I know that this seems like a fairly sophomoric question, but is it really possible for a planet to have more essential dignities in a certain location than the ruler of the sign?

Well, there are some places in the zodiac where a planet that is not the ruler of the sign has more essential dignity than the sign ruler. For example, at 19 Capricorn, by Lilly's rules, Mars has 2 for ruling the face, 3 for ruling the term, and 4 for being the exalted ruler of the sign. That's 9, more than Saturn's 5. So at that location, would Mars briefly have more 'say' than Saturn? Or is it a case where sign rulership always trumps any other rulership?

If a planet rules both the term and the face, does this give it as much dignity as the sign ruler?

I have an interesting oddity in my natal chart, by the way. My Sun and my Jupiter are both ruled by Mars by term and face, and my Moon by Saturn, term and face--and I have Mars and Saturn conjunct.

astroswift wrote: is it really possible for a planet to have more essential dignities in a certain location than the ruler of the sign?

Yes it's called almuten. (see the glossary) The planet with the most essential strength at that degree. Usually it's the ruling planet of the sign, but not always.

You can have the almuten of "something" as well, see Omar of Tiberius. I'm working on calculating the almuten of luck for my own natal. : )