Temporary hit point stacking

[Clumsy Bob]

Do temporary hit points from different sources stack? And what happens to hitpoints gained from a temporary CON increase?
For example, a 12th lvl cleric cast the following spells and gains bonuses shown in brackets.
Heroes feast (10) Divine Power (12) Aid (10) Bears endurence (24)
Do the 32 temporary hit points stack?
After the temporary hit points are lost and damage is taken from the bonus 24 from CON what happens when the spell expires. Is this damage taken from the standard set of hit points?

Thanks for any help,

Bob

 

[Li Shenron]

It doesn't really matter if they stack or overlap, the effect is the same.

If you have 10 thp from source A and 10 thp from source B, you can either say that

a) they stack, so you have 20 thp; if you get 15 damage they go down to 5

b) they overlap, so they are both active at the same time and only the highest "apply": but once the highest is not the highest anymore, the second kicks in

The result should be the same as long as long as the duration of neither has expired.

edit: remember that extra HP from Constitution increase are not really temporary hit points, and you should keep track of them separately

 

[Diirk]

Do temporary hit points from different sources stack? And what happens to hitpoints gained from a temporary CON increase?
For example, a 12th lvl cleric cast the following spells and gains bonuses shown in brackets.
Heroes feast (10) Divine Power (12) Aid (10) Bears endurence (24)
Do the 32 temporary hit points stack?
After the temporary hit points are lost and damage is taken from the bonus 24 from CON what happens when the spell expires. Is this damage taken from the standard set of hit points?

Thanks for any help,

Bob

They overlap, and all Li did was describe stacking in two different ways... it works like this:

Say Bob the lvl 12 cleric with 80 hitpoints casts heroes feast (10), divine power (12) and aid (10), followed by a bears endurance (12 x 2 = 24), he now has 104 normal hitpoints + 12 temporary = 116 hitpoints.

He gets hit by a sword for 5 damage, the damage is taken off temporary hitpoints first... so he still has 104 normal hitpoints and the overlapping temporary hitpoint buffs look like this: heroes feast (5), divine power (7), aid (5)... 7 still being the best of these he now has 111 hitpoints. If he took another 6 points of damage, his temporary hitpoints from heroes feast and aid would both be gone, leaving only 1 temporary hitpoint from divine power. So essentially, only the highest result matters.

So Bob has 104 normal hitpoints and 1 temporary hitpoint left. Now he gets fireballed for 40 damage, leaving 65 normal hitpoints out of 104. Now someone dispels his Bear's Endurance. Extra hitpoints from con aren't taken first... so when his con drops, so do his current hitpoints. His maximum hitpoints is back down to 80, and he's now got 41 hitpoints, not 65. If you get low enough on hitpoints, you can fall unconcious or even die when you lose that extra con.

Hope that helped !

 

[Black Knight Irios]

As Diirk said, nothing to add at all.

 

[Li Shenron]

Say Bob the lvl 12 cleric with 80 hitpoints casts heroes feast (10), divine power (12) and aid (10), followed by a bears endurance (12 x 2 = 24), he now has 104 normal hitpoints + 12 temporary = 116 hitpoints.

He gets hit by a sword for 5 damage, the damage is taken off temporary hitpoints first... so he still has 104 normal hitpoints and the overlapping temporary hitpoint buffs look like this: heroes feast (5), divine power (7), aid (5)... 7 still being the best of these he now has 111 hitpoints. If he took another 6 points of damage, his temporary hitpoints from heroes feast and aid would both be gone, leaving only 1 temporary hitpoint from divine power. So essentially, only the highest result matters.

This is the opposite of what I meant.

IMHO, the damage reduces only one source of temporary hit points (the highest, if you wish), and not all three.

The part about Constitution-granted HP is correct. If you feel like, you may want to write down those extra HP from Con apart from your total HPs. I have found out that it works easier for me. If you have for example 80 normal HP and get 24 from +2 in Constitution, I don't bother changing HP to 104 in the character sheet, but instead I write down that extra 24 somewhere; then I remember that if you fall below 0 but down to -23 or less you are still conscious (or disabled at -24) as long as your Con doesn't drop back.

 

[Darklone]

b) they overlap, so they are both active at the same time and only the highest "apply": but once the highest is not the highest anymore, the second kicks in

Usually not. The damage is substracted from all sources, so the second will never kick in.

This hasn't been clarified, but usually most people here agreed on that handling.

 

[strongbow]

There was a Sage ruling on Temp Hit Points recently. I don't know where to find it, but maybe someone else can direct you to it. From what I understand, he ruled that temp hp from different sources do stack. 10 temp hp from Aid +10 hp from Heroes Feast equals 20 hp. When hit for 5 pts, you have 15 temp hp left.

 

[shilsen]

There was a Sage ruling on Temp Hit Points recently. I don't know where to find it, but maybe someone else can direct you to it. From what I understand, he ruled that temp hp from different sources do stack. 10 temp hp from Aid +10 hp from Heroes Feast equals 20 hp. When hit for 5 pts, you have 15 temp hp left.

Here's a reply from the 3e (not 3.5) FAQ:

Q: How is the body feeder weapon quality supposed to work? Do the temporary hit points from the weapon stack? The same question applies to mind feeder weapons and to spell effects, such as vampiric touch.

A: Temporary hit points from a body feeder weapon stack with each other, but not with temporary hit points from any other source. Likewise, temporary psionic points from a mind feeder weapon stack, but not with temporary psionic points from any other source.

In general, any effect that allows you to gain temporary hit points over time allows you to stack those points, but only those points. For example, if you use the vampiric touch spell, the temporary hit points you gain from that particular casting of the spell stack. They don’t stack with the temporary hit points you get from an aid spell, nor would the effects of two vampiric touch or aid spells stack. If you were to use two body feeder weapons (or two mind feeder weapons), you could not stack the temporary points from the two weapons.

 

[Darklone]

See the similar thread about Divine Vigor right now.

 

[Henrix]

As far as I can see there's nothing that says temp hp won't stack. They are generally an unnamed bonus.

Effects from different castings of the same spell (or multiple uses of Divine Vigor) never stacks, however.