Do temporary hit points stack?

[The Souljourner]

There are a lot of cheesy non-core spells and abilities that are just too good. Bear's heart is one of the more ridiculous ones (there are some others in MotW that only work on animals that'll be disgusting with a natural spelled druid in animal form... one gives like 1d8 temporary hitpoints per caster level... way broken).

But that's a matter of outside things being broken, not those things stacking being wrong.

-The Souljourner

 

[Pielorinho]

Re: temporary hit points

I recently sent a letter to wizards concerning that very thing, (Questions@wizards.com) and the response from them was that temporary do stack!

Thanks! I must point out that customer service at WOTC is famously bad -- after sending them three different versions of the same question (basically, does Death Ward protect against Phantasmal killer?) and receiving three different answers, I'm not inclined to put much faith in them.

That said, Souljourner raises the excellent point that since nothing indicates they don't stack, they probably should. And now that I know the official rule, I gotta decide how to handle it, with my players' input. I'm leaning closer to houseruling it the other way -- that temp hp don't stack -- but I may instead limit their production to core rule sources.

Daniel

 

[LokiDR]

Two different spells grant the same bonus, should they stack? If there were two different ways to increase your con, both unnamed bonuses, would you get all the HP from both? Obviously, yes. So, unless "temperary" is a type or they come from the same source, they stack as per the rules on stacking spell effects.

Balance: this is tougher. I remember the displaced, stoneskinned, empowered false-lifed mage as really annoying. There has been an effort in 3.5 to lower the number of long term buffs, so stacking a bunch of temperary HP seems against the grain.

But, are there really that many effects that grant temp HP? In magic, I can think of transformation, aid, false life, and bears heart. Only two of those are on the same list. Even if you did let them all stack, it wouldn't be anything beyond a really high HP fighter. Aid on top of bear's heart? Do you even notice? False life+bears heart, maybe, but that would only be a lot for 1 person and you need a druid and a mage to make it work. I think there are more abusive combinations. Streaching out the combat makes it more interesting. We aren't talking about doubling the power of fireball, after all.

 

[AGGEMAM]

Re: temporary hit points

I recently sent a letter to wizards concerning that very thing, (Questions@wizards.com) and the response from them was that temporary do stack!

That switches my opinion from "It shouldn't" to "Maybe it does". But ruleswise, no one can give an answer until an official errata/FAQ touches the subject.

(Btw, I generally respect Sage advice, but never the customer service.)