So, I built a Dhampir character, with the Life Dominant Soul, which means that, instead of taking damage from healing spells, she wins 50% hit points...

That's the theory, because for some reason, each time I tried to heal her, it "fails" and she takes damage instead. Of course, healing potions are thus useless, as well as most healing powers of the companions.

The REALLY awkward part?

My build is: Dhampir Race + Life Dominant Soul Feat + Arcanist Class + White Mage Archetype

Which means that this character can use spell slots to cast cure spells instead... so, in my last session, she almost killed herself when trying to use her own White Mage power on herself.

I'm a winner...
[facepalm]

From the Pathfinder srd (System Reference Document):

Life-Dominant Soul

You gain unusual resiliency from your mortal heritage.

Prerequisite: Dhampir

Benefit: You are healed by channeled positive energy used to heal living creatures and channeled negative energy used to heal undead, but both only heal half the normal amount. You still take damage from positive energy used to harm undead, such as that from channeled energy and lay on hands.

Yeah, its not the best worded feat in the world.

My guess you can only be healed by positive energy spells and effects that cannot be used in an offensive manner (to target/ damage undead creatures).

A white mage's spontaneous healing ability mimic's a cure spell which can be used to damage undead hence that nasty surprise when you tried to heal your Dhampir.

So what will work? Perhaps a regenerate spell. Also symbol of healing (Don't know if this spell is in the game though it is part of the pathfinder system) is an example that cannot damage undead but still uses positive energy to heal and would posibly work with the Life-dominant soul feat.

Hmm also I dug up an old post:

"Life-dominant soul only makes it so that specifically channelled energy to heal the living will heal the Dhampir by half (such as a Cleric or Life Oracles channel positive energy to heal the living), it does not make it so Dhampirs heal from all positive energy, it even explicitly says in the feat that you still take damage from positive energy used to harm undead such as lay on hands or channelled positive energy to harm undead."

Have you tried a cleric's Channel Positive energy ability on your Dhampir character?

From what I read that part is not bugged.

A potion is basically a cure spell in a bottle which is not channeled healing. A cure spell or potion is by the rules of pathfinder meant to deal damage to undead and will not heal even if you have this feat.

In pathfinder cure spells count as an inflict spell against undead. My guess that this feat is worded too ambiguously for its own good which is compounded by its narrow focus.


Below is a link explaining the way channeling positive energy works.

https://rpgbot.net/pathfinder/characters/channel_energy.html

In pathfinder there are a few classes that use it (Cleric, Paladin, Warpirest and oracle depending on the chosen mystery), so there are ways this feat is useful.

Well that is some bullshit. Either they need to make healing potions into throwable single target weapons against undead, or re-write the feat with more specificity. Not everyone playing the game is some table top hero.

The problem with tabletop RPG's (D&D 3(.5) especially) are that their are many 'splatbooks' which provide a lot of options but might not always fit the campaign as well as the core content. Pathfinder overall has good content but some additions are pretty niche and no not fit in every campaign (such as the one WOR is based on).

Many of the new class and race additions in WOR are not from corebooks, including the Dhampir class.

The Dhampire class would be great in a campaign where many opponents use negative energy spells, but in WOR a Dhampir's moments to shine are limited.

That is not to say niche races and classes should not be included (or rules modified by owlcat to better fit the campaign as they already did so on a few occassions, including modifying base classes). Variety is the spice of life, even when such variety can be a bit niche or difficult to play.

A Dhampir spelleater might be an interesting choice to play.

@Dungeonfrog : Thanks for your answer.

Looking at Paizo's Blood of the Night, I read :

Negative Energy Affinity: Though a living creature, a dhampir reacts to positive and negative energy as if it were undead—positive energy harms it, while negative energy heals it.

And indeed, the Life-Dominant Soul feat only applies to channeling, not the other positive/negative energies. BUT... Looking at "Cure Light Wounds", I read:

When laying your hand upon a living creature, you channel positive energy that cures 1d8 points of damage + 1 point per caster level (maximum +5).

... which seems to be right in the domain of effect of Life-Dominant Soul.

In our chronicle, we had to write a table to understand how to use this feat, but in essence, the "intention" behind the act decided if the Dhampir was healed (at 50%) or wounded (at 100%). For example, someone wanting to heal and using cure light wounds would heal the Dhampir by 50%. The same someone using cure light wounds to wound the dhampire would damage them by 100%. It's convoluted, but so is the wording of this feat.

In the end, I guess taking all the cases into account would not be easy, nor worthy of the time spent on it...

The 'intented' part would go a long way in explaining the use of the feat, though the intention of the feat's designer does not shine through in the feat's wording. That is pretty deadly from a design point of view, especially in a pen and paper roleplaying game where you do not want endless discusions between the gamemaster and players.

What can be done is ask Owlgames for a change in the feat (alt+B and ask for an improvement to the game rather than a bug).

The feat could be something like this:

-----------------------------
Life-Dominant Soul

You gain unusual resiliency from your mortal heritage.

Prerequisite: Dhampir

Benefit: You are healed by channeled positive energy used to heal living creatures and channeled negative energy used to heal undead, but both only heal half the normal amount. You still take damage from channeled positive energy used with the intend to harm undead. ->Then add an toggable option for 'harm undead' with positive energy in a way similar you also have a toggle button for feats like power attack.

The above is a fix in the line with how Owlgames has managed character options in combat.

If it is the feat's creatures explicit intent to already work like what I have written above you could argue that the feat currently is bugged (or not working as intended) and can be reported as a bug in the feat's mechanic.
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You can click the arrow above the potion on your hotbar and that brings up the spell spell to click so you can choose the target. How else did you think you were supposed to use potions of remove paralysis?

Yeah I think everyone has a handle on the mechanics now. These posts are from release week.

Also. . .That still isn't throwing the potion, that is just walking up to someone and force-feeding them. Bit different.

To anyone not averse to "house rules": get toybox (mod), remove the negative energy affinity from your character, enjoy healing normally.

I just created some head-cannon that, on her path to remain "on the side of the light", my Dhampir got a magical tattoo from Dresna, that enables her to be healed like any other mortal.

She can never stray from being Chaotic Good or from worshiping Dresna, but it's not like she has an issue with worshiping the deity that "saved" her.

Idea for implementation:

If the cure wounds spell is cast by self or an ally (or other non-enemy) it heals for 50%. If it cast by an enemy it harms for 100%. Same for the Healing Hex and Greater Healing Hex.

Cure wounds potions heal for 50% regardless of who is using it, self or other character.

I am not sure how to implement scrolls and wands, both of which can be used offensively and defensively by anybody and may use different rules than spells and potions do. It should be able to do it, but might require another check to do so.

The Heal spell is a bit of a different issue here as there is more to it than positive energy.

Inflict wounds spells heal for 50% as would any other negative energy effect.

Thoughts?

Another Idea is to just check for positive energy healing before checking for positive energy damage when you have the Life Dominant Soul feat, if it has healing then use that - do not check for damage in this case.