What happens when a belt / headband comes off?

[Dhenn]

Hi,

I've seen a couple discussions of this in the past with no clear answer, but it is something I'll need to be familiar with in the near future, so I wanted to get advice on a ruling.

Stat boosting belts and headbands take 24 hours for their bonuses to become permanent. It seems clear that you need to keep wearing the belt to keep getting the bonus, or else everyone would just wear it for a day then switch to something else. What happens once the gear comes off is much less clear. Generally, I wouldn't make a big deal of relatively short removals, including overnight to avoid the silliness of people sleeping fully equipped, but what about when it's longer?

Stranding PCs without access to their stuff is a pretty standard trope. The most obvious example would be throwing them in prison. Presumably their stats would decrease, but would it be immediate? After 24 hours? Something else?

What about when they put them back on? In the interests of not being overly punitive, I'd likely have the permanent benefits return as soon as they're re-equipped, though I'm not sure that's truly the best option.

Any advice or clarification is appreciated.

[Torchlyte]

By RAW it seems that taking it off will bring you back to square one as far as having to then wait 24 hours.

Losing your permanent stat bonuses is a real pain. As a Wizard with a Headband you're changing DC's, spells per day, and skills. Then when you get it back you get it to some things but not others until your 24 hours have passed.

[Serisan]

Generally, magic items that require attunement will be worn in such a way as to not need to be removed. The stat drop is immediate and the re-attunement starts up when the item is equipped again.

Note on Int: the headbands specifically have a skill associated with them, so the player doesn't need to remove individual ranks of skills.

CRB wrote:

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.

[Senko]

It's one of those Gray gm ruling areas. Per raw take off the item and you immediately remove the benefit and need to wear it for 24 hours to get it back but this means taking your pants off to use the bushes or change them would lose the benefit of a belt so adventurers become well know for never changing their trousers.

Me I treat them as if it takes 24 hours to attune it takes 24 hours to loose it. That way they can undress to change clothes, have a shower etc no problems. However they can't gain the benefit of 2 items because when the nee one attunes the old one looses it. It also provides a nice time limit on some missions. Get your gear back in 24 hours or loose the permanent bonuses associated with it.

[Lifat]

Senko wrote:

It's one of those Gray gm ruling areas. Per raw take off the item and you immediately remove the benefit and need to wear it for 24 hours to get it back but this means taking your pants off to use the bushes or change them would lose the benefit of a belt so adventurers become well know for never changing their trousers.

Me I treat them as if it takes 24 hours to attune it takes 24 hours to loose it. That way they can undress to change clothes, have a shower etc no problems. However they can't gain the benefit of 2 items because when the nee one attunes the old one looses it. It also provides a nice time limit on some missions. Get your gear back in 24 hours or loose the permanent bonuses associated with it.

This! So much this! This is the simplest, easiest, logical way of running things. It avoids shennanigans such as donning/removing int headbands to effectively have every skill in the game while still allowing people to take of the items for sleep and other such things.

[Scythia]

Lifat wrote:

Senko wrote:

It's one of those Gray gm ruling areas. Per raw take off the item and you immediately remove the benefit and need to wear it for 24 hours to get it back but this means taking your pants off to use the bushes or change them would lose the benefit of a belt so adventurers become well know for never changing their trousers.

Me I treat them as if it takes 24 hours to attune it takes 24 hours to loose it. That way they can undress to change clothes, have a shower etc no problems. However they can't gain the benefit of 2 items because when the nee one attunes the old one looses it. It also provides a nice time limit on some missions. Get your gear back in 24 hours or loose the permanent bonuses associated with it.

This! So much this! This is the simplest, easiest, logical way of running things. It avoids shennanigans such as donning/removing int headbands to effectively have every skill in the game while still allowing people to take of the items for sleep and other such things.

I find the simplest, easiest approach to be not allowing stat boost items to count towards feat requirements, but to bestow their other effects as soon as they're worn, and end as soon as they're removed. No 24 hour wait, but no stacking either.

Then again I run high stat games, so the requirements for feats are not difficult to meet.

[SlimGauge]

I run thusly: Once you have worn the item for 24 hours to attune to it, you remain attuned to it until you wear something else that requires attunement in that slot OR that item becomes attuned to someone else.

When you remove the item, you immediately lose the benefit, but not the attunement. If you redon the item without having lost attunement, the benefit immediately returns.

This way you can remove attuned items for a short time with only short term disruption.

[Rikkan]

Since by the raw there is no difference between permanent bonuses and temporary bonuses, you lose the bonus when you take the item off and you gain the bonus when you equip the item.