Same unnamed bonuses stack?

[Li Shenron]

I don't think it was ever intended that these bonuses stack. It wouldn't make sense anyway: you aren't suddenly twice as intelligent as before, just because you learned to be a duelist in addidtion to a bladesinger.

I agree with you KaeYoss, and with Hypersmurf: I don't like being a rules-lawyer - although I am - and this case really looks like a lawyer debate, so i am not going to try to understand if "Int" bonus is unnamed or a type (not a type listed in the DMG anyway).

I always thought that getting your Int (or whatever ability) bonus to something means to be able to use your Int as extra help to something that usually gets no help from Int. E.g. the Monk Wisdom bonus to AC: beside Dex which always helps AC, a Monk can also use a high Wis to improve its defense. A PrCl which gives the same, provides you with the chance of using your Wisdom in the same way, but it doesn't make sense to use it twice.

There COULD be a special ability that e.g. lets you use TWICE your Dex to AC (just like a 2-handed weapon uses 1+1/2 your Str bonus to damage), but not in the general case - plus such an ability is easily exploitable and I wouldn't like it anyway...

 

[hong]

If it says "add your Int bonus to AC", then it's not an unnamed bonus, it's an Int bonus that doesn't stack with other Int bonuses.

Eh. The "Int" bit just refers to where the bonus comes from. Nowhere in the books does it say that it's a distinct type, like enhancement, luck, competence, etc.

So by the book, if you're a duelist/iaijutsu master, you get your Int bonus twice to your AC. This is clearly a stupid result, and thus I say, toss the book. There are always going to be loopholes and other circumstances where the spirit of the rules is counter to the letter. The bag of snails trick is one of them, and this is another.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Eh. The "Int" bit just refers to where the bonus comes from. Nowhere in the books does it say that it's a distinct type, like enhancement, luck, competence, etc.

It's a bonus with a name - to me, that's a named bonus.

A good Dexterity gives you a bonus to AC. What sort of bonus? A Dexterity bonus.

A Duellist gets another bonus to his AC, based on his Intelligence. Waht sort of bonus? An Intelligence bonus.

-Hyp.

 

[hong]

A Duellist gets another bonus to his AC, based on his Intelligence. Waht sort of bonus? An Intelligence bonus.

Yeah, yeah, whatever.

Speaking of duelists, instead of breaking people's branes with this sort of stuff, why not head over to H*use R*les and give me some feedback on yet another swordsman PrC I've come up with:

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=51111

The things I'll do in my copious free time.

 

[Iku Rex]

Would that also apply for identical class features from separate classes? I am thinking of the Int bonus to AC that Duelists and Bladesingers both receive.

Those class features are not identical. However, from http://boards.wizards.com/rpg-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=120;t=000151 .

Posted by Xavier Onasis (Member # 17817) on August 01, 2001, 08:32 AM:

Here's an e-mail I received from The Sage (his response is in BOLD):

I would appreciate it if you would settle an issue which has arisen on the Tome and Blood board.

Does the Bladesinger's Bladesong ability stack with the Duelist's Canny Defense ability?

In other words, is a Bladesinger/Duelist entitled to apply DOUBLE his/her Intelligence modifer to AC?

(The argument is that Bladesong is a dodge bonus, whereas Canny Defense is an unnamed bonus to AC, or is equivalent to the Dex bonus.)

Technically, this argument is valid, but no ability-based defense bonus should stack with a defense bonus based on the same ability.

Oh, well... The monk's Wisdom bonus still stacks, and Duelist/Bladesingers might yet convince their DMs to allow "double-dipping".