When a cleric has a temporary bonus to his Charisma
score, does it affect his turning check or turning damage?
Does it change the number of times he can turn or rebuke
per day?
Unless otherwise stated, a temporary bonus to an ability
score has the same effect as a permanent one. For example, a
cleric with a temporary +4 enhancement bonus to Charisma
(such as from eagle’s splendor) adds 2 to his turning check and
to his turning damage while the spell was in effect, since his
Charisma modifier is 2 points higher than it was before.
Things get a little stickier when talking about powers with
daily limits, such as turn/rebuke undead or lay on hands. (Hold
on, because this gets worse before it gets better.) In this case, a
change to the key ability score indeed affects the daily limit—
in the example above, the cleric would gain 2 additional
turn/rebuke attempts per day—but these aren’t just “free” uses.
Here’s why:
Assume the cleric above has a normal Charisma score of
12, granting him 4 turn attempts per day (3 + 1 for Cha bonus).
Casting eagle’s splendor increases his Charisma to 16, which
would grant 6 attempts per day. At the end of the spell,
however, his daily limit would drop back down to 4 attempts.
At that point, the player must compare the number of daily uses
expended to the daily limit to see if any still remain.
Here’s how that might work in play. Our cleric turns
undead twice, then casts eagle’s splendor right before a big
fight with a horde of zombies. During the duration of the spell,
he makes four more turning checks. When the spell ends, he
compares his new daily limit (4) to the number of attempts used
(6)—whoops, no turns left. Hope all the undead have been
destroyed, because even if the cleric cast eagle’s splendor
again, he wouldn’t have any more turning attempts available,
since he’s already used all 6 of his allotted attempts. If he could
increase his Charisma to 18, he’d “gain” one more turning
attempt (since he has now used 6 out of his allotted 7 daily
attempts), usable only during the duration of the Charismaboosting
effect.
The same is true of the paladin’s lay on hands ability. If the
paladin gains a temporary Charisma boost, her total capacity of
healing via lay on hands improves accordingly, but she must
keep track of the healing “used up” to see if any remains after
the boost ends.
Temporary ability reductions (such as penalties or damage)
work similarly. When applying a reduction, do the math as if a
bonus had just elapsed to see if any daily uses are left, and
reverse that when the reduction goes away to see what (if
anything) the character regains. If our cleric is hit by touch of
idiocy and suffers a –4 penalty to Charisma, his daily limit of
turning attempts is reduced from 4 to 2; if he’s already used 2
or more, he has none available as long as the spell’s effect lasts.
This seems more complicated than it actually is. As long as
you remember that the important number to track is not uses
remaining, but uses expended, everything else should fall into
place.
08年6月30日FAQ，除非特殊说明，临时属性调整跟持久属性调整同效
