I gave my Dragonborn barbarian a gauntlets of ogre power which increases his strength score to 19 while he wears them. My question is, when he gets an ability score increase in a level or two, can he increase the 19 strength from the magic item to 20, or would he have to increase his old strength score (16)?
Your strength score is your strength score. There are some weird interpretations that sometimes float around these forums, but if you have a thing that says "Your strength score is 19." then that is it, whether or not you have ASIs, racial traits, or anything else that affects your strength (unless of course, those bring your strength above 19).
I agree with the previous commenters. The cool thing is that this also applies to penalties that your enemies might try to apply to you. They zap you with a strength draining effect, and you laugh it off. That’s pretty cool.
Your Strenght score is 19 while you wear Gauntlets of Ogre Power, this regardless if the ability score increase or decrease with ASI or Strenght Drain for exemple.
Headband of Intellect does the same thing with intelligence and provides immunity to Intellect Devourer attacks at the same time since even if your natural int goes to 0 - your intelligence remains 19. The key element is the wording of all these items - they all say that while you wear this item your stat is X and that if your stat starts greater than X then it has no effect. So, no, ANY form of stat modification does not stack with items that set your stat to a specific value.
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I gave my Dragonborn barbarian a gauntlets of ogre power which increases his strength score to 19 while he wears them. My question is, when he gets an ability score increase in a level or two, can he increase the 19 strength from the magic item to 20, or would he have to increase his old strength score (16)?
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HERE.No. Think of it like 2 different ways of calculating (like AC), you either have your base + all the bonuses or the "set to 19".
Your strength score is your strength score. There are some weird interpretations that sometimes float around these forums, but if you have a thing that says "Your strength score is 19." then that is it, whether or not you have ASIs, racial traits, or anything else that affects your strength (unless of course, those bring your strength above 19).
I agree with the previous commenters. The cool thing is that this also applies to penalties that your enemies might try to apply to you. They zap you with a strength draining effect, and you laugh it off. That’s pretty cool.
Your Strenght score is 19 while you wear Gauntlets of Ogre Power, this regardless if the ability score increase or decrease with ASI or Strenght Drain for exemple.
Headband of Intellect does the same thing with intelligence and provides immunity to Intellect Devourer attacks at the same time since even if your natural int goes to 0 - your intelligence remains 19. The key element is the wording of all these items - they all say that while you wear this item your stat is X and that if your stat starts greater than X then it has no effect. So, no, ANY form of stat modification does not stack with items that set your stat to a specific value.