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I received the pathfinder beginner box and read through the books. I'm lost when it comes to damage. In the beginner box game masters guide on page 61 for the Orcs. For Melee it says battle axe +5 (1d8 +4/x3). I get the 1d8 is the dice I roll for the damage the Orc deals to me. What does the other terms mean?
Does the battle axe +5 mean the Orc gets five attacks? So I roll 1d20 for 5 times to see how many times the Orc hits me.
Then the 1d8 is the damage role. Do I add 4 points to the roll for each hit. Then is the x3 the critical hit if the Orc rolls a 20 on its attack roll?
The +5 means that, when you roll the d20 to see if the orc hits, you add +5 to the roll. So, to see if the orc hits, your roll 1d20+5 and compare to the targets armor class. If the orc got multiple attacks, there would be more than one number here, something like "battle axe +6/+1", meaning 2 attacks - one you add +6 to the d20 roll, the other you add +1.
If the orc hits, you roll damage. In this case, he does 1d8 damage, plus an additional +4 damage. 1d8+4.
The x3 is how many times you roll damage if the orc succeeds on a critical hit.
Sometimes this part will show 2 numbers, like 19-20/x2. In that case, the numbers before the slash (in this case, 19-20) are the numbers that threaten a critical hit. So if the d20 roll to attack comes up a 19 or a 20 (the actual die itself, not the total after you add any modifiers), a possible critical hit is threatened.
Wow, a perfect example!
That top roll is a critical threat,
[dice=attack roll to confirm critical]1d20+5[dice=possible extra critical hit damage]2d8+8
2X Crit is one extra damage dice + modifiers, 3X Crit is two extra damage dice and two times modifiers.