Hopefully this is the right place for this. I'm looking to add an item for use in my homebrew campaign that will either set a characters Dexterity score to 17 or add a +2 bonus to it if it would be a higher bonus. Is that an option in DND beyond? Or will the player have to manually set it?
Not entirely sure what will happen if you put both onto the same item, but theoretically it should work. You might need to experiment with it and if the bonus gets applied on top of the Set score then simply drop the Set score to 15. But the one might override the other, I’m not entirely sure. If you decide to fiddle with it then please lemme know how it turns out.
If you set it to 17 then add a bonus of +2, wouldn't you end up with 19? If you add a bonus of +2 then set to 17, you would have 17, right? It's been a minute since I played with modifying ability scores. I know from my Wild Shape effect system I used Bonus first and Set second, but I was using Bonus -20 to force the PC's current ability score to 0 (or less) and using Set to fix a static ability score.
It's basically a +2 to DEX (minimum Dexterity score of 17). But there's no way to tell what the PC's original Dexterity score is. Here's how I see this bonus applying for the item:
Original Dexterity score
Updated Dexterity score
Net increase
20
22
+2
19
21
+2
18
20
+2
17
19
+2
16
18
+2
15
17
+2
14
17
+3
13
17
+4
12
17
+5
etc.
I can't think of how to do this in a single magic item.
But if you Set it to 15 and then add the +2 bonus, shouldn’t that work? If the PC’s Dex is <15 it should Set to 15+2=17, and if it’s >15 it should default to the Score+2=>17. Right?
I did some testing. You can actually get the exact table that Mairondil posted above by doing Set ---> Dexterity Score ---> 17 and Bonus ---> Dexterity Score ---> 2. Apparently, set scores can never be changed by bonuses, as proven by using a Manual of Quickness of Action at the same time as the item and it having no effect. When testing, I figured it would mess up at 16 initial Dexterity and replace it with 17 instead of 18, but it actually did give 18. Apparently the set is compared against the default score + any bonuses to determine which should be used. This is also proven by Mairondil's aforementioned Wild Shape system, which uses a bonus to set a character's normal score to a very low number so that it's always overridden by the set score when the two are compared.
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Look at what you've done. You spoiled it. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Go sit and think about your actions.
Don't be mean. Rudeness is a vicious cycle, and it has to stop somewhere. Exceptions for things that are funny. Go to the current Competition of the Finest 'Brews! It's a cool place where cool people make cool things.
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Look at what you've done. You spoiled it. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Go sit and think about your actions.
Don't be mean. Rudeness is a vicious cycle, and it has to stop somewhere. Exceptions for things that are funny. Go to the current Competition of the Finest 'Brews! It's a cool place where cool people make cool things.
How I'm posting based on text formatting: Mod Hat Off - Mod Hat Also Off (I'm not a mod)
Set 17 Bonus 2 DEX does indeed work. If I set a characters DEX to 16, it raises it to 18 (same if the dex was already 18 it goes to 20) and if the dex was 11 it was raised to 17.
Hopefully this is the right place for this. I'm looking to add an item for use in my homebrew campaign that will either set a characters Dexterity score to 17 or add a +2 bonus to it if it would be a higher bonus. Is that an option in DND beyond? Or will the player have to manually set it?
You can create an item that will set the score to 17 unless their Dex is normally higher than that:
Or you can create an item that adds a +2 bonus up to a maximum of 20:
Not entirely sure what will happen if you put both onto the same item, but theoretically it should work. You might need to experiment with it and if the bonus gets applied on top of the Set score then simply drop the Set score to 15. But the one might override the other, I’m not entirely sure. If you decide to fiddle with it then please lemme know how it turns out.
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I believe you would have to have 2 different items. One to set 17 and one to give a bonus of +2. You can't do both in the same item.
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How come?
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If you set it to 17 then add a bonus of +2, wouldn't you end up with 19? If you add a bonus of +2 then set to 17, you would have 17, right? It's been a minute since I played with modifying ability scores. I know from my Wild Shape effect system I used Bonus first and Set second, but I was using Bonus -20 to force the PC's current ability score to 0 (or less) and using Set to fix a static ability score.
It's basically a +2 to DEX (minimum Dexterity score of 17). But there's no way to tell what the PC's original Dexterity score is. Here's how I see this bonus applying for the item:
I can't think of how to do this in a single magic item.
How to: Replace DEX in your AC | Jump & Suffocation stats | Build a (Spell & class effect buff system | Wild Shape effect system) | Tool Proficiencies as Custom Skills | Spells at higher levels explained | Superior Fighting/Martial Adept Fix | Snippet Codes Explored - Subclasses | Snippet Math Theory | Homebrew Weapons Explained
Check out my: FEATS | MAGIC ITEMS | MONSTERS | SUBCLASSES Artificer Specialist: Weaveblade
Dndbeyond images not loading A PERMANENT WORKAROUND!!! (thank you Jay_Lane)
Fair enough, I'll fiddle around with it and see what happens :D
But if you Set it to 15 and then add the +2 bonus, shouldn’t that work? If the PC’s Dex is <15 it should Set to 15+2=17, and if it’s >15 it should default to the Score+2=>17. Right?
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I did some testing. You can actually get the exact table that Mairondil posted above by doing Set ---> Dexterity Score ---> 17 and Bonus ---> Dexterity Score ---> 2. Apparently, set scores can never be changed by bonuses, as proven by using a Manual of Quickness of Action at the same time as the item and it having no effect. When testing, I figured it would mess up at 16 initial Dexterity and replace it with 17 instead of 18, but it actually did give 18. Apparently the set is compared against the default score + any bonuses to determine which should be used. This is also proven by Mairondil's aforementioned Wild Shape system, which uses a bonus to set a character's normal score to a very low number so that it's always overridden by the set score when the two are compared.
Look at what you've done. You spoiled it. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Go sit and think about your actions.
Don't be mean. Rudeness is a vicious cycle, and it has to stop somewhere. Exceptions for things that are funny.
Go to the current Competition of the Finest 'Brews! It's a cool place where cool people make cool things.
How I'm posting based on text formatting: Mod Hat Off - Mod Hat Also Off (I'm not a mod)
So Set:17 and Bonus:2 should work?
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Yup.
Look at what you've done. You spoiled it. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Go sit and think about your actions.
Don't be mean. Rudeness is a vicious cycle, and it has to stop somewhere. Exceptions for things that are funny.
Go to the current Competition of the Finest 'Brews! It's a cool place where cool people make cool things.
How I'm posting based on text formatting: Mod Hat Off - Mod Hat Also Off (I'm not a mod)
Set 17 Bonus 2 DEX does indeed work. If I set a characters DEX to 16, it raises it to 18 (same if the dex was already 18 it goes to 20) and if the dex was 11 it was raised to 17.
Wahoo! I thought it should work, and I like being right.
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