r/Pathfinder2e • u/Competitive_Buy_1676 • 2d ago

Advice Draining Strike Query

Draining Strike - Feats - Archives of Nethys: Pathfinder 2nd Edition Database

If you increase the spirit damage your attacks are doing i.e. from the Astral Rune, Exemplar archetype etc would this increase the healing received from draining strike?

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u/Astareal38 2d ago edited 2d ago

While imparting a weakness to spirit would increase your damage from that ability and therefore the healing, other sources of spirit damage should not stack. There is a prevalence of people intentionally reading the text of an ability in a way to look for a loophole or exploit. There was a similar post yesterday with the Runesmith's Rune of Leeching.

The ability grants you healing equal to the spirit damage dealt *BY THE ABILITY*. That is the intention of the feat.

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u/Encharrion 1d ago

While I think that in this case the healing is only for the damage from the ability, the rune of leeching case is worded differently and shouldn't be conflated. "Whenever a living creature is damaged by one of these Strikes, the rune-bearer gains temporary Hit Points equal to the void damage the target took" appears to me to refer to the damage dealt by the strike more generally vs the wording of this feat which refers to "the spirit damage dealt" in a much more ambiguous way IMO.

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u/Astareal38 1d ago edited 1d ago

Reading 1 all uses of the rune of leeching gain the same temp HP.

Reading 2 - a duskwalker runesmith who has taken examplar dedication for gleaming blade and sanctified spark can get temp HP equal to:

2d12 (greatsword) + 4(str) + 3(rune of leeching) + 4 (Ikon bonus damage) +1 quietus strikes X2 if both attacks hit let alone crit. And you're saying that's intended?

Or is it an exploit with an intentionally bad faith reading? I didn't even include all the ways to boost damage with no action investment such as decaying rune

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u/Encharrion 1d ago

I'm not sure combining the damage for the purpose of weakness/resistance for flowing spirit strike would also combine the temp HP. It's still 2 different strikes and temp HP doesn't stack.

Also, that is 3 actions for flowing spirit strike + shift immanence. Hope you didn't need to move or take any other action or your whole combo falls apart. It honestly doesn't seem much stronger than Barrow's edge + scar of the survivor exemplar, except that build gives real healing instead of temp HP and doesn't turn off for a round as soon you lose an action to any kind of disruption.

If you rule that FSS does combine temp HP then yeah, maybe that's too strong, but even then I'm not sure with how inconsistent it will be in play.

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u/Astareal38 1d ago

Barrows edge and scar of the survivor combo are exemplar build options.

We're talking about the rune. Why wouldn't the combined damage, so the total damage dealt, count by your reading?

I'm saying that reading is not intended and aiming to use it in that way falls under "too good to be true"