I've always interpreted the ability score increases you get from feats as being instantaneous effects. If you're ineligible for them at the time, they just go away; they don't reappear later if you somehow become eligible for them. But this is my interpretation, and I'm not sure there's a solid RAW answer.
I've always interpreted the ability score increases you get from feats as being instantaneous effects. If you're ineligible for them at the time, they just go away; they don't reappear later if you somehow become eligible for them. But this is my interpretation, and I'm not sure there's a solid RAW answer.
(So, in that example: 17.)
So, if you managed to change out the feat, your stat wouldn't go down?
(It's not, AFAIK, possible to swap out feats that provide stat bumps in the WotC rules (short of a wish), but that's not a guarantee it never will be.)
I've always interpreted the ability score increases you get from feats as being instantaneous effects. If you're ineligible for them at the time, they just go away; they don't reappear later if you somehow become eligible for them. But this is my interpretation, and I'm not sure there's a solid RAW answer.
(So, in that example: 17.)
So, if you managed to change out the feat, your stat wouldn't go down?
(It's not, AFAIK, possible to swap out feats that provide stat bumps in the WotC rules (short of a wish), but that's not a guarantee it never will be.)
Well, I think that's a big part of why swapping out a feat is not generally possible: it would be essentially undoing the past, which is why it's (currently, at least) uniquely available via a spell that can reshape reality.
With that in mind, I think it would make sense for any ability score improvements granted by a feat to be undone when the feat is swapped out, though I acknowledge that might make less sense if there were a more commonplace and less reality-breaking way to do it.
This is just my opinion, but to me the "Increase your ability score by..." language in the feats that I looked at suggests that it is a one-time increase, not a constant bonus.
If it were a bonus to your score, I feel like it would read "Add +1 to your strength score" or something similar.
Because you couldn't increase your Strength score because it was already 20, that part has no effect after you take the feat, and if you Strength score is decreased later (as by the example you gave in the OP) the feat still won't have any effect because the increase happens at the time it is taken, not granted as a constant effect.
I don't have any rules I can cite to back that up, it's just my opinion based on the wording used in the rules.
Pure hypothetical here, inspired by a different thread.
Suppose you have a 20 strength, and then take a feat that gives you +1 strength, because you want the rest of its bonuses.
Then you fight a shadow. It hits, and reduces your strength by 3. Is your strength now 17 or 18?
The feat gives a one-time bump at that point in time. But if the score is already 20 then you don't get the one time bump. Later if you then have your strength reduced by 3 from the Shadow, then your strength is a 17.
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Pure hypothetical here, inspired by a different thread.
Suppose you have a 20 strength, and then take a feat that gives you +1 strength, because you want the rest of its bonuses.
Then you fight a shadow. It hits, and reduces your strength by 3. Is your strength now 17 or 18?
I've always interpreted the ability score increases you get from feats as being instantaneous effects. If you're ineligible for them at the time, they just go away; they don't reappear later if you somehow become eligible for them. But this is my interpretation, and I'm not sure there's a solid RAW answer.
(So, in that example: 17.)
pronouns: he/she/they
So, if you managed to change out the feat, your stat wouldn't go down?
(It's not, AFAIK, possible to swap out feats that provide stat bumps in the WotC rules (short of a wish), but that's not a guarantee it never will be.)
Well, I think that's a big part of why swapping out a feat is not generally possible: it would be essentially undoing the past, which is why it's (currently, at least) uniquely available via a spell that can reshape reality.
With that in mind, I think it would make sense for any ability score improvements granted by a feat to be undone when the feat is swapped out, though I acknowledge that might make less sense if there were a more commonplace and less reality-breaking way to do it.
pronouns: he/she/they
This is just my opinion, but to me the "Increase your ability score by..." language in the feats that I looked at suggests that it is a one-time increase, not a constant bonus.
If it were a bonus to your score, I feel like it would read "Add +1 to your strength score" or something similar.
Because you couldn't increase your Strength score because it was already 20, that part has no effect after you take the feat, and if you Strength score is decreased later (as by the example you gave in the OP) the feat still won't have any effect because the increase happens at the time it is taken, not granted as a constant effect.
I don't have any rules I can cite to back that up, it's just my opinion based on the wording used in the rules.
The feat gives a one-time bump at that point in time. But if the score is already 20 then you don't get the one time bump. Later if you then have your strength reduced by 3 from the Shadow, then your strength is a 17.