Healing Constitution Damage and Hit Points

[Beckett]

Last night, a player in my game was hit with a nasty poison. Failing the save against the secondary damage, he took 11 points of Con damage, reducing his Con Modifier from +2 to -3; his maximum and current HP dropped by 50 (10th level character). The party cleric was standing on hand with a Restoration spell.

Now, when the cleric cast Restoration, it would obviously bring the character's maximum HP back to normal. The question that came up was, would this also restore the character's current HP?

My initial position was that the Restoration spell doesn't heal HP, so the character's current HP would remain where they were, 50 points below his maximum. The player's argument was that healing the Con damage would also increase the character's current HP, just as if the character's Constitution was increased by some effect like Bear's Endurance. I felt there was a difference between a damaged ability being healed and an ability being increased, but decided it didn't really matter at the time if the character was restored to full HP or not. However, if the situation comes up again, I'd like to be ready for it.

 

[Mistwell]

Last night, a player in my game was hit with a nasty poison. Failing the save against the secondary damage, he took 11 points of Con damage, reducing his Con Modifier from +2 to -3; his maximum and current HP dropped by 50 (10th level character). The party cleric was standing on hand with a Restoration spell.

Now, when the cleric cast Restoration, it would obviously bring the character's maximum HP back to normal. The question that came up was, would this also restore the character's current HP?

My initial position was that the Restoration spell doesn't heal HP, so the character's current HP would remain where they were, 50 points below his maximum. The player's argument was that healing the Con damage would also increase the character's current HP, just as if the character's Constitution was increased by some effect like Bear's Endurance. I felt there was a difference between a damaged ability being healed and an ability being increased, but decided it didn't really matter at the time if the character was restored to full HP or not. However, if the situation comes up again, I'd like to be ready for it.

Actually I agree with your player on this one. If you Con goes up, so do your hit points. It doesn't matter if it was healing Con damage or a temporary bonus to Con or the effects of a rage or what - if your Con goes up, unless otherwise specified like with the new wildshape, your hit points also go up.

 

[Lorehead]

Here's what the RAW say:

"If a character's Constitution score changes enough to alter his or her Constitution modifier, the character's hit points also increase or decrease accordingly." (PH 9)

 

[RigaMortus2]

Last night, a player in my game was hit with a nasty poison. Failing the save against the secondary damage, he took 11 points of Con damage, reducing his Con Modifier from +2 to -3; his maximum and current HP dropped by 50 (10th level character). The party cleric was standing on hand with a Restoration spell.

Now, when the cleric cast Restoration, it would obviously bring the character's maximum HP back to normal. The question that came up was, would this also restore the character's current HP?

My initial position was that the Restoration spell doesn't heal HP, so the character's current HP would remain where they were, 50 points below his maximum. The player's argument was that healing the Con damage would also increase the character's current HP, just as if the character's Constitution was increased by some effect like Bear's Endurance. I felt there was a difference between a damaged ability being healed and an ability being increased, but decided it didn't really matter at the time if the character was restored to full HP or not. However, if the situation comes up again, I'd like to be ready for it.

If a character rages, do you allow them to gain hit points from it? When the rage ends, do you allow them to keep those hit points or are they then reduced?

 

[MichaelH]

Your player is correct. The HP loss was concommitent (sp?) with the ability damage, so when the ability damage is healed the HP gain is concommitent. IOW, the damage dealt by the poison was not HP damage, but Con damage. Think of Restoration as a Cure X Wounds applied to ability damage instead of HP damage. When the ability is cured, so is the consequence of HP loss.

 

[Beckett]

Alrighty. Glad I didn't spend too much time being stubborn about it. Thanks guys.

 

[mkb152]

If a character rages, do you allow them to gain hit points from it? When the rage ends, do you allow them to keep those hit points or are they then reduced?

Yes, when a ch rages they get extra hp from their CON modifier. OTOH, when it ends, they lose them at the end of the rage, they lose them (and can die).