Do 2 rings of protected life stack with each other?


Rules Questions

Shadow Lodge

Ring of Protected life adds 5' to the radius of channel, select out one more target with selective channel, and swift channel once per day.

If you are wearing one in each ring slot, do they stack? Does that become a 10' radius increase, select out 2 more people, and 2 swift channels per day?

Grand Lodge

The question for your and your gm is "what is the same source?" Is the "same source" literally the one copy of an item so that two separate copies are two separate sources? Or is the "same source" mean these two things are the same magic item so the benefits are from the same source because they provide the exact same bonus?


In this case, I'd probably say that the two separate rings stack (they're not the same source, and untyped bonuses from different sources stack.) I don't see this as being particularly gamebreaking.

Grand Lodge

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Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
tonyz wrote:
In this case, I'd probably say that the two separate rings stack (they're not the same source, and untyped bonuses from different sources stack.) I don't see this as being particularly gamebreaking.

And I'd say they overlap, because you can't get any more "same source' than two copies of the same magic item.

"Not gamebreaking is not a sufficient reason to break general rules.

The Exchange Owner - D20 Hobbies

No because it is a magical effect that provides the safe effect.

This is identical to Orange Ioun Stone. Unless you just like all 20th level casters casting their spells at caster level 49.


No stacking, never stacking, no double dipping, can't favor players, don't leave the sandbox, no fun allowed... *sigh*

Is that your only reason? That some rulebreakers, when reaching level 20, might suddenly have a litteral cloud of ioun stones giving them such a high CL?

Remember, the GM is there to adjudicate such a ridiculous scenario. For a character who happens to fill his two ring slots with the aforementioned rings, I'd allow it. Two items, two sources.

The items are not the same. If a character has two wands of Fireball, would you decrease the number of charges of both when he uses one?

And, for the record, there are more "same source" than two copies of the same item. What about the same feat?

There are precedents in Law, where restrictive bills pass because of a few troublemakers. I don't want my favourite tabletop game to act like a trial of my players.


LazarX wrote:
tonyz wrote:
In this case, I'd probably say that the two separate rings stack (they're not the same source, and untyped bonuses from different sources stack.) I don't see this as being particularly gamebreaking.

And I'd say they overlap, because you can't get any more "same source' than two copies of the same magic item.

"Not gamebreaking is not a sufficient reason to break general rules.


Think of it like this, do you let two rings of protection stack?

Clearly no, because they give the same bonus type, deflection.

Now imagine the rings gave an untyped bonus to AC, would you let them stack?

The answer should still be no because they're same source of magic. Both are rings of protection, untyped sources usually do stack, but if the untyped bonus is from the same source I'm pretty sure they don't. I believe we have an FAQ to that effect somewhere.

Otherwise, you could have a spell cast on you multiple times that gave an untyped bonus of some sort and just continually stack it. I can't think of a spell that gives an untyped bonus at this time, but I sure there is one.

Now, I don't think this particular example is a problem power wise. Giving up both rings slots (rings have some pretty awesome stuff) to do this isn't going to cause many problems, but I don't think it's permissible under the current rules. I do definitely agree with the sentiment though that letting things work just because it isn't overpowered isn't really a good reason to let it do so.

It wouldn't be overpowered if a fighter got a SLA to cast any 1st level wizards spells for a total of 5 times per day. It'd be really awesome, and wouldn't break the game. But still not in the rules.


Simple answer: rules probably say no. But I'm no lawyer.

But, it's a game, so ask your GM. As others have said, it's not overly powerful and take up both ring slots. In this case, something being gamebreaking *is* relevant since almost all GMs will consider that before adjusting rules.


I disagree that this "isn't game breaking" (well, maybe not breaking, but problematic)...

30ft on an optimized Channel Negative Energy is already fairly powerful for a number of reasons (regardless of your opinion on the merits of such a build). 1 ring makes this better than it should for the cost, but 2 starts to get silly since the total area is going up geometrically.

Now, realistically it is taking up the ring slots, but experienced players will still be able to work within that limitation, if only situationally, to optimize performance (especially given how cheap the item is).
And if you're letting 2 stack, how about 2 more ring slot tattoos for a total of +20ft? (all for 54k gp)


Core rulebook says:

"Bonuses without a type always stack, unless they are from the same source."

So no. They are from the same source, two of the same type of ring, two castings of the same spell, etc. do not stack.

Community & Digital Content Director

Removed some posts and locking. Resurrecting old threads just to argue isn't particularly useful.

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