Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Sunic_Flames 07-20-07, 05:16 PM	Ok, let's say someone has 15 Dex, and is hit with multiple poison attacks which reduce this to exactly 0 on the initial saves. This of course, renders them helpless. But what happens if they then fail a secondary save? Do they have negative dexterity for the purpose of curing the ability damage, or does it floor at zero?
Sildatorak 07-21-07, 12:06 AM	RAW sets the floor at 0, but at least a substantial minority houserule that it can drive you negative to prevent "I take off his gloves of dexterity and then put them back on him."
Leilond 07-23-07, 03:34 AM	The floor is at 0 You can take "track" of the "extra damage" to defend your game from what the poster before me said: "I took away the glove of dexterity and put them back" You can simply "house rule" that, once you have 0 dexterity, you are helpless until someone won't CURE at least 1 dexterity point, no matter of the item you put on/off.
Phrennzy 07-23-07, 11:47 AM	"I take off his gloves of dexterity and then put them back on him." I don't know how long it would take me to stop laughing at someone who was serious when they said this to me. "He's downed from the poison! Quick, reboot his Dex!" :rofl:
weasel0 07-23-07, 02:14 PM	This is only to throw a monkey-wrench into the thought process because the rest of you are correct. So here goes.... Dex 14 Gloves of Dex is a +2(16) but your ability score is still 14. Poison wipes your Dex to 0. But you still have a Dex of (2) because your ability score can only go to 0 and poison can't effect the enhancement. ;) :P Thereby canceling any "abuse" of the system because the system has it built-in to begin with. Now to placate the rules. Your still paralyzed because your body has no Dex in it. The (2) in your score just means your an extra limber piece of wet noodle. Remember that magic enhances what you already have. (This also means that your still dead at 0 Con regardless of +X.) This takes care of all those "abuses" and is still completely in the rules.
Marcus Majarra 07-23-07, 04:29 PM	Now to placate the rules. Your still paralyzed because your body has no Dex in it. The (2) in your score just means your an extra limber piece of wet noodle. Remember that magic enhances what you already have. (This also means that your still dead at 0 Con regardless of +X.) This takes care of all those "abuses" and is still completely in the rules. Except that the rules don't work this way. Your ability score changes with modifiers to it for all purposes, including the ability to withstand ability damage. The entire "abuse case" even has support within the FAQ.
weasel0 07-23-07, 05:12 PM	Hence, the .... because the rest of you are correct :P
meabolex 07-23-07, 05:38 PM	Do they have negative dexterity for the purpose of curing the ability damage, or does it floor at zero? From the SRD: Keeping track of negative ability score points is never necessary. A character’s ability score can’t drop below 0. Maybe the "abuse case" is a boon to a party without a cleric. However, since the concept of doing this is effectively metagaming (without some kind of serious knowledge about what the ability scores represent, perhaps a heal check), it's no biggie.