Constitution damage and magical item

[nogoodscallywag]

Would a Belt of Mighty Constitution prevent CON from actually reaching zero?

For example, if a character has a Con belt +5...if his CON was already 5 and he suffered CON damage of 5... it would stay at 5 all the time, correct?

[Gilfalas]

nogoodscallywag wrote:

Would a Belt of Mighty Constitution prevent CON from actually reaching zero?

For example, if a character has a Con belt +5...if his CON was already 5 and he suffered CON damage of 5... it would stay at 5 all the time, correct?

No. A magic item that increase stats does only that. Increases it. It in no way makes you immune to stat damage or gives you a minimum value it can go to.

In y our example the character would have a constitution of 10 while wearing the belt and would have 5 left after taking 5 con damage. If he took another 5 con damage he would die.

[Jiggy]

Nitpick: CON damage doesn't actually lower your CON. If you have 10 CON and take 7 CON damage, you don't have 3 CON: you have 10 CON and 7 CON damage.

[nogoodscallywag]

I was actually thinking in terms of being resurrected....the one point of CON lost...if a guy actually ended up dying that many times and rezzing...

[Mike Lindner]

nogoodscallywag wrote:

I was actually thinking in terms of being resurrected....the one point of CON lost...if a guy actually ended up dying that many times and rezzing...

Permanent negative levels cannot kill you in that way, only if you accrue as many negative levels as your hit dice.

Energy Drain and Negative Levels wrote:

For each negative level a creature has, it takes a cumulative -1 penalty on all ability checks, attack rolls, combat maneuver checks, Combat Maneuver Defense, saving throws, and skill checks.

Note that you don't take penalties to your ability scores, only ability checks.

[nogoodscallywag]

Jiggy wrote:

Nitpick: CON damage doesn't actually lower your CON. If you have 10 CON and take 7 CON damage, you don't have 3 CON: you have 10 CON and 7 CON damage.

But won't you die when you receive 10 CON damage?

[nogoodscallywag]

RULE:

Ability Score Damage

Diseases, poisons, spells, and other abilities can all deal damage directly to your ability scores. This damage does not actually reduce an ability, but it does apply a penalty to the skills and statistics that are based on that ability.

For every 2 points of damage you take to a single ability, apply a –1 penalty to skills and statistics listed with the relevant ability. If the amount of ability damage you have taken equals or exceeds your ability score, you immediately fall unconscious until the damage is less than your ability score. The only exception to this is your Constitution score. *****If the damage to your Constitution is equal to or greater than your Constitution score, you die. *****Unless otherwise noted, damage to your ability scores is healed at the rate of 1 per day to each ability score that has been damaged. Ability damage can be healed through the use of spells, such as lesser restoration.

[spalding]

To be clear:

PC1 -- 10 Con no belt. Takes 7 points of Con damage, hurts but is okay.
PC2 -- 10 Con no belt. Takes 10 points of Con Damage, is dead.
PC3 -- 10 Con +4 belt. Takes 10 points of Con Damage, hurts but is okay.
PC4 -- 10 Con +4 belt. Takes 14 points of Con Damage, is dead.