Temp HP stacking

barabelsftw

First Post
Ok this is going to be a long and somewhat complicated question. Apologies in advance:

I have a player who rolled up a minotaur battlerager fighter in my campaign. Normally temporary hit points don't stack but because he took the battlerager class feature, he gets temporary health points equal to his Con modifier everytime he's hit by a melee or a close attack. He also can stack temporary health points from his battlerager class feature with the temporary health points he gets from invigorating powers. He has a Con mod of +4 and took the feat that allows him to add 1 temp hp to the battlerager and invigorating features so whenever he gets hit or when he hits with an invigorating power he gets 5 temp hp and they stack with each other!

My question is when the player has 10 temp hp (5 from invigorating and 5 from the battlerager feature) and takes less than 10 damage, which area of temporary hp is reduced first? I know this may not seem like a big deal but it can make a big difference depending on what the fighter was damaged with.

Lets say the fighter takes 7 damage from a melee attack:
If he reduces 5 from battlerager and 2 from invigorating, he'll get the 5 back and have 8 temp health points.
If he reduces 5 from invigorating and 2 from battlerager he'll still get 5 more temp hp from his battlerager ability but it replaces the 3 so he'll only have 5 temporary hp.

If the 7 damage came from an area attack his battlerager doesn't trigger but if he hits with an invigorating power on his next turn he could either have 8 hp if he reduced from invigorating first, or 5 if he reduced from battlerager first.

My thought is to reduce the temp hp in the order it was gained. If he got 5 temp hp from battlerager, then 5 from invigorating, and then took 8 damage then battlerager's temp hp would be reduced first. It would seems too overpowered to me to always allow the player to decide which of the two to reduce first. Am I understanding this correctly?
 

log in or register to remove this ad

He doesn't actually get to stack temporary hit points, he gets to add some additional temps when he uses an Invigorating power, essentially whether he hits or misses. All stacking of temps went the way of the dodo, quite a while back. If he gains new temps then he gets the greater of the two; what he just earned, or what he already had.
 

he gets temporary health points equal to his Con modifier everytime he's hit by a melee or a close attack.

No, this has been updated not too long after MP came out. The new text for the relevant rule is:

Whenever you hit an enemy with a melee or a close attack, you gain temporary hit points equal to your Constitution modifier, plus any temporary hit points normally granted by the power. You gain the hit points only after the attack is resolved.

There are not multiple pools of temporary hit points. There is only one pool. The above should make everything clearer.
 

Regular (non-invigorating) attacks
1a. If he hits an enemy with a regular melee or close attack he should end up with 4 THP or his current THP, whichever is greater.

1b. If he misses an enemy with a regular melee or close attack he should end up with his current THP.

Invigorating attacks
2a. If he hits an enemy with an invigorating melee or close attack he should end up with 9 THP or his current THP, whichever is greater.

2b. If he misses all enemies with an invigorating melee or close attack he should end up with 5 THP or his current THP, whichever is greater.

(Keep in mind Improved Vigor only gives bonus THP when an invigorating power is used, hence why 1a only gives 4 THP.)
 


Pets & Sidekicks

Remove ads

Top