A few rules questions: damage, dying & amulet of mighty fists


Rules Questions and Gameplay Discussion

Grand Lodge

I recently started playing Pathfinder Adventure Card game and really enjoy it but there are a few things I ran across I find confusing

My first question is on the rules on damage. I took enough damage to reduce my hand to zero and on the next players turn a monster was summoned for each player to fight. I lost that fight as well so I took some damage. I had no cards in my hand, all are in either my deck or discard pile. Do I ignore the damage as I would if I took more damage than I had cards in my hand during my turn? That seems like I am getting off rather lightly but that is how the rules on damage seem to read to me.

The second question is on the dying rules. Page 13 of the rules reads: "If, for any reason, you are ever required to remove one or more cards from your deck and you don’t have enough cards, your character dies. Place any cards in your deck, hand, and discard pile under your character card." Does "deck" refer to just the pile of cards you are drawing from or the pile of cards you are drawing from plus your hand and discard pile?

Lastly, the item card, Amulet of Mighty Fists, from the Rise of the Runelords character add-on deck says "Reveal this card to add 1d4 with the Magic trait to your combat check; you may not play a spell with the Attack trait or a weapon on this check.". If I can't add the 1d4 to an attack spell or weapon then what am I adding it to?

Sovereign Court

1) Yes you ignore any damage beyond what's in your hand. It may seem like you're getting off easy, but remember -- you lost your hand, you have little to nothing to contribute till you get that back.

2) Deck is just the pile you draw from. Deck, discard, and hand are three very distinct groups of cards.

3) You can choose not play a card on a combat check, and instead use Strength or Melee. The amulet is best for Sajan, because he uses his Dex instead when he doesn't use a card to define his check, and can add 1d4 to that.

Grand Lodge

Cool, thanks for the answers.


mmurphy1968 wrote:
I took enough damage to reduce my hand to zero and on the next players turn a monster was summoned for each player to fight. I lost that fight as well so I took some damage. I had no cards in my hand, all are in either my deck or discard pile.

If you mean you took the first damage on your turn, then by the next player's turn you should have had a full hand of cards to lose again, since you reset your hand at the end of your turn (if it was a different player's turn both times then what you've said would be right).

Taking damage on another player's turns is particularly bad since you start your own turn with no cards left (and don't draw back until the end of the turn). Of course you can explore with no cards in hand but you're taking a bit of a risk, many cards penalise you for failing in other ways.

Even better than one lot of damage protecting you from more damage is finding other ways to get rid of cards out of your hand in preparation for taking a lot of damage. This is where only being able to play cards relevant to a check is important though, once you've seen a monster you can't beat it's already too late to cast a cure in your hand for instance.


Andrew L Klein wrote:
3) You can choose not play a card on a combat check, and instead use Strength or Melee. The amulet is best for Sajan, because he uses his Dex instead when he doesn't use a card to define his check, and can add 1d4 to that.

I think Balazar/Padrig would like this too.


zayzayem wrote:
Andrew L Klein wrote:
3) You can choose not play a card on a combat check, and instead use Strength or Melee. The amulet is best for Sajan, because he uses his Dex instead when he doesn't use a card to define his check, and can add 1d4 to that.
I think Balazar/Padrig would like this too.

Indeed. Lini is often mentioned as benefiting from the Amulet as well. I think WotR Kyra's Demon/Undead defeating power would also benefit.


Andrew L Klein wrote:
1) Yes you ignore any damage beyond what's in your hand. It may seem like you're getting off easy, but remember -- you lost your hand, you have little to nothing to contribute till you get that back.

But you're INVINCIBLE! Just remember that your friends aren't, and aren't going to be happy when you run into a bane that deals damage to everyone.


Rebel Song wrote:
But you're INVINCIBLE!

This immediately made me think of that hacker guy in Goldeneye (first Pierce Brosnan as James Bond movie for those of you who aren't familiar) right before a bunch of liquid N2 pours over him freezing him into his victory pose...

Depending on which barrier or bane you hit, it's something like that.


StrykerWolf wrote:
Rebel Song wrote:
But you're INVINCIBLE!

This immediately made me think of that hacker guy in Goldeneye (first Pierce Brosnan as James Bond movie for those of you who aren't familiar) right before a bunch of liquid N2 pours over him freezing him into his victory pose...

Depending on which barrier or bane you hit, it's something like that.

Boris Grishenko!

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Rulebook, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Wrath of the Righteous rulebook says:" your cards: your hand, deck, discard pile, and buried cards." it also says that when you die you bury your cards, so when you die you bury your hand, deck,and discard pile.

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