D&D (2024) What happens when a multiclass character loses a prerequisite?

[ECMO3]

Isn't that table for full-on Artifact-power items?
Is there a method of curing the effect given? Pretty sure that there wouldn't be an easy way of losing actual ability points permanently.
(Although at level 17+ when artifacts might come into play, the "cure" might be a wish spell admittedly.)

It is curable by greater restoration, but otherwise it is permanent. Everything in the game is curable by spells one way or another.

 

[billd91]

Exactly. "X Strength" or "Y Intelligence", or any other stat, are not absolute. 3 Intelligence on a human is not the same as 3 Intelligence on an ape.

The rules provide us no guidance on the diegetic meaning of any particular stat value. At best, we can try to extrapolate from Monster Manual examples and our intuition from previous editions.

All we can say for sure is that a 3 Intelligence means the character will have a -4 penalty to Intelligence checks and saves, and will struggle with wizardly magic. Any other narrative attached to that stat is decided on a per-table and per-character basis.

In fact, I'd say that comparing intelligence between PCs and monsters, particularly animals, has always been problematic in D&D. Having a low intelligence made animals and similar critters extremely vulnerable to certain kinds of cheap shots - no matter how powerful or how many hit dice they had. If you were lucky enough to have a psionic character back in 1e with enough power points and mind blast, even the mighty t-rex was easy pickings to low level characters. In 3e, that cheap shot became any attack that could do intelligence damage. And that was all simply because putting an animal on the same scale of intelligence pretty much required you to give it a very low number - and that low number could be an Achilles Heel to any party equipped to exploit it.
A low (or damage/penalized) intelligence for a PC or other species with substantial culture and language shouldn't relegate them to animal behavior. While the two are on a similar scale for some things (task check modifiers), nothing else is or should be implied.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

For multiclassing. The thing that explicitly requires specific score values.

It would literally just need a single sentence. "Should any required ability score drop below 13, you cannot take new levels as that class, but you can always continue taking levels of whatever class you had at first level." Or like four other possible variations depending on how they wanted to roll with it (e.g. "These requirements only apply when you try to take a level of a new class, not when increasing your level with any class you already have.")

Why is the existing rule that you need to meet the requirements to start a new class, insufficient?

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Why is the existing rule that you need to meet the requirements to start a new class, insufficient?

....literally the reason the thread was started?

It's an ambiguous case. In most cases, if you lose the prerequisites for things, that's bad and may cause you to not be able to do stuff.

 

[Voadam]

The 14 PH writing does not seem ambiguous to me.

PREREQUISITES
To qualify for a new class, you must meet the ability score prerequisites for both your current class and your new one, as shown in the Multiclassing Prerequisites table. For example, a barbarian who decides to multiclass into the druid class must have both Strength and Wisdom scores of 13 or higher. Without the full training that a beginning character receives, you must be a quick study in your new class, having a natural aptitude that is reflected by higher-than-average ability scores.

Qualifying for a new class seems distinct from continuing in an existing class after having multiclassed.

There does not seem to be anything suggesting that the prerequisite is for anything but qualifying for a new class at level up.

 

[Maxperson]

Personally, I would just let them keep going. Never been a fan of the MC prereqs.

I don't mind the prerequisite, but as far as I'm concerned, once you are in, you are in. I'm not going to stop you from playing that class or advancing.

 

[Maxperson]

That's not actually a rule. What are the consequences, of say, having your intelligence reduced to 2? Can you still talk? Cast wizard spells? The rules don't say.

This is just something copy-pasted from earlier editions without checking it made sense.

The rules say you can't talk if you have an int of 1. Feeblemind drops your int to 1 for at least 30 days, but since it's an int save for which you now have a penalty, you could be at 1 for a very long time.

 

[seebs]

If we take the minimum intelligence for a human capable of speech and literacy as 8

why would we do that? i don't see anything in the rules about requiring a particular intelligence score for speech and literacy.

 

[James Gasik]

why would we do that? i don't see anything in the rules about requiring a particular intelligence score for speech and literacy.

I don't know about literacy, but Ogres can speak two languages with an Intelligence of 5.