Are conditions other than dying and doomed limited to a maximum value of 4?
My impression is that there is a soft cap. Most abilities that inflict these conditions specifically say they max out at -4. But an ability could be made that progresses beyond that. Given conditions don't stack it would probably have to be a long term disease.
Not the values of the conditions themselves but the penalties to d20 rolls. So if you were Drained 7, you would have only a -4 penalty to Fortitude saves but 7xlevel fewer HP.
Most effects though don't give you conditions with values above 4 because other than for drained and some other that would have no effect. Enfeebled 37 still would give you only -4 to STR based rolls. Well, Frightened 37 would take many turns to be reduced...
Where is this rule capping condition penalties at 4?
Not the values of the conditions themselves but the penalties to d20 rolls. So if you were Drained 7, you would have only a -4 penalty to Fortitude saves but 7xlevel fewer HP.
Most effects though don't give you conditions with values above 4 because other than for drained and some other that would have no effect. Enfeebled 37 still would give you only -4 to STR based rolls. Well, Frightened 37 would take many turns to be reduced...
Where in the core rules does it state -4 as a max penalty?
I'm searchin right now on AoN but can't find it. I'll look in the rules PDF... I'm sure I read it somewhere regarding conditions. Oo
Maybe I'm confused and it was only in the playtest?
EDIT: I'm sorry. Seems I imagined things. There is only one place where circumstance bonus/penalty is capped to 4 and that is special circumstances for all rolls (https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=508). I somehow had that connected to conditions.
...so better not become Drained 37.
Many abilities do cap at 4, so many I thought that was a general rule for awhile. Then I saw the Drain 14 cap on a high-level monster. *gulp*
Oh, and that's why many low-level effects don't stack at all; they're low-level. Some even recover faster than normal because they'd be too severe attrition for low-level PCs.
I guess I just assumed 4 was the max since you automatically die if you get dying 4 or doomed 4. Of course, you know what happens when you assume..
The only place in the book that I found "4" being mentioned in relation to a bonus is in Special Circumstances.
SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES
The player characters in your group will at times attempt
tasks that should be easier or harder than the rules or
adventure would otherwise lead you to expect, such
as a PC Gathering Information in their hometown. In
these cases, you can just apply a circumstance bonus or
penalty. Usually, this is +1 or –1 for a minor but significant
circumstance, but you can adjust this bonus or penalty to
+2 or –2 for a major circumstance. The maximum bonus
or penalty, +4 or –4, should apply only if someone has an
overwhelming advantage or is trying something extremely
unlikely but not quite impossible.
There may be more elsewhere in the book, I'll keep searching. I do recall reading that bonuses typically don't go beyond 4, with the same being true of penalties, and this does imply a "soft" cap of 4 to things of that nature.
But as far as I can tell, there is no true cap to a condition. Anytime an ability would tend to inflict a condition of more than 4, the rules tend to swap over to a time based system.
So you suffer the condition for X minutes, that sort of thing.
I believe this is because certain conditions would be ludicrous if allowed to go beyond around 4. Frightened for instance reduces all of the characters DC's by it's value, so being Frightened beyond 4 is a virtual death sentence.
Conversely, being Slowed more than 3 would be pointless, as that would drain actions from the player that they simply don't have. Maybe you could justify Slowed 4 to account for Quickened actions.
I guess I just assumed 4 was the max since you automatically die if you get dying 4 or doomed 4. Of course, you know what happens when you assume..
Even that isn't universally true. A creature with Die Hard doesn't die until Dying 5.