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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arkhandus" data-source="post: 1911000" data-attributes="member: 13966">Yes the rules explain that situation just fine.  Temporary hit points are not like a barbarian's raging hit points.  Damage suffered is subtracted from temporary hit points first.  It does not carry over to normal hit points unless all THPs are removed through damage or whatever.If Subject A has 20 hit points normally, gains 10 temporary hit points from Effect X, then gains 4 temporary hit points from Effect Y, he or she has 34 hit points at the moment.  Subject A then gets smacked for 12 damage, reducing his HP to 22.  Effect X and Effect Y are still functioning, but the THP from Effect X have all been taken away through damage, so Effect X is no longer granting any THP.  Now say that Subject A avoids getting hurt any more that day, and Effect X and Effect Y run out of duration.  Subject A is back down to his or her previous current HP of 20.Alternate situation: Subject A gets into a fight the next day, and his or her allies buff 'em up again with another 10 HP from Effect X and another 4 HP from Effect Y.  Subject A has 34 HP again.  He or she gets smacked around by an ogre for 28 damage, ouch!  Subject A has 6 HP left, and starts withdrawing while shouting for his or her allies to cover him.  Subject A gets away safely, and both of the THP effects fade away eventually, leaving Subject A with 6 hit points still.  Subject A, disgruntled but alive, meekly asks for healing from the friendly local cleric he or she always has to suck up to.Another situation: Subject A is back in his/her prime again, some weeks after the previous battles, but winds up getting stuck in another fight for his/her life.  Once again buffed with Effect X and Effect Y, Subject A has 34 hit points.  Subject A gets hit for 8 damage, going down to 26 HP.  Then, unexpectedly, an enemy wizard casts Dispel Magic and strips away Effect X!  Subject A loses the 2 HP that were still around from Effect X, since Effect X was the highest-level spell buffing him, and thus it was the first victim of the Dispel.  Subject A fights on, and defeats the wizard before Subject A could lose any more hit points.  Once Effect Y ends, Subject A returns to having 20 hit points.Now, if Effect X and Effect Y had been spells or powers of the same level, and if the Dispel could only take out one of them, whichever one was granting the superior benefit at the time would have been Dispelled first.  Subtract damage from the temporary HP of the most-powerful effect first, as it has precedence.  So the 10 THP from Effect X would be damaged first, and thus if Effect X's temporary hit points had been reduced to 3 HP because of a 7-damage attack, followed by a Dispel Magic, then effect Y would be dispelled instead, since it was granting more temporary hit points at the moment.  Again, this assumes both Effects were the same spell/power level.Final Situation: Subject A is, again, rather predictably caught up in another combat.  Healed and buffed by his allies with the usual Effect X and Effect Y, he or she has 34 HP once more.  Engaging a foe in combat, Subject A gets stabbed by a rogue from behind for 17 damage!  Subject A calls out for assistance, then turns to move out of the flanking maneuver so he can take down the annoying rogue before any more sneak attacks get through.  Subject A has 17 HP left, and his or her allies move in to get the other foe off his/her back.  Taking out the rogue, Subject A is affected by another Dispel Magic, removing both Effect X and Effect Y; however, he already lost those temporary hit points, so the Dispel has no effect on his HP.Assuming he hadn't taken any damage, though, and assuming that the Dispel was able to remove both Effect X and Effect Y, he'd have gone down to his unaugmented current HP of 20.</blockquote>

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