Each test in the game consists of two ability checks. The players can gain one re-roll on one of those ability checks if they pass a different ability check in the studying phase.
Enhance Ability grants advantage on ability checks with the chosen ability, so should it be allowed during tests to apply the advantage on one ability check, and using the re-roll if necessary on the other?
The book doesn't state any rules against using magic to enhance abilities for tests, and it includes rules for cheating which don't include magical enhancement. I would think this would be fine, at least if it were cast before the test began.
Enhance ability only lasts an hour. I’ve sat for enough exams to know that that isn’t going to cut it.
And just a personal ruling, but I would absolutely impose disadvantage on an exam-taking check if you’re concentrating on a spell while doing it, so it’d be a wash. Even if you get someone else to cast it on you, you run into the duration problem.
Yeah I'd say Enhance Ability could probably work for the first Testing Phase, but may have worn off by the second depending on how complex the test is.
Players would also have to successfully guess the skill/attribute the test calls for since not everything is just INT.
As long as one of the two parts of the test is Intelligence-based, the Enhanced Ability would help, at least for the one test.
My university experience is that tests don't typically run longer than an hour if you're reasonably prepared (after all, there are typically tests for all subjects), and I would think that the hour from Enhanced Ability would yield its benefits for the vast majority of the one part of the test, so the advantage on the roll should apply. My question was more towards whether the casting of spells during the test would be permitted, or if any spells would have to be cast before going in, or done subtly to avoid notice.
As long as one of the two parts of the test is Intelligence-based, the Enhanced Ability would help, at least for the one test.
My university experience is that tests don't typically run longer than an hour if you're reasonably prepared (after all, there are typically tests for all subjects), and I would think that the hour from Enhanced Ability would yield its benefits for the vast majority of the one part of the test, so the advantage on the roll should apply. My question was more towards whether the casting of spells during the test would be permitted, or if any spells would have to be cast before going in, or done subtly to avoid notice.
I can’t speak to your experience obviously, but my STEM exams were like three hours long.
As to whether or not it’s “allowed,” that’s up to the DM. I’d absolutely call it cheating and follow the same rules for cheating laid out in the book. And I’d ALSO have it expire before the character can benefit.
As to whether or not it’s “allowed,” that’s up to the DM. I’d absolutely call it cheating and follow the same rules for cheating laid out in the book. And I’d ALSO have it expire before the character can benefit.
That strikes me as needlessly harsh, to the point of being outright discouraging creativity in the game. Being better at an ability for an hour of a test wouldn't have zero effect on the outcome of the test, even if it were three hours long, and the test is encompassed by the two parts, and even if you consider the test being three hours, that's a mere 90 minutes per individual part, so the spell absolutely should still have its effect. Also note, not all tests are finals, and while finals tend to be longer, the average test fits within the normal time slot for the class.
Also, there are two subclasses of wizards that can do the same thing undetectably, and I'd expect that this would be known at this prestigious magical university, and it would be hugely unfair to limit some students from using class features while others can. (Divination and Chronurgy wizards both have ways of rolling extra dice to increase their chance of success)
Study at Strixhaven isn’t about learning to be a wizard but about learning to be a historian, an artist, an orator, a scientist, or some other profession—while using magic to enhance one’s studies.
Seems to me like using Enhance Ability for learning or tests is totes on brand for the idea and theme.
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As to whether or not it’s “allowed,” that’s up to the DM. I’d absolutely call it cheating and follow the same rules for cheating laid out in the book. And I’d ALSO have it expire before the character can benefit.
That strikes me as needlessly harsh, to the point of being outright discouraging creativity in the game. Being better at an ability for an hour of a test wouldn't have zero effect on the outcome of the test, even if it were three hours long, and the test is encompassed by the two parts, and even if you consider the test being three hours, that's a mere 90 minutes per individual part, so the spell absolutely should still have its effect. Also note, not all tests are finals, and while finals tend to be longer, the average test fits within the normal time slot for the class.
Also, there are two subclasses of wizards that can do the same thing undetectably, and I'd expect that this would be known at this prestigious magical university, and it would be hugely unfair to limit some students from using class features while others can. (Divination and Chronurgy wizards both have ways of rolling extra dice to increase their chance of success)
I'd also call use of those subclass features cheating and have them follow the cheating rules to get away with that. Using features like that (or casting Enhance Ability) defeats the purpose of the exams, which is to determine how much the student learned from the class, not how much the student can trick the grader into thinking they learned. And yeah, actually, being better for one hour of a three hour test would actually have a negligible impact on the probabilities the roll models. I'm all for encouraging creativity. What I'm not for is breaking internal consistency for the sake of a bad idea.
Study at Strixhaven isn’t about learning to be a wizard but about learning to be a historian, an artist, an orator, a scientist, or some other profession—while using magic to enhance one’s studies.
Seems to me like using Enhance Ability for learning or tests is totes on brand for the idea and theme.
Using Enhance Ability for learning totally makes sense, and I would be totally for it for the studying portion. A student using it on the exam itself would literally be cheating themselves out of an actual education, and I do not for one moment believe that that's on brand for the idea and theme.
Cheating on tests, as a matter of course, is always detrimental to the student and to their learning. It is in no way "needlessly harsh" to penalize it in a hecking school setting of all things.
As to whether or not it’s “allowed,” that’s up to the DM. I’d absolutely call it cheating and follow the same rules for cheating laid out in the book. And I’d ALSO have it expire before the character can benefit.
That strikes me as needlessly harsh, to the point of being outright discouraging creativity in the game. Being better at an ability for an hour of a test wouldn't have zero effect on the outcome of the test, even if it were three hours long, and the test is encompassed by the two parts, and even if you consider the test being three hours, that's a mere 90 minutes per individual part, so the spell absolutely should still have its effect. Also note, not all tests are finals, and while finals tend to be longer, the average test fits within the normal time slot for the class.
Also, there are two subclasses of wizards that can do the same thing undetectably, and I'd expect that this would be known at this prestigious magical university, and it would be hugely unfair to limit some students from using class features while others can. (Divination and Chronurgy wizards both have ways of rolling extra dice to increase their chance of success)
I'd also call use of those subclass features cheating and have them follow the cheating rules to get away with that. Using features like that (or casting Enhance Ability) defeats the purpose of the exams, which is to determine how much the student learned from the class, not how much the student can trick the grader into thinking they learned. And yeah, actually, being better for one hour of a three hour test would actually have a negligible impact on the probabilities the roll models. I'm all for encouraging creativity. What I'm not for is breaking internal consistency for the sake of a bad idea.
Study at Strixhaven isn’t about learning to be a wizard but about learning to be a historian, an artist, an orator, a scientist, or some other profession—while using magic to enhance one’s studies.
Seems to me like using Enhance Ability for learning or tests is totes on brand for the idea and theme.
Using Enhance Ability for learning totally makes sense, and I would be totally for it for the studying portion. A student using it on the exam itself would literally be cheating themselves out of an actual education, and I do not for one moment believe that that's on brand for the idea and theme.
Cheating on tests, as a matter of course, is always detrimental to the student and to their learning. It is in no way "needlessly harsh" to penalize it in a hecking school setting of all things.
These magical methods don't give the student any information the student doesn't already know, they merely make it easier for the student to recall the information. That's not substantially different from a student making up a song that makes it easier to remember details or keep a sequence of events straight. Given the nature of the magical university that's all about using magic to elevate various efforts... as Cyb3rM1nd said, these sorts of abilities are on brand.
You also completely missed the fact that most of the tests are NOT finals, and are not going to be 3 hours long. And even finals are split between two sections, so each section would be at most 90 minutes if we go with your three-hour number, so the improvement to your mental faculties for at least two-thirds of that section of the test is in fact, significant.
At your table you can assert no spellcasting during the tests, but it's not enforceable, which makes it a bad rule. Calling a class ability that improves your ability to recall information you already learned "a bad idea" and claiming it "breaks internal consistency" isn't a very good argument.
It's not cheating the students out of any education, because it's only allowing them to better recall information they already learned.
For what it's worth, your arguments have solidified my position against them. In a GAME that already has mechanics for getting advantages or additional dice on the rolls, banning class abilities that provide the same types of bonuses and villainizing those who'd use them is absurd.
For additional context, without using any spells, a variant human student with the Lucky feat can basically guarantee passing (and almost guarantee acing) every test by pulling an all nighter for each. Doing that grants the student a total of four rolls on a D20, for which they take the best result for EACH part of the test. The Lucky Feat adds a die, and turns the disadvantage from the exhaustion into advantage (because per the Lucky Feat, you take the best result out of all dice rolled), and then the all-nighter grants a re-roll for each part of the test.
Compared to that, the Enhanced Ability spell is tame.
If Strixhaven is a magical school, then why wouldn't it have all its exams performed in an anti-magic shell to prevent any forms of magical cheating?
That logically is what they'd do if they in fact considered any use of magic during the exams to be "cheating". It still wouldn't affect the use of all-nighters and the Lucky Feat to ace all of the tests.
Each test in the game consists of two ability checks. The players can gain one re-roll on one of those ability checks if they pass a different ability check in the studying phase.
Enhance Ability grants advantage on ability checks with the chosen ability, so should it be allowed during tests to apply the advantage on one ability check, and using the re-roll if necessary on the other?
The book doesn't state any rules against using magic to enhance abilities for tests, and it includes rules for cheating which don't include magical enhancement. I would think this would be fine, at least if it were cast before the test began.
Enhance ability only lasts an hour. I’ve sat for enough exams to know that that isn’t going to cut it.
And just a personal ruling, but I would absolutely impose disadvantage on an exam-taking check if you’re concentrating on a spell while doing it, so it’d be a wash. Even if you get someone else to cast it on you, you run into the duration problem.
Yeah I'd say Enhance Ability could probably work for the first Testing Phase, but may have worn off by the second depending on how complex the test is.
Players would also have to successfully guess the skill/attribute the test calls for since not everything is just INT.
As long as one of the two parts of the test is Intelligence-based, the Enhanced Ability would help, at least for the one test.
My university experience is that tests don't typically run longer than an hour if you're reasonably prepared (after all, there are typically tests for all subjects), and I would think that the hour from Enhanced Ability would yield its benefits for the vast majority of the one part of the test, so the advantage on the roll should apply. My question was more towards whether the casting of spells during the test would be permitted, or if any spells would have to be cast before going in, or done subtly to avoid notice.
I can’t speak to your experience obviously, but my STEM exams were like three hours long.
As to whether or not it’s “allowed,” that’s up to the DM. I’d absolutely call it cheating and follow the same rules for cheating laid out in the book. And I’d ALSO have it expire before the character can benefit.
SagaTympana
That strikes me as needlessly harsh, to the point of being outright discouraging creativity in the game. Being better at an ability for an hour of a test wouldn't have zero effect on the outcome of the test, even if it were three hours long, and the test is encompassed by the two parts, and even if you consider the test being three hours, that's a mere 90 minutes per individual part, so the spell absolutely should still have its effect. Also note, not all tests are finals, and while finals tend to be longer, the average test fits within the normal time slot for the class.
Also, there are two subclasses of wizards that can do the same thing undetectably, and I'd expect that this would be known at this prestigious magical university, and it would be hugely unfair to limit some students from using class features while others can. (Divination and Chronurgy wizards both have ways of rolling extra dice to increase their chance of success)
From the Strixhaven book, with some highlighting:
Seems to me like using Enhance Ability for learning or tests is totes on brand for the idea and theme.
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I'd also call use of those subclass features cheating and have them follow the cheating rules to get away with that. Using features like that (or casting Enhance Ability) defeats the purpose of the exams, which is to determine how much the student learned from the class, not how much the student can trick the grader into thinking they learned. And yeah, actually, being better for one hour of a three hour test would actually have a negligible impact on the probabilities the roll models. I'm all for encouraging creativity. What I'm not for is breaking internal consistency for the sake of a bad idea.
Using Enhance Ability for learning totally makes sense, and I would be totally for it for the studying portion. A student using it on the exam itself would literally be cheating themselves out of an actual education, and I do not for one moment believe that that's on brand for the idea and theme.
Cheating on tests, as a matter of course, is always detrimental to the student and to their learning. It is in no way "needlessly harsh" to penalize it in a hecking school setting of all things.
These magical methods don't give the student any information the student doesn't already know, they merely make it easier for the student to recall the information. That's not substantially different from a student making up a song that makes it easier to remember details or keep a sequence of events straight. Given the nature of the magical university that's all about using magic to elevate various efforts... as Cyb3rM1nd said, these sorts of abilities are on brand.
You also completely missed the fact that most of the tests are NOT finals, and are not going to be 3 hours long. And even finals are split between two sections, so each section would be at most 90 minutes if we go with your three-hour number, so the improvement to your mental faculties for at least two-thirds of that section of the test is in fact, significant.
At your table you can assert no spellcasting during the tests, but it's not enforceable, which makes it a bad rule. Calling a class ability that improves your ability to recall information you already learned "a bad idea" and claiming it "breaks internal consistency" isn't a very good argument.
It's not cheating the students out of any education, because it's only allowing them to better recall information they already learned.
For what it's worth, your arguments have solidified my position against them. In a GAME that already has mechanics for getting advantages or additional dice on the rolls, banning class abilities that provide the same types of bonuses and villainizing those who'd use them is absurd.
For additional context, without using any spells, a variant human student with the Lucky feat can basically guarantee passing (and almost guarantee acing) every test by pulling an all nighter for each. Doing that grants the student a total of four rolls on a D20, for which they take the best result for EACH part of the test. The Lucky Feat adds a die, and turns the disadvantage from the exhaustion into advantage (because per the Lucky Feat, you take the best result out of all dice rolled), and then the all-nighter grants a re-roll for each part of the test.
Compared to that, the Enhanced Ability spell is tame.
If Strixhaven is a magical school, then why wouldn't it have all its exams performed in an anti-magic shell to prevent any forms of magical cheating?
That logically is what they'd do if they in fact considered any use of magic during the exams to be "cheating". It still wouldn't affect the use of all-nighters and the Lucky Feat to ace all of the tests.