Advanced - Effects

What is an Effect ?

Simply put, an Effect is something that will change any value related to your character. For instance, when you wear a Belt of Giant Strength, your character will gain more strength: the "effect" in this case, is an increase in Strength for your character. If you have the Agile feat, then your character will receive +2 bonus on all Listen checks and Spot checks. So both "Listen" and "Spot" have effects that increases those skills for your character.

But the complexity of D&D3.5 does not come from adding simple number to your character - but rather the interaction of all these numbers when they are coming from different sources. In some case, these numbers CANNOT be added together, while in other case, you CAN add these bonuses together: This is called the Stacking Rules, and is what makes TOS+ stand out from almost everything else.

Stacking Rules ?

Let's begin by examining the stacking rules. In D&D, your character gains bonuses from various sources. Magical Rings, Shields, or even Class Features can give your character a bonus on something. In D&D, the makers decided to create many different 'types' of bonuses, and they also provided details so we can know if a specific type can be stacked (meaning added) to something else which provides a similar bonus (meaning of the same type). The best way to understand this is with this example: Let say Brak the barbarian (Famous Last words: "Brak? What a stupid name for a Barbarian!") owns a nice pair of Gauntlets of Ogre power. If you read the description of those, you get " a +2 enhancement bonus to his Strength score". So these Gauntlets give a +2 to Brak's Strength score in the form of an enhancement bonus. After some adventuring, Brak get hold of a Belt of giant Strength +4 and happily wears that to get more bang for the buck! The description of the belt says "The belt adds to the wearer’s Strength score in the form of an enhancement bonus of +4". One might be tempted to claim that Brak now has a +6 bonus to Strength score: +2 from his Gauntlets, and +4 from the new Belt. Alas, the stacking rules specify that enhancement bonuses do not stack. So Brak is actually getting a +4 bonus to his Strength score, instead of a +6 (the effect of the Gauntlets should be ignored)

The core mechanics of the game explain how stacking works:

Definition of Stacking

In most cases, modifiers to a given check or roll stack (combine for a cumulative effect) if they come from different sources and have different types (or no type at all), but do not stack if they have the same type or come from the same source (such as the same spell cast twice in succession). If the modifiers to a particular roll do not stack, only the best bonus or worst penalty applies. Dodge bonuses, racial bonuses, and circumstance bonuses however, do stack with one another unless otherwise specified.

So the Stacking Rule is actually quite simple: No bonuses stack, except for Dodge, Racial and Circumstance bonuses. So this is part of the Magic that the Parse Effect function handles. It will take into account the stacking rules, so whenever your character gains bonuses that should NOT stack, the Sheet will handle them accordingly!

The Types

Ok so we have seen that the stacking rules prevent bonuses of the same type (with a couple of exceptions) from being added. Now let us look at all the Types that Parse Effect can handle - you will see that a few more were added to allow some very powerful parsing! But first: What the heck does Parse Effect means anyways??

The Parse Effect name: The Parse Effect name is twofold: Parse means "To examine closely or subject to detailed analysis, especially by breaking up into components". Effect means "any condition that change a numerical value related to your Character" (like getting a +2 to your Strength score because your character is wearing Gauntlets of Ogre Power). So in essence, Parse Effect will breakdown all the Effects applied to your Character, analyze them and come up with a total result, taking into account the Stacking Rules! Simple eh?

The Available Types

There are basically three types used within Parse Effect. The stackable Types, the non-stackable types and the special types. Let's look at the first two types that Parse Effect can handle.

Table: The stackable and non-stackable Types

Available Types	Does it Stack?		Available Types	Does it Stack?
Alchemical	No		Luck	No
Armor	No		Morale	No
Circumstance	Yes		Profane	No
Competence	No		Racial	Yes
Deflection	No		Resistance	No
Dexterity	No		Sacred	No
Dodge	Yes		Shield	No
Enhancement	No		Size	No
Inherent	No		Unnamed	Yes
Insight	No

So as you can see, most types do not stack, with the four exceptions listed above.

The "Natural Armor" type is not defined as it is specific to Armor. If you need to affect the natural armor, use the "Natural Armor" effect to do so! Note that Natural Armor stacks with any other armor bonus the character has.

What should I do when I have an Effect with a type that does not normally stack, but the description of that ability specifically says that it stacks? Simple! If it should always stack, even with the same typed bonus, use 'Unnamed' instead!