It is good practice to give the source of the item(s) you're asking about. In this case, Thistle Arrows are from the Pathfinder Player's Companion: Adventurer's Armory. The section where they are found is prefaced "This book updates several items from the Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting to the Pathfinder RPG rules.", so they likely also appear in this earlier source. I do note that the arrows do not appear in the weapons table (although others, specifically the whistling arrows, do)
Thistle Arrow: Crafted from the thistles of a poisonous plant, these barbed arrows deal damage as a bleed effect
for 1d6 rounds after a hit.
What this is telling us is that the damage these arrows do is a bleed effect, not regular damage. Instead of taking damage immediately when struck, the target is give a certain amount of bleed. On the target's turn, he takes that damage first thing. Some people roll once and apply that amount of bleed every turn that the bleed lasts, while others roll the die again for each turn of bleed. There's a FAQ that says the second method is the intended one. Ask your DM how they're going to handle it.
Check the bleed rules, but things to note are
1) Bleed doesn't usually stack. If you hit a target with two of these, it's only going to take the worst and/or longest lasting of the two.
2) Healing magic (and/or a successful heal check) stops further bleed damage.
3) Some creatures are immune to bleed and some items can negate it.
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Thistle arrows were ported over poorly from the old Campaign Setting. Here is the original wording:
Thistle Arrow: These arrows are a specialty of the Ekujae shamans, who craft the arrowheads out of the thistles of a toxic plant that most creatures find highly caustic. They deal normal damage but then become embedded in the wound and deal an additional 1 point of damage each round for 1d6 rounds from their irritating sap. Creatures immune to poison are immune to this extra damage. A creature can remove an embedded thistle arrow as a move action without provoking attacks of opportunity, but doing so deals an additional 1d3 points of damage as the thorny barbs are pulled free. A DC 12 Heal check (made as a standard action) can pull free a thistle arrow's head without dealing any additional damage. A single thistle arrow costs 1 gp.
Here is a previous thread on the issue.
Joana nailed it.
Bleed 1, for 1D6 rounds.
Ah neat porting quote thanks. The whole text helps a lot.
Though they probably should have ported the whole thing considering what RAW implies for some folks.
Yeah, I like most of Paizo's work but sometimes I run across something that just makes me scratch my head.
I mean, as written in the ported version of the item is essentially unusable. If you don't have the page-space to do something properly maybe you should just hold off and do it later.
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Note: While not explicitly an "update" for the Thistle Arrow, the Alchemy Manual has an item called a Bleeding Arrow:
This sharpened hollow tube looks like the narrow proboscis of some giant insect, but it actually comes from a carnivorous plant. A bleeding arrow deals normal damage when it hits a creature and deals 1 point of bleed damage. A critical hit does not multiply the bleed damage.
A lot more expensive, at 160 gp, but a complete rules item. Probably because the bleed doesn't contain any riders, either as poison, nor with a duration limit.
What was the old campaign setting? it was a pathfinder campaign setting or a 3.5?
The Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting was the original setting book for Golarion. It was published under the OGL before the PfRPG rules were complete, for a 3.5 Golarion.
It was later replaced by The Inner Sea World Guide, published under PfRPG rules.
The thistle arrow in Adventurer's Armory was listed under this text:
Converting Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting Items
This book updates several items from the Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting to the Pathfinder RPG rules. Items not listed may be used without conversion.
So, yes, it was explicitly designed as the PfRPG version of the original thistle arrow. Think of it as an errata document, where they don't reprint the entire text, just tell you what to strike out, add, or change.
So.. Why does the Thistle arrow from Adv Armory say bleed damage. but that original says poison?
IIRC, bleed damage was invented in PfRPG and didn't exist as a term when the Campaign Setting was published. I can't find it in a search of d20srd.org at any rate.
Does anyone who has Adv Armory know if what is on d20 is the full text from the book? I don't have it.
The exact text is "Crafted from the thistles of a poisonous plant, these barbed arrows deal damage as a bleed effect for 1d6 rounds after a hit."