bonuses to ability score won't stack?

[aboyd]

Multiple enhancement bonuses on the same object (in the case of armor and weapons), creature (in the case of natural armor), or ability score do not stack.

That's weird. It says that you can't stack ability score bonuses, and it doesn't even mention types. So it's not like AC, where you have armor, shield, deflection, and so on, and each would stack as long as it was a different type. No, in the case of ability scores, it seems that if you have a Periapt of Wisdom, then a spell of Owl's Wisdom does nothing to you. If you're wearing Gauntlet's of Ogre Power and a Belt of Giant Strength, the gauntlets add nothing. A cleric who casts Bull's Strength or Divine Power on that dude with the belt is pretty much wasting his time.

True? If so, any exceptions?

 

[Runestar]

None, unless the entry explicitly states so (an example is the hammer of thunderbolts in the DMG, which allows gloves of ogre strength to stack with belt of giant strength). This is to avoid abusive stacking of stat increases (imagine if you could access bite of the werebear (+16str), bull's str, divine power and belt of str+6 and add them all together...)

 

[azhrei_fje]

That's weird. It says that you can't stack ability score bonuses, and it doesn't even mention types.

Yes, it does mention type. It says "enhancement." I'm getting the impression that when you read that paragraph you just skipped right over that, eh?!

Other types are inherent, morale, sacred/profane, circumstance, competence, and so on.

 

[Hypersmurf]

That's weird. It says that you can't stack ability score bonuses, and it doesn't even mention types. So it's not like AC, where you have armor, shield, deflection, and so on, and each would stack as long as it was a different type. No, in the case of ability scores, it seems that if you have a Periapt of Wisdom, then a spell of Owl's Wisdom does nothing to you. If you're wearing Gauntlet's of Ogre Power and a Belt of Giant Strength, the gauntlets add nothing. A cleric who casts Bull's Strength or Divine Power on that dude with the belt is pretty much wasting his time.

Periapt of Wisdom and Owl's Wisdom are both enhancement bonuses. No stacking.

Gauntlets and Belt are both enhancement bonuses. No stacking.

Bull's Strength and Divine Power are both enhancement bonuses. No stacking.

Bull's Strength and Enlarge? Enhancement bonus to Strength and Size bonus to Strength. They stack just fine.

Owl's Wisdom and Tome of Understanding? Enhancement bonus to Wisdom and Inherent bonus to Wisdom. They stack just fine.

The main issue is that apart from enhancement, racial, size, and inherent, bonuses to ability scores are very hard to come by, so stacking difficulties crop up more often than, say, bonuses to AC.

-Hyp.

 

[aboyd]

Thank you guys so much! I DID miss the types, as I thought "enhancement" was a generic word for "bonus" rather than a type in and of itself.

That's great news. So there are ways to stack, even if they're difficult to come by. Now the hunt begins.

 

[amethal]

None, unless the entry explicitly states so (an example is the hammer of thunderbolts in the DMG, which allows gloves of ogre strength to stack with belt of giant strength). This is to avoid abusive stacking of stat increases (imagine if you could access bite of the werebear (+16str), bull's str, divine power and belt of str+6 and add them all together...)

Imagine if you could wild shape into dire bear form and then cast bite of the werebear.

As far as I can tell, you can.