[RPG] Do I lose access to a feat if ability drain results in no longer meeting the prerequisite

dnd-3.5efeats

Do curses or ability damage/drain cause a character to be unable to use his feats?

For example, a Ranger with 20 Dex who has two-weapon-fighting feats and is using two weapons gets cursed or ability drained and his Dex drops to 14. Does that cause the character not to be able to use his two-weapon feats (which have a requirement of at least 15 Dex)?

What about his other feats that have prerequisites of blocked feats? (As another example: a fighter with the Whirlwind Attack feat, which requires Combat Expertise gets an INT penalty that drops his INT under 13, a prerequisite of Combat Expertise). I think that he can no longer use his Combat Expertise feat (because of low INT) and also Whirlwind Attack and any other feats that require Combat Expertise. Is that right?


I guess it is better to clarify the reason I am asking.

First of all, there are so many books, and there are too many authors that create them and test them. Many bugs are uncovered due to that reason. It is quite hard to keep track of all these things. I know that.

The reason for the question is, for higher-level builds, skill, feat, class, prestige class, template and ability score choices become more important. And there are casters, whose main combat skills depend on spells (clerics, sorcerers, and wizards, especially). Maybe druids can deal with key ability score penalties, and clerics may try to survive such conditions. Wizards and sorcerers have less of a chance when their key ability score drops. A curse may cause them to be without magic (or with some weak spells) if they fail to resist it. They probably have higher Will saves, but they all have the chance.

And I am trying to be sure about the situation of a warrior-based class, because feats mean a lot to them. So what happens when they get cursed? Failure to be able to use a key feat is important, but not as much as a wizard who is unable to cast spells.

Related FAQ answer is not enough about this situation (the following part)

A feat sometimes requires you to have a certain ability
score, which is the case with Two-Weapon Fighting (it
requires Dex 15). A character has, say, Dex 13, but wears
an item, in this case gloves of Dexterity +2, and now her Dex
score is 15. Can she take the feat and have it be active only
when she wears the item?

Actually yes, she could take the feat, but she would lose the
use of the feat if, for whatever reason, she loses the bonus from
the item.

So, still looking for something more satisfactory.

UPDATE: @LitheOhm's answer:

Players Handbook:

Two-Weapon Fighting
Prerequisite: Dex 15.

Complete Adventurer

Oversized Two-Weapon Fighting
Prerequisite: Str13, Two-Weapon Fighting

I wish to clarify that, I just wish to be sure about what to do in such situation. That is just an example and probably being able to use Oversized Two-Weapon Fighting feat will not save the character while he could not use basic Two-Weapon Fighting feats due to Lowered DEX. But I still wonder, whether he could still use Oversized Two-Weapon Fighting.

Of course there could be some other feats which fits that situation. That is just one I noticed.

Best Answer

Yes: curses, ability damage, and ability drain causes loss of the ability to use the feat. You don't actually lose the feat, however - you just don't gain it's benefits until you meet the prerequisite again.

From the Players Handbook 3.5 page 87.

Prerequisites

A character cannot use a feat if he or she has lost the prerequisite. For example, if your characters strength drops below 13 because of a ray of enfeeblement spell, he or she can't use the Power Attack feat until the prerequisite is met again

When you lose a feat that is a prerequisite of another feat only the abilities of the prerequisite feat are lost, because you only have to have a prerequisite feat to qualify for another feat and losing the abilities doesn't change the fact that you have the prerequisite feat, you don't actually have to be able to use the prerequisite feat to qualify for the other feat...

...So if your dexterity was dropped below 13 you would lose access to Two-Weapon-Fighting but you would not lose access to Oversized-Two-Weapon-Fighting.