Say a Halfling Witch has the following feats:
•Malicious Eye (Evil Eye assumed)
•Sluggish Jinx
•Great Fortitude
•Bolster Jinx
So your Evil Eye target takes an additional penalty on Initiative and Attacks equal to your Jinx penalty to saves, thanks to Sluggish Jinx/Malicious Eye. Except the Jinx penalty is different for different saves because of Bolster Jinx + Great Fort.
Assuming lowest values:
Evil Eye is a -2 penalty, and Jinx is a -1 Penalty.
So with Bolster+GF added in, save penalties are:
Fort -5
Ref -3
Will -3
So what is the penalty that is actually applied to Attack/Init values? Do you go with the -3 because that is an actual Jinx value? Or the -1, which is also an actual Jinx value? (Values -2 because Evil Eye must be applied separately to affect Attack and it doesn't affect Init at all.)
Malicious eye says "When a creature fails its save against your evil eye hex, add the effect of your jinx to the effect of the hex."
To me, this reads that you apply the base -1 Jinx penalty to the target's attack and intiative. It doesn't change the value of the jinx penalty, you just apply it in an additional circumstance.
That's exactly how that works, yes.
Bolster Jinx, however, changes the value of your jinx effect, but not entirely across the board (as it depends on which save-bolstering feats you possess). Your "jinx effect" is no longer always a -1, so which value is correct?
-3
Bolster jinx only increase the penalty to saving throws. It is a specific increase in specific circumstances. Your jinx value outside of those circumstances is still -1.
-3
Bolster jinx only increase the penalty to saving throws. It is a specific increase in specific circumstances. Your jinx value outside of those circumstances is still -1.
I'm not really sure what you're saying here, as Jinx normally only affects saving throws.
Sluggish Jinx reads:
Benefit: Your jinx’s penalty on saving throws also applies to the target’s initiative and attack rolls.
So if I have Bolster Jinx, Great Fortitude, Lightning Reflexes, and Iron Will, the "Jinx penalty on saving throws" is very clearly a -3; if you have none of those 3 extra feats, it is clearly a -1.
However, if you only have Bolster and one or two of the other three, then it is no longer obviously a -1 or a -3.
Let me put it another way. A penalty to saving throws is not the same as a penalty to reflex saving throws (for example).
You have a general penalty -1 to all saving throws. In specific circumstances aa specific subset of them gets changed. Your general penalty hasn't changed. Unless an ability refers to the specific, you use the general.
Are you suggesting that if you have all 3 "save increasing" feats, that the penalty remains a -1?
That seems to be your argument, but doesn't follow the wording of the mechanics in question.
It follows EXACTLY the wording of the ability. Even with all 3 each one only affects a single save. Your penalty to ALL saves is still -1. Your penalty to reflex, will & fort are individually -3, but that is not what is asked for.
To be honest in my own game if you had all 3 feats I'd give you the -3, but I don't think it's right.