D&D 5E (2024) Rules question - Power Word spells and temp hit points

[ECMO3]

Spells like Power Word Stun and Power Word kill have a hit point cap. 150 and 100 respectively.

RAW do temporary hit points count in this total? So if I have 120hps and 40 temp hit points does Power word Stun work on me? This came up in play and my on the spot ruling was that the temp hit points do NOT count so the PC was stunned.

Anyone have any actual guidance from the rules?

Also an interesting factoid about Power Word Stun in the 2024 rules - if you have less than 150 hit points you are Stunned but can still move, if you have more than 150 hps you are not stunned but you can not move. So this is an effective, albeit costly, movement debuff against any enemy with more than 150hps with no save. Be nice to use against something like a Terrasque or an Ancient Red Dragon to get a turn to wallop on them from range.

 

[Rabulias]

I can't quote an official source, and I have not encountered this question before, but I think you made the right call. If I normally have a max of 100 HP and I am injured down to 49 HP I am Bloodied. Even if I have 51 Temp HP, I am still Bloodied. So I think Temp HP don't count as "real HP" for effects and spells like this.

 

[Kobold Stew]

Check out the 2024 PHB, p. 29. "They're not hit points": "Because Temporary Hit Points aren't Hit Points..."

Though the context of that discussion is about healing and recovery, it is clear they are separate things, and so you are/were correct.

 

[Clint_L]

I also agree with that ruling. I interpret temp hit points as a magical shield, so those spells just bypass it completely.

 

[Plaguescarred]

Temporary Hit Points should never count toward the number of Hit Points threshold that spells such as Power Word Stunt refers to, being actual Hit Points, which Temporary Hit Points are not.

EDIT Typo

 

[Rabulias]

Power Word Sun

Oooh... my wizard wants.

 

[Maxperson]

Oooh... my wizard wants.

Instant tan!

 

[Blue]

My general guidance for things like this is that if you assume the rules are complete and they can work, then go with that. So tHP, being explicitly it's own category and not HP and not following other rules of HP like healing, wouldn't count. Since that interpretation can work, I don't need an additional wording that tHP are not HP, though as @Kobold Stew pointed out, we do have that (in a different context) in the PHB anyway.

On FB I see so many questions because people want the PHB to have explicit wording about their question, when the question is already definitively answered in the negative by what it doesn't say. We don't need a note that a greataxe isn't by default a thrown weapon, we know that because it lacks the thrown tag.

 

[Maxperson]

My general guidance for things like this is that if you assume the rules are complete and they can work, then go with that. So tHP, being explicitly it's own category and not HP and not following other rules of HP like healing, wouldn't count. Since that interpretation can work, I don't need an additional wording that tHP are not HP, though as @Kobold Stew pointed out, we do have that (in a different context) in the PHB anyway.

On FB I see so many questions because people want the PHB to have explicit wording about their question, when the question is already definitively answered in the negative by what it doesn't say. We don't need a note that a greataxe isn't by default a thrown weapon, we know that because it lacks the thrown tag.

I think the fact that the PHB goes out of its way to say that if you are at 0 hit points, temporary hit points don't make you conscious, is proof enough that they don't combine with hit point in any way and power words wouldn't take them into consideration.

 

[Scott Christian]

As a player, I would be ok with either ruling. I lean towards the side that the spell would stun the target; however, they are there to "buffer against damage." And I get it, damage is not the exact same as condition, but I wouldn't rules lawyer a DM that equated the two and said the hit points worked in favor of the target.