D&D 5E Stacking False Life...

[Herosmith14]

So, in a campaign that I play in, our warlock took Fiendish Vigor, and realized that it's the most broken invocation ever. No where in the False Life description does it say anything about it not being able to stack or require concentration. This allowed him to amass temp hp in between a string of combats to the point of where he had a total of 75+ hp, at level 4. Despite the fact that it saved us from a TPK in our last session, this is obviously extremely over powered. I imagine that False Life doesn't have a stacking rule because it normally would be limited by spell slots, and they forgot about the invocation during the final balancing. I wouldn't necessarily mind if this went unchecked, but I do homebrew modules when our DM can't be there, so this will undoubtedly come back to bite me. Thought?

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Temporary hit points never, ever stack. You can choose to gain the new pool instead of the old pool each time you generate new THP.

 

[Caliban]

It doesn't mention it in the False Life spell because there is a general rule regarding temp HP: They never stack.

When you get new temp HP, you decide if you want to keep the old temps, or get the new temps.

Temporary Hit Points

Some spells and special abilities confer temporary hit points to a creature. Temporary hit points aren't actual hit points; they are a buffer against damage, a pool of hit points that protect you from injury.

When you have temporary hit points and take damage, the temporary hit points are lost first, and any leftover damage carries over to your normal hit points. For example, if you have 5 temporary hit points and take 7 damage, you lose the temporary hit points and then take 2 damage.

Because temporary hit points are separate from your actual hit points, they can exceed your hit point maximum. A character can, therefore, be at full hit points and receive temporary hit points.

Healing can't restore temporary hit points, and they can't be added together. If you have temporary hit points and receive more of them, you decide whether to keep the ones you have or to gain the new ones. For example, if a spell grants you 12 temporary hit points when you already have 10, you can have 12 or 10, not 22.

If you have 0 hit points, receiving temporary hit points doesn't restore you to consciousness or stabilize you. They can still absorb damage directed at you while you're in that state, but only true healing can save you.

Unless a feature that grants you temporary hit points has a duration, they last until they're depleted or you finish a long rest.

 

[Nevvur]

Refer the player and the DM to page 198 of the PHB.

 

[Herosmith14]

Ok thanks


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[Eltab]

There was a thread a while back because a Warlock was using this invocation to repeat-cast False Life until he rolled the max THP - then he would be ready to go adventuring. How long will this take? Varies every time; might be one casting or it might take hours.
Try that trick inside a half-cleaned-out dungeon and see what the monsters do - not 'wait outside the door until you are done'!

As noted above, THP do not work the way he thinks they do. You could re-write the invocation so that it ritual-casts the spell and gets max THP from it; talk with him about 'changing the rules' (because you would be) on him.

 

[neogod22]

There was a thread a while back because a Warlock was using this invocation to repeat-cast False Life until he rolled the max THP - then he would be ready to go adventuring. How long will this take? Varies every time; might be one casting or it might take hours.
Try that trick inside a half-cleaned-out dungeon and see what the monsters do - not 'wait outside the door until you are done'!

As noted above, THP do not work the way he thinks they do. You could re-write the invocation so that it ritual-casts the spell and gets max THP from it; talk with him about 'changing the rules' (because you would be) on him.

The way I feel this should be handled outside of combat is, just give him the max 8 temps. If he tries and cast it combat, then roll and take the result. The same with mage armor. It last 8 hours, the player only has to state once, "I will always have mage armor up" and I'll play it as he cast the spell every 8 hrs. I'm not going to check the time and say, your spell is down, you've been hit. Wizards, are going to have to time it since they do have to spend spell slots, but for free to cast spells, players should not have to feel restricted.

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[Caliban]

There was a thread a while back because a Warlock was using this invocation to repeat-cast False Life until he rolled the max THP - then he would be ready to go adventuring. How long will this take? Varies every time; might be one casting or it might take hours.

Since it's a 1 action casting time and you only roll 1d4+4...it's incredibly unlikely that it will take more than a few castings (i.e. 30 seconds or less) to get max temp HP.

Just count them as having 8 temps if they have a minute or so to keep casting it. If they are actually in combat, have them roll.