Massive Damage, DR, Temporary Hit Points and Return to the Tomb of Horrors

[Plane Sailing]

It's interesting, thinking about it.

By the rules, I agree with Crothian.

By the flavour... I think the sorcerer has a point.

FWIW my thoughts too. My initial reaction would be to rule according to the rules and not even thought of it any other way, but I think I would be swayed by the argument that temporary hp are a necromantic buffer rather than your real hp. For the flavour I wouldn't make the sorcerer make a MDT save.

Cheers

 

[thorian]

Didn't notice that before.

Yeah, one of the only sources that discusses temporary hit points is the 3E Main FAQ... and it says "Temporary hit points from multiple sources don't stack".

-Hyp.

Not to derail the thread, but .....
Do Temp HP overlap, then?
And, if so, they effectively stack. For example, if I have 15 temp HP from Divine Power and then gain 11 temp HP from casting aid, the 15 from Divine Power will be in effect, since the highest result usually supercedes the others. Now when I get hit for 10 HP of damage, do my temp HP from the aid spell now take precedence, since aid now provides the highest temp HP after taking away 10 from the temp HP divine power is providing?

 

[FreeTheSlaves]

I would have dismissed the sorcerer player argument if I was playing with the MD rules, I wouldn't see a distinction. That said, I think I'll ask the guys next time we play if they want that rule - it has pros and cons.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Not to derail the thread, but .....
Do Temp HP overlap, then?
And, if so, they effectively stack. For example, if I have 15 temp HP from Divine Power and then gain 11 temp HP from casting aid, the 15 from Divine Power will be in effect, since the highest result usually supercedes the others. Now when I get hit for 10 HP of damage, do my temp HP from the aid spell now take precedence, since aid now provides the highest temp HP after taking away 10 from the temp HP divine power is providing?

I would say that the 5th point of damage you take removes 1 THP from both Divine Power and Aid.

If you take 3 damage, you have 12 THP left on your Divine Power, and 11 left on your Aid. If you take another 4 damage, you have 8 THP left on both. If Divine Power now expires, you still have 8 left from Aid.

I visualise temp hit points like stacks of coins, resting on top of your normal hit points, and damage as a flat arm sweeping across.

So if you have two sources of THP, one of 15 and one of 11, and 20 hit points, and you take seven damage, the arm sweeps across at a height of 35, knocking off the top coin of the 15 stack, then at 34, then at 33, then at 32, knocking off one hit point each time... then when it sweeps across at 31, it knocks off the top hit point from both stacks, and again at 30, and finally at 29, leaving you with two stacks of 8 coins atop your 20 hit points.

-Hyp.