bleed stack and cumulative rounds

[muftiman]

I am stumped by different interpretations of bleed damage from different sources. I have a character with three different forms of bleed damage and wondering what is the core rule for these, or what kind of house rules might apply to make it better.

The character is a rogue/barbarian lizardman with 1. Bleeding attack talent (3d6 sneak), 2. a wounding weapon, and 3. a bloody bite barbarian rage power. (using a kusarigama and improved two-weapon fighting)

According to rules: wounding stacks with itself, bleed from sneak doesn't stack with itself, and there is nothing on this about the d6 from bite. Under bleed condition description, different types of bleed damage don't stack (although it's not clear whether this refers to damage as well, or only to ability damage and drain).

so let's say there are two sneak hits with the wounding weapon and a successful bite as well. Am I to assume that there would be 2 bleed from the weapon, 3 from the sneak, and d6 from the bite? So 5+d6? Or only 3 from sneak if the d6 bite is under 3, otherwise only the bite would count if it's higher?

Also, let's take the same result for round two, would these add up to the previous round's bleed damanges? This could quickly get out of control....

[Fuzzy-Wuzzy]

The only one that stacks is wounding with itself.

You roll the die and then compare it to the others to see which takes effect; don't add the die to the other bleed. So in your example you compare 2, 3, and 3, getting 3.

In the next round, any hits you get with the wounding weapon stack with the bleed it's inflicted so far, but nothing else stacks, you just get more dice to roll (which increases your average damage a bit, of course).
If in your example you get the same results as the previous round, you now have 4 bleed from the wounding weapon, 3 from the bite, 3 again from the bite, 1d6 => 3 from sneak, and 1d6 => let's say 5 from sneak, giving you a 5 result.

Rarely will a fight last long enough for you to get many full attacks in on the same opponent, so the number-tracking doesn't really get as bad as you're probably thinking at this point.

Hope that all made sense.

[thaX]

Likely, if the battle goes more than three rounds, the Wounding Weapon is the only number that will be relevant, as it is the only one that stacks.

[muftiman]

thanks, that's how I interpreted the rules as well, but seems pretty weak.

since I guess these wouldn't stack on cumulative rounds either, meaning additional hits won't matter. (other than the wounding weapon)

[muftiman]

and if bleeding critical (2d6) appears in the mix, which does stack, and over time as well I guess, the whole thing really falls out of balance (with 4-5 attacks at higher level and a good crit threat, that's about a critical every round...)

[Belic]

So how do you handle cumulative damage from multiple Bleeding Critical hits since they do stack?

Do I roll 2d6 each round for every prior confirmed critical and add them together (2d6+2d6+2d6+...), or

Do I take the highest two results each round (max of 12 points)?
i.e. after two stacking Bleeding Criticals: 1d6=3 & 1d6=5, 1d6=4 & 1d6=1, bleeding damage would be 5+4, the two highest d6's rolled.