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If a Nabassu (Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes) were to use its Devour Soul feature:

A nabassu can eat the soul of a creature it has killed within the last hour, provided that creature is neither a construct nor an undead. The devouring requires the nabassu to be within 5 feet of the corpse for at least 10 minutes, after which it gains a number of Hit Dice (d8s) equal to half the creature's number of Hit Dice. Roll those dice, and increase the nabassu's hit points by the numbers rolled. For every 4 Hit Dice the nabassu gains in this way, its attacks deal an extra 3 (1d6) damage on a hit. The nabassu retains these benefits for 6 days. A creature devoured by a nabassu can be restored to life only by a wish spell.

Can it only increase it's hit dice once from the strongest creature it has devoured or does the effect trigger repeatedly for multiple creatures? (i.e. does it stack for each 2+ hit dice creature it uses this feature on)

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    \$\begingroup\$ This question inspired a question of my own that might be of interest to you: Do Monsters gain Maximum HP when they gain Hit Dice?. If you're like me, you'll be surprised to learn that gaining Hit Dice does not increase maximum hit points. It only increases current hit points (which is also confirmed in the text for the Devour Soul) \$\endgroup\$
    – Andrendire
    Jan 7, 2020 at 23:59
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Clearer Please do not answer in comments (even partially), we try to not do that here. \$\endgroup\$
    – NautArch
    Jan 13, 2020 at 20:30

1 Answer 1

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Yes.

From the description of the creatures ability states that it grants actual an hit dice increase, and there is no rule restricting accumulation of these. Since the hit dice are temporary, it can only stack so much at any given time. If these were temporary hit points, instead of actual hit dice, we would know that it does not stack, due to the Temporary Hit Points rule, but they aren't, so that doesn't apply.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Are you taking into consideration the rule on "Combining Game Effects" added in DMG errata? \$\endgroup\$
    – V2Blast
    Jan 14, 2020 at 0:58
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    \$\begingroup\$ "Different game features can affect a target at the same time. But when two or more game features have the same name, only the effects of one of them—the most potent one—apply while the durations of the effects overlap. For example, if a target is ignited by a fire elemental’s Fire Form trait, the ongoing fire damage doesn’t increase if the burning target is subjected to that trait again. Game features include spells, class features, feats, racial traits, monster abilities, and magic items." \$\endgroup\$
    – V2Blast
    Jan 14, 2020 at 0:58

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