Help on Retroactive Hit Points

[Bob5th]

Where does it talk about retroactive hit points? Any increase in Con perm or temp will give you retroactive Hit points right? Where does it talk about this.

 

[Crothian]

Under the description of Constitution at the very beginning of the PHB.

 

[Bob5th]

A group discussion has brougt up this point.

If you get CON you get retroactive hit points why shouldn't you get retroactive skill points.

I know the book says you shouldn't but why?

 

[Cheiromancer]

I've wondered that too. Couldn't people (whose intelligence has gone up) experience an "aha!" experience and say, "So that's what the teacher was trying to say..." or, "It just clicked how draconic gerundives work" or whatever.

 

[Crothian]

It's all in the mechanics of how it's written up.

HP always equals so many d whatever plus con bonus times number of HD. So as we all know a 5th level fighter with a 14 con has 5d10+10 HPs. The fighter increases the con to a 16, he now has 5d10+15 HPs.

Skill points are gotten each level as a certain number (class skill points +Int modifier + any exctra like for being human). It only matters what the Int was at the time of the level increase for amount of skill points.

I hope that made sense. I should also note that allowing skill points be retroactive is not that big of deal in games I've played in. It at least gives characters a reason to increase their Int.

 

[Bob5th]

If bob the wizard with his INT of 18 was wearing a Headband +6 to Int and leveled up would he get 6 skill points or 9?

 

[Crothian]

If bob the wizard with his INT of 18 was wearing a Headband +6 to Int and leveled up would he get 6 skill points or 9?

I'm sure of the exact ruling, but I believe that the headband must be worn for a significant amount of time before the level increase for it to allow more skill points. I do it this way so that players don't pass around one of these so they all get more skill points.

 

[Krafen]

I believe the exact ruling was you must wear the headband for one entire level before you can begin gaining bonus skill points. Additionally, if you ever take off the headband you permanently lose all bonus skill points gained by wearing it. This begs the question, how do you wash your hair?
I find this approach to be awkward and unreasonable. I use the following house rule:

Inherent bonuses to Int and ability score increases (every 4 character levels and from epic feats) to Int increase skill points retroactively. Other bonuses (such as enhancement and competence) to Int have no effect on skill points.

 

[Geoff Watson]

A group discussion has brougt up this point.

If you get CON you get retroactive hit points why shouldn't you get retroactive skill points.

I know the book says you shouldn't but why?

It's very easy to abuse this. If you need a good bonus for a particular skill, take off the Headband of Intellect, put it on again, and put the retroactive skill points where you need them.
You could even change your 'permanent' skills around by getting your Int drained and putting the skill points into different skills when you recover them.

Geoff.

 

[Veldrane]

I believe the exact ruling was you must wear the headband for one entire level before you can begin gaining bonus skill points. Additionally, if you ever take off the headband you permanently lose all bonus skill points gained by wearing it. This begs the question, how do you wash your hair?
I find this approach to be awkward and unreasonable.

You must wear the item for the greater part of the level.
When you have higher Int due to the item, the bonus to skill points you receive simulates your better understanding or insight of the situations you encountered; you cannot lose those skill points any more, even if you take off the item afterwards, since in that part of your adventuring life you were more intelligent, and that allowed you to gain more experience (not X points) from the situations you went through.

That is consistent with the rule about non-retroactive skill points. Just because you are more intelligent now , doesn't mean you gain more benefits from your past experience. I actually could disagree, but I could also disagree about becaming more intelligent from one day to another, so let's just talk about the rules

Besides, there's probably a game mechanic problem in retroactively assign skill points. Hp and Con is easy math, but what about granting extra skill points every time someone has an Int boost? Your character should redo the math from the beginning, calculating the class and cross class skills for every level of every class he has. This can be quite a work to do, and an unnecessary one too, considering that he'd lose those skill points soon. So, that rule simplifies things a lot IMO, although I agree that retroactively assign skill points for Inherent and Level Up bonuses doesn't unbalance the game at all...

Edit: grammar