Zero dex and spell casting

[Treesmasha Toothpickmaker]

If you have a creature whose dexterity has been reduced to zero or below via a poison, the creature is unable to move but is still conscious.

Would that creature still be able to: talk, cast verbal spells, use supernatural abilities, etc?

[Halfling Barbarian]

You have to be able to move your lips to talk. I'd say you could get off anything that only takes mental effort. Keep a still, silenced restoration on hand, or just wait for a teammate to dump a potion down your throat.

[Starglim]

1) No

2) No

3) Check the description of the ability. If it doesn't say he has to make a gesture, speak, have a particular item in hand or anything similar, he can use the ability. Same answer for spell-like abilities.

[Diego Rossi]

PRD wrote:

For every 2 points of damage you take to a single ability, apply a –1 penalty to skills and statistics listed with the relevant ability. If the amount of ability damage you have taken equals or exceeds your ability score, you immediately fall unconscious until the damage is less than your ability score. The only exception to this is your Constitution score. If the damage to your Constitution is equal to or greater than your Constitution score, you die. Unless otherwise noted, damage to your ability scores is healed at the rate of 1 per day to each ability score that has been damaged. Ability damage can be healed through the use of spells, such as lesser restoration.

Dexterity damage don't reduce your characteristic. Only drain do that.

If your dexterity damage is equal to your dexterity you fall unconscious, so you can't cast spells.

[Halfling Barbarian]

That's actually badly worded. Since specific overrides general, dex damage does not render you unconcious (even though the other one's do).

[Diego Rossi]

I suppose you are thinking of this, under the description of the dexterity characteristic:

PRD wrote:

A character with a Dexterity score of 0 is incapable of moving and is effectively immobile (but not unconscious).

but that applies to a character with a starting characteristic of 0 in dexterity, like a unawakened tree, not to dexterity (or any characteristic) damage.

In this case, the rules about characteristic damage are the specific rule that override the generic rule about having a dexterity of 0.

[BillyGoat]

This is a case of reading the d20pfsrd, and perhaps applying 3.5 rules.

Ability Score Damage does not get subtracted from your ability score. Look at page 555 of the Core Rulebook. You simply take a -1 penalty to the appropriate checks for every 2 points of damage. If the sum of the damage is equal to your ability score, you fall unconscious (except Constitution).

On the other hand, there is Ability Drain, which is subtracted from your ability score. If you are drained to a Dex of 0, then the normal paralytic features of a 0 Dex apply.

[Reecy]

welcome to your impression of Professor X