Buffing your Charisma

[Lord Pendragon]

Okay, so a paladin has his wizard cohort buff up his Charisma with Eagle's Splendor. Which of the following attributes go up, and which are unaffected by the change?

-Turning Attempts per day
-Turning strength
-Lay-on-Hands
-Divine Might damage/duration
-Smite Evil

I believe that Turning strength, Divine Might damage/duration, and Smite Evil would all benefit. They simply take the current charisma score and use it to determine effects at the time the ability is used.

But how about Lay-on-Hands? It's a daily allotment of healing power, so what happens if a paladin uses some of it in the morning, then has his charisma buffed in the afternoon? Does he gain extra healing "charge"? Does it go away after the buff expires?

Turning Attempts is the same. It's a daily allotment, rather than an ability that simply references charisma at the time it's used. Would a paladin (or cleric) gain extra turning attempts, so long as the buff lasted, sort of like temporary hit points? Or are turning attempts more like spell slots, which do not benefit from temporary buffing?

 

[Hypersmurf]

I remember there was a long involved thread on this once... but I think it was about a year ago.

There were several different points of view.

One was that they act like temporary hit points. If you put on your Cloak of Charisma +4, your turn attempt allotment goes up from 5 to 7, say. If you use one of them and then take off the Cloak, you had 6 left, but your normal Charisma only allows 5, so you have 5 left.

The other was that they act more like hit points from a temporary Con increase. If you put on the Cloak and use one, you have one-less-than-7. If you take off the Cloak, you have one-less-than-5. In other words, keep track of how many you've used, and subtract them from your current max.

To me, option B makes more sense... because it eliminates the re-Cloak loophole of option A. ie, put on the Cloak, use two turn attempts, take off the Cloak - leaving 5 - and then put the Cloak back on. Your Cha bonus has gone up by two points - why not two more turn attempts? Under option B, it's clear. Under option A, it's hazy.

-Hyp.

 

[spunky_mutters]

It works if you track your turning attempts made so far, rather than turn attempts remaining. e.g. You can make a total of 7 turning attempts in the day if you're wearing it, but you would have to stop at 5 if you aren't. If you've made 6 and take it off, no biggie. You'd have to put it back on to get the last one.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

I'd never even thought of treating it as hp gained from Con. It does work perfectly by tracking uses expended, rather than uses remaining. Then no matter what your charisma is, if you have more uses remaining then expended, you can still use the ability. If not, not.

Thanks guys, that cleared it up for me.

 

[Bauglir]

I see it more like spells per day personally, so I'd suggest an option C (for buffs at any rate)

ie. no bonus uses of any per-day abilities, just like (for example) a sorcerer would get no bonus spells per day, however where applicable (eg smite evil) the power of the abilities may be increased.

As for swapping around a cloak, I have no idea how that would work regarding spells, as it's never come up IME. Hyp?

 

[Hypersmurf]

When you start considering spells, it gets pretty hinky.

I can think of about six different ways it could be interpreted, some more abuseable than others.

The 24 hour rule cuts down a lot of weirdness, though - that a bonus must be in near-constant effect for at least 24 hours before it provides bonus spells. It prevents two people sharing one Periapt of Wisdom back and forth to both get bonus spells, which is a good start.

-Hyp.