Stupid Question

[Berserk Monk]

Do ability bonus from magical items stack? I once had a character with a belt of giant strength and gauntlets of ogre strength and my friend told me the bonuses don't stack. I just wanted to see if he was right.

[Foryn Gilnith]

They're both enhancement bonuses, and do not stack. If you somehow got an item that gave a sacred bonus to Strength, it would stack.

[The White Knight]

Read this section, and pay heed to the types of bonuses that your items grant you.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/thebasics.htm#stacking

[Shpadoinkle]

Your friend is right. Named bonuses of the same type to the same thing don't stack. There are two exeptions that I'm aware of.

The first exception is the armor bonus granted by armor, and the armor bonus granted by shields. They stack. Note this only applies to 3.0 though- in 3.5, shields provide a shield bonus

The other exception is Dodge bonuses, which all stack with other Dodge bonuses.

Also note unnamed and/or untyped bonuses all stack with each other and everything else.

So if you're wearing a belt that grants a +2 enhancement bonus to Strength, and gloves that grant a +4 enhancement bonus to Strength, then you'd effectively only get the bonus from the gloves because they're both providing the same type of bonus to the same thing, but the gloves provide a larger bonus, so you use that one. Now if you traded your gloves for a pair that provided a +4 enhancement bonus to Dexterity, then you'd gain the benefit from them AND the belt's +2 to Strength, because even though they're providing the same type of bonus, they're affecting different things.

[Roderick_BR]

A little more info: AC bonus from shields are now actually named "Shield bonus to AC", so it's easier to remember that it stacks with "Armor bonus to AC".

Yes, all dodge bonus stacks.

The bonus from the gauntlets and the belt doesn't stack. However, there's a minor artifact, Hammer of Thunderbolts, whose one of it's abilities is to let a Gantlets of Ogre Power and a Girdle of Giant Strentgh to actually stack.