How does the Myrmidon archetype's Field Bandage utility trick work?

Question

The grit option Field Bandage of the myrmidon archetype has this wording that eludes me (emphasys mine). I have been looking for errata but I have found none on this matter.

Field Bandage: [...] the myrmidon can grant [some] temporary hit points [to a single target] as a full-round action. These temporary hit points cannot increase a creature’s hit points beyond its normal maximum, and last for ten minutes. A creature can only only [sic!] receive the benefits of this ability for one day or until they have received magical healing equal to or greater than the amount of temporary hit points granted by the myrmidon’s field bandage, whichever comes first.

Maybe it's me being bad at English, maybe it's some major mess in the wording, but there's parts that I don't understand.

How can you only receive benefits for one day, when benefits last 10 minutes?

It would make sense that you can only gain benefits once per day, just like the regular healing skill option.

What does it mean until they have received so much healing? I mean, I get the idea, if you have been healed it does nothing but what happens? Do you roll for temporary HP and then compare? If so, do you still spend the full round action? (Was it me I would have ruled that you get one less temporary HP for each HP you've been healed today.)

Answer 1

The text of the ability present in the actual product (the latest version, anyway) reads as follows:

Field Bandage: By using a healer’s kit to quickly dress and bandage a wound, the myrmidon can grant 1d6 temporary hit points per three character levels to himself or an adjacent creature as a full-round action. These temporary hit points cannot increase a creature’s hit points beyond its normal maximum, and last for ten minutes. A creature can only only receive the benefits of this ability once per day or until they have received magical healing equal to or greater than the amount of temporary hit points granted by the myrmidon’s field bandage. This ability also halts a bleeding wound, stopping a creature from taking further bleed damage.

So the temporary hit points a myrmidon offers can only be gained if the damage that your last rolled amount of field bandage temporary hit points made up for has received proper healing of comparable benefit, or if a day has passed since they were applied. (Remember: It only offers as many temporary hit points as the damage you've taken that still needs to be healed, so if you're missing 5 hit points and roll an 8, you still only gain 5 temporary hit points, and only need to receive 5 points of magical healing to be able to benefit from a new field bandage.)

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Answer 2

You're right, that paragraph is a mess and there's clearly a typo in there somewhere. Trying to follow a rules as written approach doesn't really make sense, so I'm going to start by giving my best guess as to what was intended before I give what I think the literal interpretation is. Bear in mind that the first half of my answer will necessarily be opinion based and someone else might disagree, so check with your GM before using it.

It looks like the intent is that the temporary hp act as "fake healing", which goes away after a length of time (either 10 minutes or a day, my guess is that it was changed at some point during the playtest). This healing is overwritten by any true healing the target might later receive, on a one to one basis. So if you give me 10 temporary hp and then later I get healed for 6hp from a wand of cure light wounds, then I'll be left with 4 temporary hp (and 6 permanent hp). If I use the wand again and get healed by 7hp, then the remaining temporary hp will go away and I'll regain a total of 13 permanent hp.

Of course, there's nothing stopping you from using the Field Dressing on me again. I think the first sentence means it's supposed to cost you a use of a healer's kit each time you use it, but that's a minor price. Multiple uses of the ability won't stack with themselves, although you could use it multiple times and take the highest temporary hp roll. I don't think this is overpowered in the context of Path of War, though, since several disciplines have maneuvers that give healing and can be used as often as you like.

As for the rules as written, if we ignore the blatant "only only" typo, the rules are easy to understand up to the end of the second sentence - you can use the ability to give someone temporary hp, but not more than the hp they've lost. (Strictly speaking, temporary hp don't increase your hp at all so couldn't "increase a creature's hit points beyond its normal maximum", but I think we can write that inconsistency off as an obvious shorthand.) The temporary hp last for ten minutes.

The third sentence is more confusing - a creature can only "benefit from" the ability for 24 hours after you first use it on them. The only way I can see to interpret it literally is that after you first use a field bandage on a given creature, you can then never use it on them again after 24 hours have passed. Or after they've received magic healing equal to the temporary hp you gave. But until then, it doesn't interact with magic healing at all - if I'm on 15/25hp, you give me 10 temporary hp and then heal me for 9hp then I'll have 24/25 hp and still have 10thp on top of that. But if I get magically healed for one more point - ever - then I'll lose the temporary hp and can never benefit from the ability again, ever. Nonmagical healing is ok, though, provided you can pull it off within 10 minutes before the temporary hp expire.

It should be obvious, but I don't recommend trying to use this interpretation in an actual game.

Answer 3

It seems to me that the last sentence was supposed to read:

A creature can only receive the benefits of this ability once per day or until they have received magical healing equal to or greater than the amount of temporary hit points granted by the myrmidon’s field bandage, whichever comes first.

This brings it in line with the many other "once per day" abilities throughout Pathfinder. So if a fighter with this archetype grants you 10 temporary hit points, you can't receive any more temporary hit points from him for the rest of the day unless you receive at least 10 hit points of magical healing. The next day, this ability refreshes.