D&D 3E/3.5 Temporary Hit Points under 3.5, not-stacking reference?

[Arabesu]

Under 3.0 it was pretty clear that temporary hit points didn't stack. I.e. casting the new spell False Life would only provide the caster with the better result of the two castings, not the additive result of the two castings.

However, I can't seem to find the exact page or quote, in either the SRD or the PHB where this is handled. Did this change with the revised rules or am I just clueless as to where this is located?

 

[DarkMaster]

Under 3.0 it was pretty clear that temporary hit points didn't stack. I.e. casting the new spell False Life would only provide the caster with the better result of the two castings, not the additive result of the two castings.

However, I can't seem to find the exact page or quote, in either the SRD or the PHB where this is handled. Did this change with the revised rules or am I just clueless as to where this is located?

Bonus of the same nature don't stack. Two bonus from the same spell therefore don't stack

 

[Ovinomancer]

I would agree with you Dark, but the bonus in the spell description is unnamed. Unnamed bonuses do stack.

I can't find the reference either, but I didn't spend much time looking for it.

 

[Artoomis]

I would agree with you Dark, but the bonus in the spell description is unnamed. Unnamed bonuses do stack.

I can't find the reference either, but I didn't spend much time looking for it.

Even unnamed bonuse from the same spell don't stack. Sometimes they might, but then it will be clear from the spell description.

From SRD:

Stacking Effects: Spells that provide bonuses or penalties on attack rolls, damage rolls, saving throws, and other attributes usually do not stack with themselves...

 

[James McMurray]

IIRC one of the recent Rules of the Game articles expanded that to include all unnamaed bonuses, rather than just bonuses from the same spell. Thus 2 defending weapons wouldn't stack, nor would 2 burnt orange ioun stones. It could just be me misrembering though.

 

[jgsugden]

But, the question that needs to be asked with regards to temporary hit points and stacking: Would the temporary hit points from two different sources stack? Perhaps false life and tenser's transformation?

Here, they would stack (because they come from different sources) unless there is a rule prohibiting them from stacking ...

 

[Plane Sailing]

I would have thought that although they don't stack they do run in parallel, so if you got 12 temp hp from one, and 10 from another you would be running at +12 temp hp, but when you lost 8 of those from a sword blow you would be at +10 from the second casting (since it overlaps with the first).

In other words, for all effects I can think of apart from the death domains death touch and power word spells the temp hit points might as well be considered as stacking because functionally that is what happens. You wouldn't get +22 to your hp total from my example above, but you would lose 22 temp hp before you start losing your real hp.

To my mind the key issue is that like spells overlap. (e.g. gauntlets of Str +2 and Bulls Str spell +4 gives you +4 while the spell is in effect but +2 when it wears off or gets dispelled etc... both magical effects coexist. In 3e where you rolled for bulls str you could get two copies of it running on you at once but only gained the greater effect until that version of the spell expired). Temp hp are more tricky of course, because they are a unique kind of resource.

(BTW add in vampiric touch to the question too, if someone doesn't allow a bigger temp hp buffer)

Cheers

 

[The Souljourner]

Please note, they say "bonuses" don't stack... the effect of false life isn't a bonus, it gives you temporary hitpoints. If it were a +3 bonus to your Con, then yeah, it wouldn't stack. But it's not, it's temporary hitpoints. And as Plane Sailing said, it doesn't even matter if you rule that they don't stack, by the nature of the spells, they do stack.... once one goes away, the other one is still affecting you, so it comes into effect.

One thing you should take into consideration, if temporary hitpoints from the same source don't stack, then a creature who gains temporary hitpoints when it uses its ability drain attack wouldn't get more than one attack's worth of temporary hitpoints.

Personally, I don't see why temporary hitpoints wouldn't just stack. Nothing says they shouldn't.

This has been debated many times, and no one's mind is ever changed, because there's nothing in the rules that tell you what the answer is.

-The Souljourner

 

[James McMurray]

Could someone with search access post a link to the last time this was talked about? I was trying to write an explanation but realized halfway through that others have explaied it much better than I can, nd that my convulted example was confusing me, and so probably wouldn't be worth much.