Changing Ability Scores

[Support Team]

CHANGING ABILITY SCORES
Over time, the ability scores your character starts with can change.
Ability scores can increase with no limit. Points at which ability
changes occur include the following:

Add 1 point to any score upon attaining 4th level and at every
fourth level your character attains thereafter (8th, 12th, 16th, and
20th level).

Many spells and magical effects temporarily increase or decrease
ability scores. The ray of enfeeblement spell reduces a creature’s
Strength, and the bull’s strength spell increases it. Sometimes a
spell simply hampers a character, reducing his or her ability score.
A character trapped by an entangle spell, for example, acts as if his
or her Dexterity were 4 points lower than it really is.

Several magic items improve ability scores as long as the character
is using them. For example, gloves of dexterity improve the wearer’s
Dexterity score. (Magic items are described in the Dungeon
Master’s Guide.) Note that a magic item of this type can’t change an
ability score by more than +6.

Some rare magic items can boost an ability score permanently, as
can a wish spell. Such an increase is called an inherent bonus. An
ability score can’t have an inherent bonus of more than +5.

Poisons, diseases, and other effects can temporarily harm an
ability (ability damage). Ability points lost to damage return on
their own at a rate of 1 point per day for each damaged ability.

Some effects drain abilities, resulting in a permanent loss (ability
drain). Points lost this way don’t return on their own, but they can
be regained with spells, such as restoration.

As a character ages, some ability scores go up and others go down.
See Table 6–5: Aging Effects (page 109).
When an ability score changes, all attributes associated with that
score change accordingly. For example, when Mialee becomes a 4thlevel
wizard, she decides to increase her Intelligence score to 16.
That score gives her a 3rd-level bonus spell (which she’ll pick up
upon attaining 5th level, when she becomes able to cast 3rd-level
spells), and it increases the number of skill points she gets per level
from 4 to 5 (2 per level for her class, plus another 3 per level from
her Intelligence bonus). As a new 4th-level character, she can get
the skill points immediately after raising her Intelligence, so she’ll
get 5 points for attaining 4th level in the wizard class. She does not
retroactively get additional points for her previous levels (that is,
skill points she would have gained if she had had an Intelligence
score of 16 starting at 1st level).