a bit of math to calculate its new attack bonuses (among other things).

A writer might use this technique, referring to already-made monsters and templates, as a way to save precious page space in whatever adventure or module they're writing. Does mean a bit more work for us GMs though =)

____

To help (or confuse) you with one more thing, take a look at the Hellwasp swarm. This very nasty monster has an attack line which reads as follows:

Melee swarm (3d6 plus distraction and poison)

As you can see, there's no + (or minus) to indicate what to add to a D20 attack roll. That's because the Hellwasp swarm has a special type of attack - a swarm attack. This attack hits automatically, hence no attack roll.

I'm pointing this out so that you know there's monsters out there who has no + to attack. These monster stat-block aren't errors and doesn't require math on your part.

A word of warning: swarms, like the Hellwasp swarm, are subject to a bunch of special rules. These rules are a bit confusing at times, making swarms difficult to run as a GM. Furthermore, swarms are often incredibly hard to kill if you don't have the right tools prepared. Novice players might be caught entirely by surprise and their PCs killed by something like a Spider swarm. Therefore, I recommend you avoid using swarms at all until you've got a bit more system mastery in you =)


Thanks alot for the help!

Think I got it now! =)

Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Pathfinder First Edition / Rules Questions / Bonus attack roll for creatures All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.