A few questions

[swordsmasher]

1. if a player's Constitution score is reduced by poison, does that mean his maximum hit point total is also reduced?

2. When crafting a wand, is there a maximum caster level for it? Because right now the wizard of the group is crafting wands of lightning bolts and wands of fireballs dealing 8d6 dmg, and i was just curious if that is allowable by the core rules.

 

[Thanee]

1. Exactly. Maximum hit points are always calculated from the current Con score, so if the score changes, so does the hit point total (both current and maximum!).

2. Sure, you can set the caster level to anywhere between the minimum level to actually cast the spell (i.e. 5th for a wand of lightning bolt crafted from a wizard) to the maximum, which is your actual caster level (i.e. an 8th level wizard can craft an 8th caster level wand).

Note, that the caster level is directly figured into the cost of a wand, so they do get a good deal more expensive, if the caster level is increased.

Bye
Thanee

 

[dcollins]

Yes and Yes.

Note that 8th-caster level wands of fireball and lightning bolt are actually listed as standard treasure in the "Table: Wands" of the DMG. I presume you know they cost 18,000 gp, while a 5th-caster level one costs 11,250 gp.

 

[Bad Paper]

1. if a player's Constitution score is reduced by poison, does that mean his maximum hit point total is also reduced?

I have a follow-up to this, which is: as the Con score and max hit points both drop, do they level out at the minimum of 1 hit point per hit die? Can you not die from poison until your Con reaches 0, or can dropping it to, say, 5 be enough to kill someone?

 

[Infiniti2000]

I have a follow-up to this, which is: as the Con score and max hit points both drop, do they level out at the minimum of 1 hit point per hit die? Can you not die from poison until your Con reaches 0, or can dropping it to, say, 5 be enough to kill someone?

That's right. If you are otherwise uninjured and your Con stays above zero, you cannot die from Con damage. You will have a minimum of 1hp/HD.

 

[Goddess FallenAngel]

Actually, you don't get a minimum of 1 HP per HD when your Con is reduced via ability damage (such as poison). You only get that minimum when rolling HP while leveling up.

You don't take your HD into consideration at all when dealing with ability damage; if your Con is low enough that you have a -5 modifier, then you take -5 HP per level, even if your HD is a d4.

When your Con score reaches 0, you die.

 

[dcollins]

SRD, "Abilities and Conditions: Ability Score Loss":

If a character’s Constitution score drops, then he loses 1 hit point per Hit Die for every point by which his Constitution modifier drops. A hit point score can’t be reduced by Constitution damage or drain to less than 1 hit point per Hit Die.

Here they mean "maximum hit point score".

 

[Infiniti2000]

Thanks, dcollins, you got to it before I could.

 

[Goddess FallenAngel]

Huh. I guess I need to point that out to my DM.

Sorry 'bout that.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

That's right. If you are otherwise uninjured and your Con stays above zero, you cannot die from Con damage. You will have a minimum of 1hp/HD.

Just to be thorough, note the part of Infiniti2000's quote that I bolded. You can be killed by Con drain, just not directly.

Say you start out at 5th-level with 5d6 +10 (Con 14) HD, for 30 hp total.

If you take 13 points of Con damage, your total possible hp drop from 36 to 5. But you haven't taken any damage, so you've got 5/5 hp, and are alive.

If you take 15 points of damage, and then take 13 points of Con damage, your total possible hp drop from 30 to 5. But you've taken 15 points of damage, so you've got -10/5 hp, and you're dead.

So if you're at full hp, Con damage can't kill you (unless you reach Con 0). If you've taken damage, then Con damage can kill you, depending on how much damage you've already taken, and what your new hp maximum is.