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The Undead warlock patron option found in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft includes the following text in the description of its level 1 feature "Form of Dread":

You manifest an aspect of your patron’s dreadful power. As a bonus action, you transform for 1 minute. You gain the following benefits while transformed:

  • You gain temporary hit points equal to 1d10 + your warlock level.
  • Once during each of your turns, when you hit a creature with an attack roll, you can force it to make a Wisdom saving throw, and if the saving throw fails, the target is frightened of you until the end of your next turn.
  • You are immune to the frightened condition.

[...]

The feature doesn't state that any conditions under which it ends before the 1-minute duration is up.

Is it possible to use this feature again to enter the state again before the minute is up (despite already being transformed), in order to gain temporary hit points again?

V2Blast
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Smart_TJ
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1 Answers1

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Yes, but their benefits don't stack

You are combining game effects (DMG, p. 252), so only the most potent one happen while the durations overlap.

So, you get the greater of the temporary hit points from the 2 instances of Form of Dread and one frightening attack per turn while the durations overlap, and the temporary hit points of the second one when the first one ends. (You can only be immune to a condition once anyway, so it's meaningless for it to stack with itself.)

V2Blast
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Dale M
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  • I recognize the combining game effects part, as is the reason why I specified the temporary hit points as being the reason I am asking, but could I ask for a source for why you can activate it while it is already activated, or at least a line of reasoning? – Smart_TJ Oct 05 '21 at 22:21
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    Why do you think you can’t? There are no hidden rules so show me the rule that prevents it. – Dale M Oct 05 '21 at 22:33
  • @Smart_TJ You already quoted the rule that says you can. The abilities description says you do it as a bonus action, without any other specified limit. – indigochild Oct 05 '21 at 23:36
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    It says that you enter the state as a bonus action, but what happens if you are already in the state? Can you enter a state that you are already in? I'll update the question to make this more clear. – Smart_TJ Oct 06 '21 at 01:12