Command Word Activation

[myancey]

This may be easily answered, but can a fellow party member activate an item that is on my person provided they know and say the appropriate command word for the item?

Ex. An belt that heals based on command word activation. I'm unconscious, so a party member says the command word in order to heal my character via the belt.

Thanks.

[Gamer Girl]

I don't think it's overly said in the rules, but the answer needs to be No


Otherwise a clever foe could activate and waste all your magic.

[Divide by Zero]

If no activation method is suggested either in the magic item description or by the nature of the item, assume that a command word is needed to activate it. Command word activation means that a character speaks the word and the item activates. No other special knowledge is needed.

A command word can be a real word, but when this is the case, the holder of the item runs the risk of activating the item accidentally by speaking the word in normal conversation. More often, the command word is some seemingly nonsensical word, or a word or phrase from an ancient language no longer in common use. Activating a command word magic item is a standard action and does not provoke attacks of opportunity.

Relevant sentence bolded. Considering you can activate it by accident in conversation, I can't see why other people wouldn't be able to.

[Ernir]

The limitation is that most items must be held/worn in order to function. You can't activate a Healing Belt someone else is wearing because you are not wearing it.

This is spelled out in the Rules Compendium, page 84.

[dextercorvia]

This makes cursed items unnecessary. Just give out armor of etherealness or whatever with your player's favorite expletives as command words.

[That_guy_there]

Relevant sentence bolded. Considering you can activate it by accident in conversation, I can't see why other people wouldn't be able to.

The more important part of that quote is the first line of the second paragraph. It states that the [I]holder[I] of the item is at risk of accidental activation. This infers that others cannot Activate your items.