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When you gain Constitution by leveling up and your mod increases do you gain past levels in health?

For example,

A gunslinger has 13 con which makes a +1 mod. If they roll 4 each level at level 4 they would have 20 health. They put their gained point into con increasing the mod to +2.

Would that effect only future levels or would you increase your health to 24?

Would it effect your current level making your health 21?

Aaron
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1 Answers1

21

If a character's Constitution score changes enough to alter his or her Constitution modifier, the character's hit points also increase or decrease accordingly.

Any changes to your Con affect all relevant HD. This rule can be found in both Pathfinder and D&D 3.5.

okeefe
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CatLord
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  • No problem, just happened to be looking at the right time – CatLord Jan 06 '14 at 20:24
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    CatLord: Updated it to cover both PF and 3.5, since the rule is the same. – KRyan Jan 06 '14 at 21:34
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    The same is true for any change in Constitution score (ability drain/damage, spell effect, poison, rage ability, et al). – Wyrmwood Jan 06 '14 at 21:59
  • @wyrmwood Mostly true but worth mentioning that in PF ability drain/damage works differently - you get -1 per 2 points regardless of what your stat is (odd or even) - e.g. 14 CON and 1 point of CON damage = no effect yet. – mxyzplk Jan 07 '14 at 15:14
  • I'm pretty sure that in 3.5e and PF they specifically make changes to stats always an even number because of this issue in 3.0 – CatLord Jan 07 '14 at 15:22
  • @CatLord Nope, there are even things that do ability drain/damage based on a die roll (e.g. ray of enfeeblement’s 1d6+CL Strength drain) – KRyan Jan 07 '14 at 15:52
  • Just to clear this up, PF's ability damage and ability penalties work as @mxyzplk describes (-1 for every 2 points of damage, regardless of the starting point), while ability drain keeps the bonus on the even/odd boundary. – ladenedge Jan 07 '14 at 17:01
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    Weird. Why penalize someone further for an otherwise useless odd point? – Wyrmwood Jan 07 '14 at 18:58