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Certain effects give a character temporary hit points.
When a character gains temporary hit points, note his
current hit point total. When the temporary hit points
go away, the character’s hit points drop to his current
hit point total. If the character’s hit points are below his
current hit point total at that time, all the temporary hit
points have already been lost and the character’s hit point
total does not drop further.
The third sentence in particular strikes me as confusing. How can the character's hit points be below his hit point total? That's like saying when x is less then x... but by definition, x=x, always. Did I just roll a 1 on my literature check, or is this paragraph a kind of unclear way of saying 'damage taken is first subtracted from temporary hit points before normal hit points are affected'?
I believe "Current hit point total" means a character's number of hit points at full health.
Basically when temp hit points go away, if you are still above your max hit points, then you lose any extra above your max. If you are already below your max hit points when your temp hit points wear off then there is no change to your hit point total.
The word "Current" probably isn't the best choice, but the rule is pretty standard d20 stuff.
actually by current HP total they mean current HP total at the time that the effect that grants the temporary HP occurs, this is not nessecarily your Maximum HP total (since you could already be hurt in some way before you cast false life or what ever gave you the temporary HP and temporary HO do not heal you).
so if you have 24 HP say then are hit for 6 (bringing you down to 18) then get 14 temporary HP (taking you up to 32) from a spell effect, you note the 18 down, and if at the end of the duration of the temporary HP effect you have over 18 HP, you drop down to 18... if you have less then the 18 HP then the temporary Hp are already gone and there is no change to your HP.
of course that begs the question... if you can be healed for those 6 HP you were down before the tempoary HP effect while you are under it.
Contributor
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I think they are trying to prevent sudden death from the expiration of temporary hit points. Under the old rules, when some spells or effects granting temp hit points expired, you instantly lost that number of hit points and could potentially be dropped to negative hit points.
Under this reading, when the effect expires, you either lose temporary hit points above what you had when they were granted (dropping you back to that total) or your hit points stay the same...you don't just drop dead.
The wording for Temp HP has always been bad. PF is no exception.
I like to say that these are tracked separately from your normal HP total. They are a pool that gets depleted before anything lowers your normal HP. They cannot be healed (though your normal HP can be healed while you have Temp HPs). They do not count for massive damage or spell interruption - you only take penalties for your actual HP loss, not the total amount dealt.
In effect, Temp HP act as a "Force Field" around your character, taking damage for you before it gets to your body. This wording is not thematically appropriate for D&D, but every time I use it, players seem to get the concept with no further discussion.
-Scott