(PF) Aegis of recovery questions

[W3bDragon]

Hi folks. My low level paladin is currently wearing an Aegis of Recovery. This item automatically kicks in when someone drops below 0 HPs and heals them 2d8+3.

My questions are:

1. Does the character drop prone, then get healed?
2. Would this work if the damage he took reduced him to below -10?

I can't find a solid reference either way, so any help would be appreciated!

[Keneth]

The way I see it, the effect kicks in as soon as the character is reduced below 0 hp. So definitely before falling prone and I would also rule that before dying but the wording in the description is not that explicit. The word "should" somewhat implies that the effect occurs immediately after as opposed to effects that state "...if the character would be..." which occur before but I believe the general ruling is that this happens before the resolution of the triggering event.

[Zagaroth]

And as a side, nitpick note, if you are playing PF, remember that it's -[con score], not -10 :)

[W3bDragon]

The way I see it, the effect kicks in as soon as the character is reduced below 0 hp. So definitely before falling prone and I would also rule that before dying but the wording in the description is not that explicit. The word "should" somewhat implies that the effect occurs immediately after as opposed to effects that state "...if the character would be..." which occur before but I believe the general ruling is that this happens before the resolution of the triggering event.

Indeed, the wording on the item itself is pretty vague. You'd think that would be something important to address on an item such as this.

Anyway, I just reread the entire section on hitpoints, hitpoint loss and death/injury on the srd. Also after reading the Aegis of recovery, I've boiled it down to this:

The Aegis of Recovery entry states:

Should the wearer ever drop below 0 hit points, the aegis cures 2d8+3 points of damage to the wearer
That suggests that its an instantaneous effect.

The srd states:

A dying character immediately falls unconscious and can take no actions.

So it seems that both the healing and the falling unconscious are instantaneous results of dropping below 0 hitpoints.

On the one hand, it could be easily interpreted to mean that, right after taking the hit that drops you to negative, before you crumble down and fall, the healing kicks in instantaneously, and you don't actually drop prone.

On the other hand, the item's low gold value and its name "of Recovery" suggest that its not that powerful. It simply applies a cure moderate wounds spell on you after you fall into the negatives and start bleeding to "recover."

If I were DMing, I'd rule in favor of the player, since this is a one-shot item anyway. However, I'm not DMing in this case, and I'd like to have a concrete ruling as to how this works for when the item eventually comes into play.

[Keneth]

You could try asking the question more directly on the paizo website and hope that one of the devs takes notice or that someone can direct you to a concrete ruling. The only other option is to sit down and talk to the DM before such an item actually appears in-game (on the fly rulings tend to not work to player's advantage in my experience).