skills: so when your INT goes up...?

[paulewaug]

OK so when a character raises their Intelligence stat; not just with a temp stat booster but Actually raised, by bumping it up with the leveling stat bumps and/or a Tome of Clear Thought-
Do they get to take retroactive skill points for past levels like they do when they bump there Constitution?

(example- At level 4 the character's Int goes from 15 to 16 do they get the extra skill points from the last 3 levels?
You get the point I'm sure.)

The PHB doesn't seem to address this clearly, unless of course, I may have missed it?

As the entry in the Abilities section in the front of the book states it I would be inclided to say yes because the wording seems to mirror that for having a Con bonus with regards to hit points.

All comments are welcome!
thanks!

 

[Lord Pendragon]

No. When you level up, you gain the amount of skill points appropriate to your class and int score. After that, nothing changes that number. Your int bonus does not retroactively give you more skill points, no more than an int loss (such as Feeblemind) retroactively takes them away.

 

[rhammer2]

I think the answer is in the faq.

I use a house rule and do give the retro skill points, I also don't allow items to provide a skill point boost.

OK so when a character raises their Intelligence stat; not just with a temp stat booster but Actually raised, by bumping it up with the leveling stat bumps and/or a Tome of Clear Thought-
Do they get to take retroactive skill points for past levels like they do when they bump there Constitution?

(example- At level 4 the character's Int goes from 15 to 16 do they get the extra skill points from the last 3 levels?
You get the point I'm sure.)

The PHB doesn't seem to address this clearly, unless of course, I may have missed it?

As the entry in the Abilities section in the front of the book states it I would be inclided to say yes because the wording seems to mirror that for having a Con bonus with regards to hit points.

All comments are welcome!
thanks!

 

[paulewaug]

thanks guys, I'll check out the FAQ.

 

[dcollins]

See also PHB p. 10, last sentence under "Changing Ability Scores".

 

[paulewaug]

excellent!

hey "dcollins" thanks!

The FAQ didin't have anything about it at all...
But the section of the PHB you pointed out exactly addresses this question.
And the answer is "No"

I had thought about house rulling it but since it is so clear I will probably be playing it "by the book"

 

[e3_Jeb]

I'm relatively sure of the answer to this, but in a somewhat related question.

If you increase your intelligence score say from 15 to 16 (As the example in the PHB uses) do you gain an additional language?

 

[The Proconsul]

I don't think so.

Bonus languages are basically skill points which can only be used for the Speak Language skill. If you rise your Int, a mere 2 levels later you'll have accumulated enough bonus skill points to learn a new language.

 

[paulewaug]

personally I would say 'no' based on the text in the PHB that states: (page 9 Intelligence text):

You apply your characters Intelligence modifier to:
*The number of languages your character knows at the start of the game.

(emphasis mine.)

However, I don't see anything wrong with house rulling it to be ok. Although the rationale that the character learns a new language because he became smarter would be covered by using their extra skill points they would now get every level to learn a language. But that one is a pretty minor one to house rule.



edited due to not having put enough skill points into my typing skill...

 

[Staffan]

I'd just like to chime in with the reasoning behind Int not giving retroactive skill points: it's a measure of how fast you learn. Learning faster now doesn't make you having learned things faster two years ago.

Also, it would create an accounting nightmare. Not so much for increasing the stat, but for what happens when you decrease it, like if you get Int-drained or something.