Multiple Fast Healing abilities from different source

[Ogrork the Mighty]

They overlap, not stack. There's a recent Dungeon issue on the WotC site that has a Brain in a Jar monster with the Evolved Undead template applied several times (the template can be applied repeatedly) and it only has fast healing 3. The template gives fast healing 3 but if applied repeatedly, and fast healing stacked, then it would have something like fast healing 9.

 

[Slaved]

That could simply be an editing mistake or the person creating it not realizing that they could stack though.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

Or it could be 100% accurate. Unless you see something contradictory in another WotC product, it's precedent.

I'd say the closest comparable is DR and we all know that doesn't normally stack.

Allowing fast healing to stack is prone to abuse.

 

[Slaved]

Damage Reduction and Spell Resistance both state that they overlap.

Fast Healing has no such text that I can find.

I am not saying that they will stack merely that they will act concurrently.

If a character had Fast Healing 2 from one source and Fast Healing 2 from another source then I think they would heal 2 Hit Points and then heal 2 Hit Points. If an opponent had an ability which reduced all Fast Healing withing 30' by 1 point then the character would have Fast Healing 1 and Fast Healing 1.

I am not sure what abuse you are talking about. Going from Fast Healing - to Fast Healing 1 is a big step but going from Fast Healing 1 to Fast Healing 2 is not.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

I am not saying that they will stack merely that they will act concurrently.

That's called stacking.

Sorry, I'm just not buying it. Other than, "it doesn't say it doesn't stack," you haven't provided anything that is more convincing than the precedent we already have in an official WotC publication.

 

[Slaved]

Which Stacking Rules are you using to come to that determination?

You also have not explained how it would be unbalancing.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

irdeggman already pointed out the RAW with the post that reads:

...its not a "+X" bonus it is a flat out number. So unless it specifcially states otherwise (like the fey heritage feats' DRr and the warlock class ability) it does not "add to an exisiting number".

Check the 'Behind the Curtain' regarding stacking, which reads in part:

Balance: The main reason to keep track of what stacks and what doesn’t stack is to keep total bonuses from getting out of hand.

If you need an example, just look upthread for the unlimited use of the 'Evolved Undead' template. Allowing Fast Healing to stack would result in the OP's Vampire Warlock using Fiendish Resilience and with three layers of template would result in a Fast Healing of 15 hit points per round...? I am sure my players would love it if I ever trotted out a BBEG built off that base!

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

Which Stacking Rules are you using to come to that determination?

You also have not explained how it would be unbalancing.

Give it up already.

 

[jaelis]

If a character had Fast Healing 2 from one source and Fast Healing 2 from another source then I think they would heal 2 Hit Points and then heal 2 Hit Points.

You can't have the same ability twice. That's like saying that a character who got Improved Evasion from two different sources would take only 1/4 damage on a failed save. Which is wrong. There is just one ability, Improved Evasion, and it does only what it says it does. Similarly, fast healing is one ability that you either have or you don't.

 

[moritheil]

I believe that both Damage Reduction and Spell Resistance explicitely state that only the best applies. I do not remember Fast Healing having similar text.

The default works the other way around. No abilities stack unless they are called out as stacking. DR and SR are redundant when they point out that they don't stack. This is a design principle.

Stacking

In most cases, modifiers to a given check or roll stack (combine for a cumulative effect) if they come from different sources and have different types (or no type at all), but do not stack if they have the same type or come from the same source (such as the same spell cast twice in succession). If the modifiers to a particular roll do not stack, only the best bonus and worst penalty applies. Dodge bonuses and circumstance bonuses however, do stack with one another unless otherwise specified.

Also you may want to note how most templates that add fast healing are careful to say either that it improves fast healing by X, or (more commonly) something akin to "if the creature already has fast healing, use the higher value."

Fast healing 20. If the creature already possesses fast healing, use whichever is better.