Temporary Hitpoints

[Rkhet]

Does it stack? How does it stack?

 

[Dracomeander]

As far as I know, temporary hit points don't stack. Only the largest remaining pool is factored in. This means if you have temporary hit points from a source like Vampiric Touch and you use another Vampiric Touch, you compare the remaining temp hp from the previous casting to those you receive from the newest casting. If the newer casting provides a greater total you get that, otherwise the temporary points are lost/wasted, but the damage you did is still valid.

Now temporary boosts to Constitution are not sources of temporary hit points. They are a boost to the inherent toughness of the being. Any damage taken while the Con is boosted carries over to the being when then boost ends. This is why it is dangerous for a barbarian in rage. If he has taken a lot of damage while raging, he may need to be healed at least partially before the rage ends or he could just drop dead when the rage fades away.

 

[Gaiden]

As far as I know, temporary hit points don't stack. Only the largest remaining pool is factored in. This means if you have temporary hit points from a source like Vampiric Touch and you use another Vampiric Touch, you compare the remaining temp hp from the previous casting to those you receive from the newest casting. If the newer casting provides a greater total you get that, otherwise the temporary points are lost/wasted, but the damage you did is still valid.

Now temporary boosts to Constitution are not sources of temporary hit points. They are a boost to the inherent toughness of the being. Any damage taken while the Con is boosted carries over to the being when then boost ends. This is why it is dangerous for a barbarian in rage. If he has taken a lot of damage while raging, he may need to be healed at least partially before the rage ends or he could just drop dead when the rage fades away.

This may seem like a semantics issue but I always read temp hit points overlapping rather than stacking, such that if you had said two vampiric touches, you would have temp hit points from both, but they would overlap so that if you took 5 pts of dmg you would remove 5 temp hit points from both spells.

This matters because in the context of spells such as aid, hero's feast, etc. If you are hit with an area dispel (or a targeted dispel that doesn't get every spell for that matter), you still may have temp hit points rather than losing them because 1 spell would still be up that gave them to you.

 

[Dracomeander]

This may seem like a semantics issue but I always read temp hit points overlapping rather than stacking, such that if you had said two vampiric touches, you would have temp hit points from both, but they would overlap so that if you took 5 pts of dmg you would remove 5 temp hit points from both spells.

This matters because in the context of spells such as aid, hero's feast, etc. If you are hit with an area dispel (or a targeted dispel that doesn't get every spell for that matter), you still may have temp hit points rather than losing them because 1 spell would still be up that gave them to you.

Actually, I believe you are right. I should have used the term overlapping. I did not mean to mislead anyone by the terms 'lost/wasted'. That's what happens when I try to post without sleeping. The brain knows what it means but doesn't express it well.

 

[Mahali]

And they don't stack or overlap at all from the same source.

 

[Hypersmurf]

And they don't stack or overlap at all from the same source.

Which, amusingly, is the opposite of what the 3E Main FAQ had to say on the matter

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.

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.

-Hyp.

 

[Rkhet]

Ah, but that means with Innate False Life I could gain 10000 HP in a single hour, and then, if I have Cosmic Connection, burn it all in a single spell. It'd kill most gods.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Ah, but that means with Innate False Life I could gain 10000 HP in a single hour...

It depends if you consider using the ability twice to be like casting the spell twice or not.

If so, then "nor would the effects of two vampiric touch or aid spells stack" prevents you getting your ten thousand hit points.

-Hyp.

 

[ARandomGod]

Does it stack? How does it stack?

This depends. It's debated too. The most RAW interpretation says that
1) No, it does not stack
2) They overlap in such a way that they might as well stack.

Meaning, no, they don't stack. If you have one effect that grants temp HPs, and you get another, only the largest one at any time is in effect... "active". However, nothing says that other effects are dispelled, they're merely not active unless/until they become the largest effect. If for some reason (like damage taking away temp HP's) the spell that WAS largest becomes smaller, then any spell who's duration has not run out and is therefore still on you will become the largest one, and THAT one becomes the active spell.

As far as I know, temporary hit points don't stack. Only the largest remaining pool is factored in. This means if you have temporary hit points from a source like Vampiric Touch and you use another Vampiric Touch, you compare the remaining temp hp from the previous casting to those you receive from the newest casting. If the newer casting provides a greater total you get that, otherwise the temporary points are lost/wasted, but the damage you did is still valid.

This is a common misinterpretation (or sometimes acknowledged as a house rule). Some people think or want the new casting to dispell the old casting. But really under RAW the less effective spell is still sitting there, waiting for it's opportunity to become the most effective spell.

This may seem like a semantics issue but I always read temp hit points overlapping rather than stacking, such that if you had said two vampiric touches, you would have temp hit points from both, but they would overlap so that if you took 5 pts of dmg you would remove 5 temp hit points from both spells.

This is a more effective interpretation in an attempt to make them 'not stack'. Saying that once they become equal they'll both (all) take that one point of damage. There's nothing to really say one way or another for or against this. It *could* happen this way by RAW. I don't support the interpretation... as this way two or more temp HP's are being used for every HP of damage negated... but it's techically as valid as saying that they overlap and only ONE temp HP is negated for each HP 'absorbed' by a temp HP spell.

And they don't stack or overlap at all from the same source.

And that's just completely invalid.

Ah, but that means with Innate False Life I could gain 10000 HP in a single hour, and then, if I have Cosmic Connection, burn it all in a single spell. It'd kill most gods.

It depends if you consider using the ability twice to be like casting the spell twice or not.

If so, then "nor would the effects of two vampiric touch or aid spells stack" prevents you getting your ten thousand hit points.

-Hyp.

For that matter, so would *my* version of overlapping meantioned above. You'd never have more than d10+10 (max caster level) temp HP's at one time, no matter how often you cast the spell.. ... but if you had cast that spell ten times the overlapping would absorb over 100 points of damage anyway. Since when one spell wore down another would immediantly take precedence.

 

[Rkhet]

Argh. Does anyone know if this question has ever been posed to WotC?