I'm stumped on this. Do the magic items work retroactively or not? Is it supposed that when a character gains a level that he benefits from the raised ability score forever after, until he discards the item or switches to a better one?
Let's say that a 5th level fighter finds a Belt of Mighty Constitution +2. Does that retroactively affect his hitpoints so that when he dons the belt he gains +5 max hp on the spot? Or does he just get +1 hitpoint? What if he levels up? Does he get this bonus point as long as he has the belt?
Same thing goes for other stat raising magic items. Wizard gets Headband of Itellect +2. Retroactive skillpoints or not? More skillpoints per level or not?
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/basics-ability-scores/ability-scores
The thing you want to pay attention to is the differences between Temporary and Permanent bonuses to stats.
When you first put on a belt, you're treated as if the ability score bonus was a Temporary one. After 24 hours pass, you treat it as a Permanent bonus.
So with your examples, if you put on a Constitution belt, after 24 hours, you'd instantly get more HP. However, even after 24 hours, an Intelligence headband would not give you retroactive skill points, but from then on you would get more skill points as normal.
What my question is, is how do you deal with needing to take your equipment off to, say, bathe or to sleep? Do you have to wear it for a whole other 24 hours to get the permanent bonuses again?
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Everything is retroactive. A 5th level fighter putting on an item that grants +2 constitution (An so raises his Con modifier by +1) gains 5 hit points. If he becomes 6th level, he now gets a total of +6 hit points from the item.
However, an Intelligence boosting item does not actually grant retroactive skill points. Instead, it has a specific skill (or skills) assigned to it. If you wear the Int boosting item for at least 24 hours, the item will grant you a number of ranks in those specific skills equal to your hit dice. (So a 5th level fighter, with a +2 Int booster with the Knowledge(Religion) skill, wears the item for 24 hours. As long as he continues to wear it, he is treated as having 5 ranks in Knowledge (Religion).)
In any case, if you ever remove the item (or its deactivated somehow), all those retroactive bonuses disappear until the item is functioning again (temporary bonuses only - you must still wear the item for another 24 hours to get the full effects.)
In any case, if you ever remove the item (or its deactivated somehow), all those retroactive bonuses disappear until the item is functioning again.
So you wouldn't have to wait a whole other 24 straight hours to get the permanent bonuses back? You just put the items back on and you're good to go?
Constitution's HP bonus is "per hit die" - any effect that affects Constitution will increase/decrease target's HP per die (i.e. reducing a 25HD creature's Con by 4 will, effectively, drop its HP by 50).
In case of magical item, the situation is the same. If a lvl 7 character with Con11 puts on a Belt of Con +2 (Con 13) he will add 7HP to his max. When he gains 8th level and increases his Con to 12 (14 with Belt), he'll gain total of 9 bonus HP - 8 for his increased natural Con of 12, and 1 for the 8th HD of the +1 bonus from belt. (Huh, that's some odd phrasing, I should go to bed.)
As far as Headband of Vast Intelligence and skillpoints go, things are slightly different; to quote RAW:
A headband of vast intelligence has one skill associated with it per +2 bonus it grants. After being worn for 24 hours, the headband grants a number of skill ranks in those skills equal to the wearer's total Hit Dice. These ranks do not stack with the ranks a creature already possesses. These skills are chosen when the headband is created. If no skill is listed, the headband is assumed to grant skill ranks in randomly determined Knowledge skills.
So, if your 5th lvl Fighter with Knowledge Arcana 0, Knowledge Nature 3 and Knowledge Dungeoneering 6 finds Headband of Vast Intellect +6 that "includes" Knowledge Arcana, Nature and Dungeoneering, he will gain 5 ranks of Kn: Arcana and 2 ranks of Kn: Nature, putting them both at his HD limit of 5; his Kn: Dungeoneering will not be affected, since it is already at his HD maximum, nor will he get to use the "leftover" skillpoints elsewhere. When he gains next level, all 3 skills will increase by 1 rank.
I hope that helps :)
In any case, if you ever remove the item (or its deactivated somehow), all those retroactive bonuses disappear until the item is functioning again.So you wouldn't have to wait a whole other 24 straight hours to get the permanent bonuses back? You just put the items back on and you're good to go?
No. You wouldn't get the full benefit immediately, the bonus would be considered temporary again until 24 hours have passed.
with constitution modifiers, any modification to the ability bonus immediately affects the creatures hit points. If the character loses a point of con bonus, they lose 1hp per level, if they gain a point in ability bonus they gain 1hp per level
Ex: Cohen the barbarian (Lvl 10) has a 22 Con, so a + 6 bonus, he would have on average 131 HP, (Excluding toughness and such) If he puts on a belt of Mighty Constitution +2, he immediately gains 10 HP for every HD he had. If cohen then took constitution damage or drain to bring him down to 18 con, he would lose 30 HP immediately, which may kill him if he's in low hp range already.
With ability scores like Int giving retroactive skill points, i don't believe it will give retroactive ranks, however if for an entire level the character has the increased int, they will gain an extra skill point per +1 to int bonus they had for that level.
No. You wouldn't get the full benefit immediately, the bonus would be considered temporary again until 24 hours have passed.In any case, if you ever remove the item (or its deactivated somehow), all those retroactive bonuses disappear until the item is functioning again.So you wouldn't have to wait a whole other 24 straight hours to get the permanent bonuses back? You just put the items back on and you're good to go?
I think this is up to GM to decide. I don't believe that, for example, any character would want to sleep in any sort of headband, be it what material ever. I wore the kind of braces that you only use by night for five years as a kid. Veeeeery uncomfortable.
If you go by the RAW, then the characters would never get permanent ability bonuses from bulkier items, cause resting is a neccessity. IMHO, this can be waived cause we're playing a fantasy game.
"Your Headband of Alluring Charisma +6 adjusts itself into a more comfortable position on your head, yawns and whispers into your ear: "Good night my beautiful prince, and don't forget, you're that beautiful because of me...bwhahahaaa.."
EDIT: some grammar.
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[...]I don't believe that, for example, any character would want to sleep in any sort of headband, be it what material ever. I wore the kind of braces that you only use by night for five years as a kid. Veeeeery uncomfortable.
If you go by the RAW, then the characters would never get permanent ability bonuses from bulkier items, cause resting is a neccessity. IMHO, this can be waived cause we're playing a fantasy game.
"Your Headband of Alluring Charisma +6 adjusts itself into a more comfortable position on your head, yawns and whispers into your ear: "Good night my beautiful prince, and don't forget, you're that beautiful because of me...bwhahahaaa.."
EDIT: some grammar.
As far as I'm aware, Pathfinder takes place in an alternate universe where headbands make excellent pillows, chain shirts are great blankets, and pants can be removed without first taking off the belt.
Indeed, most high level adventurers are likely celibate due to the terrible penalties for being naked.
Why would these items not be magically comfortable?
Who makes purposefully uncomfortable magic items?
You have to pay extra to make something magically comfortable:
https://sites.google.com/site/pathfinderogc/magic-items/magic-armor#TOC-Com fort
Why would these items not be magically comfortable?
Who makes purposefully uncomfortable magic items?
You have to pay extra to make something magically comfortable:
https://sites.google.com/site/pathfinderogc/magic-items/magic-armor#TOC-Com fort
I've been wondering for a long while now why is it so damn expensive to make them magic items. And now I got it! It's a real world issue really, because utility + fancy looks = high price.
So maybe I could cut the cost of my Holy Avenger by 100 000 gps by making it look like a rusty, oversized kitchen knife?
I'm stumped on this. Do the magic items work retroactively or not? Is it supposed that when a character gains a level that he benefits from the raised ability score forever after, until he discards the item or switches to a better one?
Let's say that a 5th level fighter finds a Belt of Mighty Constitution +2. Does that retroactively affect his hitpoints so that when he dons the belt he gains +5 max hp on the spot? Or does he just get +1 hitpoint? What if he levels up? Does he get this bonus point as long as he has the belt?
Same thing goes for other stat raising magic items. Wizard gets Headband of Itellect +2. Retroactive skillpoints or not? More skillpoints per level or not?
Just to clarify here, The Intellect headbands are the exception to the rule. This is to prevent an exploit where you take off the head band and put it back on in order to rearrange your new skill points.
So as stated the headbands come with retroactive skill points, but in a skill already decided when you put it on, and they can only increase that skill.
All other devices are indeed retroactive with out any strange limitations.
No. You wouldn't get the full benefit immediately, the bonus would be considered temporary again until 24 hours have passed.In any case, if you ever remove the item (or its deactivated somehow), all those retroactive bonuses disappear until the item is functioning again.So you wouldn't have to wait a whole other 24 straight hours to get the permanent bonuses back? You just put the items back on and you're good to go?I think this is up to GM to decide. I don't believe that, for example, any character would want to sleep in any sort of headband, be it what material ever. I wore the kind of braces that you only use by night for five years as a kid. Veeeeery uncomfortable.
If you go by the RAW, then the characters would never get permanent ability bonuses from bulkier items, cause resting is a neccessity. IMHO, this can be waived cause we're playing a fantasy game.
"Your Headband of Alluring Charisma +6 adjusts itself into a more comfortable position on your head, yawns and whispers into your ear: "Good night my beautiful prince, and don't forget, you're that beautiful because of me...bwhahahaaa.."
EDIT: some grammar.
Nothing says the headband is bulky, and it does not give the character penalties for wearing it. Sure a GM can change the rules, but by the rules he should not take the headband off. The reason for that is to stop people from changing items to get different bonuses as needed. Part of the game is about making people make decisions. You can take that headband off, but you will suffer for it.