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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Matthias" data-source="post: 6053082" data-attributes="member: 3625">I'm glad you were able to say what I tried to say in my previous post, but in fewer words.For any that try to understand what we're getting at, think of Pathfinder's rules System as a basic language that describes how the laws of nature function in that universe. It is a mistake to try to infer physical laws in the game world from peculiarities in how the language (rule system) is constructed in the real world:Just because the rules say natural 1's always miss in combat, this doesn't mean that over thousands of attempts to strike their intended target in the heat of multiple battles, that your character is statistically 5% likely to miss.Just because the rules say one needs Combat Reflexes to be able to make more than one AOO in a given round, that it is physically impossible in the game world for your character to make more than one AOO every six seconds...or that beyond some point in time, your character can suddenly develop the ability to make multiple AOOs every six seconds but could never be able to do so before.Just because the rules say that longbows have a maximum range of 1,000 ft (10 range increments) and cost 75 gp, does not mean that in the game world, it is physically impossible for a character wielding a common longbow but lacking the "Far Shot feat" to hit a target more than 1,000 feet away, or that he will always be able to get 75 gp for that longbow.Then there's the encumbrance limits per strength. There are specific penalties to going above your medium, heavy, and maximum loads which are defined by the pound. Just because the rules would allow the addition or subtraction of a pound to impose or remove a penalty instantaneously, or say that a character can move with a load half a pound under his max but not a half pound over, doesn't mean that these effects can be demonstrated scientifically in the game world. They are just guidelines to define roughly what a character is or isn't able to get away with.Lastly, the rules apply fixed, parallel level-based progressions to several different abilities: base attack bonus, hit points, save bonuses, skill points, feat slots, spell slots, and so on. Do the RAW allow for a character like this? A 20th-level character with a superb Constitution and excellent Fort save (because he has extraordinary immunity to poisons and ailments), and loads of skill points (because he has spent a lot of time in the library), yet has absurdly low hit points and BAB (because he can't fight his way out of a wet paper sack). Technically no, unless the player uses (say) Monk for his character class but voluntarily misses most of his attack rolls and lets his character drop at only 50% HP. The game does not allow characters to develop BAB separately from saves or hit points (though other non-d20 game systems permit that kind of flexibility). The game world would not logically be bound by such restrictions, but that is OK. Dramatic license, GM fiat, and player self-imposed penalties can do this.One is better off thinking of any game effect's performance as dictated by the rules as reasonably close to the actual statistical average, rather than as fixed, immutable limitations. GM fiat exists to fill in the blanks: the GM can (in the name of dramatic license) let a 1st-level commoner pull off a second AOO in a round, let a longbow arrow a goblin a mile away, or be sold for 150 gp to some desperate merchant who needs such a perfect birthday gift for his grandson that very day.</blockquote>

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