The Pathfinder Bleeding Critical feat has the following benefit:

Whenever you score a critical hit with a slashing or piercing weapon, your opponent takes 2d6 points of bleed damage (see Conditions) each round on his turn, in addition to the damage dealt by the critical hit. Bleed damage can be stopped by a DC 15 Heal skill check or through any magical healing. The effects of this feat stack.

(emphasis mine)
When the feat says its effects stack, what does that mean? Does it mean the bleed damage stacks if a PC (w/ Bleeding Critical) crits a monster multiple times? Does it mean the bleed damage stacks with other abilities that cause bleed damage? Or does it simply mean that the effects of this feat can overlap with other 'critical' feats (Blinding Critical, Deafening Critical, etc...)?


In D&D (And the SRD based Pathfinder by extension), there is a general rule that, Effects from the same source never stack.

Bleeding Critical, however, raises an explicit exception to this -- in the context of the feat , this means that the effect of the feat, "your opponent takes 2d6 points of bleed damage (see Conditions) each round on his turn", can stack with itself. So if you crit your opponent twice (before they end the condition, as described above), your opponent suffers two "take 2d6 points of bleed damage each round on your turn" effects.

The feat has no bearing on any other critical feats, nor any relation to other sources of bleed damage.

  • \$\begingroup\$ Aw, you beat me to it! \$\endgroup\$ – GnoveltyGnome Jul 24 '13 at 20:36
  • \$\begingroup\$ Probably more relevant that bleed normally doesn't stack at all, even in the case of different sources. \$\endgroup\$ – starwed Jul 24 '13 at 20:56
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    \$\begingroup\$ Where does this idea that bleeds from different sources dont stack come from? \$\endgroup\$ – Duncan Jul 27 '13 at 10:52
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Duncan: It's in the description of the Bleed condition: "Bleed effects do not stack with each other unless they deal different kinds of damage." \$\endgroup\$ – MrLemon Sep 30 '14 at 14:15

As far as I know, it means the bleed damage from this feat stacks with itself. If you get two critical hits, he bleeds for 4d6 points of bleed damage on his turn (2d6 from the first critical, and 2d6 from the second), unless stopped with the Heal check or through magical healing. It does NOT stack with other bleed effects, so if there are multiple bleed effects on the same target (A bleed from Bleeding Critical, and a bleed from Bleeding Attack), you take the worse (most damaging) of the two.


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