Question about the 'Bloodthirsty' trait


Rules Questions


Hi all,

Just going back into the game after a prolonged absence, so please do bear with me if I'm missing something glaringly obvious. The trait's description states:

"Whenever you make an attack that reduces a foe to 0 hit points or fewer or you confirm a critical hit, your attack deals 1 additional point of damage."

The critical part I understand, and the trait would be fine just with that, IMO, but whatever is the point of dealing an additional point of damage when reducing a foe to 0 or fewer hit points? Is it for GMs who actually bother tracking foes' negative hit points, or just to make sure that your foe never gets staggered? Seems like a quizzical, extremely situational addendum to me. Why not, say, deal +1 damage on your *next* attack after downing a foe?


You answer your question in your question. It'd be for GM's that actually track negative HP.


I would assume the former.

Our group (with three different GMs) does actually track negative HP as long as it is relevant. It has come into play on multiple occasions. For example, players running a hit-and-run style raid on an enemy camp ending up "killing" the same enemies multiple times because they were never reduced to Neg-Con in HP, so were healed back to some level of fighting shape before the next raid.


I see. So it really is just meant to be an even-more-situational bonus to top the situational +1 damage in a critical? Alright, then.

Thanks for the input, guys.


Viriato wrote:

Hi all,

Just going back into the game after a prolonged absence, so please do bear with me if I'm missing something glaringly obvious. The trait's description states:

"Whenever you make an attack that reduces a foe to 0 hit points or fewer or you confirm a critical hit, your attack deals 1 additional point of damage."

The critical part I understand, and the trait would be fine just with that, IMO, but whatever is the point of dealing an additional point of damage when reducing a foe to 0 or fewer hit points? Is it for GMs who actually bother tracking foes' negative hit points, or just to make sure that your foe never gets staggered? Seems like a quizzical, extremely situational addendum to me. Why not, say, deal +1 damage on your *next* attack after downing a foe?

Actually besides the negative, if you reduce the enemy to 0, he is still up. But with that trait now he's at -1, negative, drops down.

That's one benefit I could find


The additional +1 damage isn't considered precision or additional damage from weapon quality so it is multiplied with the critical multiplier as well, right? So you'd be dealing 2 extra damage, maybe up to 4 if that's the case, right?

At least in the case of confirming a critical hit, otherwise (reducing a foe to 0 or lower) you'd have already rolled for damage, of course.

Liberty's Edge

Viriato wrote:

Hi all,

Just going back into the game after a prolonged absence, so please do bear with me if I'm missing something glaringly obvious. The trait's description states:

"Whenever you make an attack that reduces a foe to 0 hit points or fewer or you confirm a critical hit, your attack deals 1 additional point of damage."

The critical part I understand, and the trait would be fine just with that, IMO, but whatever is the point of dealing an additional point of damage when reducing a foe to 0 or fewer hit points? Is it for GMs who actually bother tracking foes' negative hit points, or just to make sure that your foe never gets staggered? Seems like a quizzical, extremely situational addendum to me. Why not, say, deal +1 damage on your *next* attack after downing a foe?

1) It is based on the role play part of the trait, you enjoy beating the enemy or at least feel that is needed to get them really dead.

2) Yes, it helped me several times against enemy that would otherwise become staggered. Very useful against guys with regeneration, abilities to heal themselves, fast getaway spells and friends aboard and so on.
Even simply dropping an enemy instead of having him partially active is important when you make iterative attacks.

3) All the GM in my group track negative hp, at least when the enemies have the capability to heal or there is a positive channeller in the PC group.

Liberty's Edge

Viriato wrote:

I see. So it really is just meant to be an even-more-situational bonus to top the situational +1 damage in a critical? Alright, then.

Thanks for the input, guys.

Pizza Lord wrote:

The additional +1 damage isn't considered precision or additional damage from weapon quality so it is multiplied with the critical multiplier as well, right? So you'd be dealing 2 extra damage, maybe up to 4 if that's the case, right?

At least in the case of confirming a critical hit, otherwise (reducing a foe to 0 or lower) you'd have already rolled for damage, of course.

PRD wrote:


Bloodthirsty: You have a vicious streak, and nothing satisfies you more than warm blood on your hands and blade. Whenever you make an attack that reduces a foe to 0 hit points or fewer or you confirm a critical hit, your attack deals 1 additional point of damage. The additional damage is a trait bonus, and is multiplied by your weapon's critical hit multiplier.

As pizza said, it is 2-4 hp on a critical.

Note that it is added at least to all damage from spells that count as weapon, possibly to all spells that require an attack roll (naturally you need to score a critical or down a foe).

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