Does Glue Seal stack with Web?

Question

The rules text for both spells is fairly identical:

Glue Seal:

Anyone in the area when the spell is cast must attempt a Reflex save. Those who fail become entangled, but can break free by succeeding at a combat maneuver check or an Escape Artist check as a standard action against the DC of this spell. The area of the spell is considered difficult terrain. A creature moving through the glue must succeed at a combat maneuver check or an Escape Artist check as part of its move action (DC = the spell’s DC). Creatures that fail lose their movement and become entangled in the first square they enter.

Web:

If the save fails, the creature gains the grappled condition, but can break free by making a combat maneuver check or Escape Artist check as a standard action against the DC of this spell. The entire area of the web is considered difficult terrain. Anyone moving through the webs must make a combat maneuver check or Escape Artist check as part of their move action, with a DC equal to the spell’s DC. Creatures that fail lose their movement and become grappled in the first square of webbing that they enter.

So if I web someone, then glue seal them, are they making one check to escape the glue, and one check to escape the web? Or is this a case where the effects are similar enough that the web merely overrides the less powerful glue?

Answer 1

Glue Seal and Web stack

The rule for spells stacking is:

Spells that provide bonuses or penalties on attack rolls, damage rolls, saving throws, and other attributes usually do not stack with themselves. More generally, two bonuses of the same type don’t stack even if they come from different spells (or from effects other than spells; see Bonus Types, above).

Here, these spells do not have the same name, and they do not provide bonuses of the same type, so they stack. A spell would need to say explicitly that it does not stack with similar effects for that rule to apply, and these do not say that.

If you have two spells with effects other than bonuses and those spells or effects are called out not to stack, that means that the effects that apply to the same rules component or situation do not stack, so if they apply different non-bonus effects to the same rules component, the most recent spell takes precedent. For example, aspect of the falcon specifically doesn’t stack with any other effect that expands the threat range of a weapon, such as Improved Critical or keen.

Note that there is only "difficult terrain", no extra difficult terrain. Terrain is either difficult, or not, so that effect does not stack. Both spells just cause the area to be difficult terrain, with an additional movement cost of 2 as normal for difficult terrain.