Yes, but they definitely shouldn’t. Aura of protection is hardly 5e D&D’s most glamorous ability, but gameplay shows it be one of the most powerful tools in the game (….as if the paladin doesn’t have enough of those already, with the insanely overpowered (IMHO) divine smite and lay on hands).
One aura of protection already provides a massive boost to a party in almost every combat, but once you’ve got two paladins in your party things get insane. Just by staying tight, the whole party could constantly be benefiting from +6 on every saving throw!
And it’s not just an adventuring consideration. What happens if the PCs need to take out a cadre of four evil paladins? Provided the bad guys stayed close to one another, they could easily be getting +12 on their saving throws… I wouldn’t want to be a caster charged with facing them!
Anyway, you probably don’t need any convincing… you’ve already experienced it for yourself, and that’s why you’re here. Well here’s a little house rule you can use to lessen the effect.
- Multiple auras of protections don’t stack if the paladins worship different gods. The creature in question can benefit from just the strongest aura.
- Where two or more auras of protection of paladins who worship the same god overlap, a creature benefits from the strongest aura, with an additional +1 bonus for every extra aura they are overlapped by.
Chaosryzen
both mikemerl and crawford in the link you provided said that auras dont stack as per the PHB and only if u want to house rule it that way would it. So i dont see what the problem is.
duncan
Hi Chaosryzen,
Jeremy Crawford says: “Identical spells don’t stack (PH, 205), but nothing stops the auras from stacking. Could always house rule it.”
I.e. they do stack in the rules as written, but he says if you don’t like that you could house rule that they don’t.
Crawford is overruling Mearls on this to say they DO stack.
https://www.sageadvice.eu/2015/08/18/does-paladins-aura-of-protection-stack/
Cheers
d
Jak
I know this is an old post, but errata has been released that says they don’t stack. http://media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/DND/DMG-Errata.pdf
Jack
Errata was released back in 2016 to say that they don’t stack. http://media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/DND/DMG-Errata.pdf
Forgive me if this was posted before. I didn’t see my post after it was submitted.
duncan
Hi Jack, sorry never replied. But appreciate you posting this!