Ability damage, can it go negative or stop at zero?

[aboyd]

In a Pathfinder Society game right now, & I have a strength 10 character that just took 25 points of strength damage due to all failed saves against a poison. The question that we want to find out is, does my strength damage stop at zero? Or do I actually set my strength to -15? The real question we need to answer, is do I need 15 days of bed rest before my strength comes back into the positives, or will one day of bed rest bring my character back online with a strength of 1?

[taks]

You fall unconscious. You don't need to be in bed, you can have somebody use magic to recover your strength as well.

[TriOmegaZero]

Ability damage does not actually reduce your ability score. So you will need to heal all 16 points to regain consciousness, either by rest or restorative magic.

(The proper way to look at it is that you have 25 points of Strength damage and a 10 Strength. So you need to get down to 9 points of Strength damage in order for your damage to be less than your ability score.)

Ability Damage wrote:

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.

[aboyd]

Ah, that's what I needed. Thank you. Now I know that it goes into the negatives. So I'll need 15 days to rest to get back to positive score. Thank you.

[Raisse]

PRD, Core Rulebook, Glossary wrote:

Diseases, poisons, spells, and other abilities can all deal damage directly to your ability scores. This damage does not actually reduce an ability, but it does apply a penalty to the skills and statistics that are based on that ability.

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.

According to the Core Rulebook, you track your ability damage separately, without limit. If you don't have magical healing, you'll need 16 days of rest (or 4 days with someone to provide appropriate heal check, DC 15 for long term care) to recover to only having 9 damage (less than your score).

[aboyd]

Thank you!