[RPG] Does the Star card from the Deck of Many Things increase your ability score above 20

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Inspired by this question regarding the Star card from the Deck of Many Things and an Ioun Stone:

The Star card reads:

Increase one of your ability scores by 2. The score can exceed 20 but can't exceed 24.

However, this does not say that it increases your cap/max for that ability score. So assuming your ability started at 20, does this mean that, RAW, it would increase to 22, and then immediately revert back to a score of twenty because your cap is still just 20? Alternatively, perhaps the Star card increases your cap as a whole to 24?

Best Answer

Yes, the Star card can permanently increase your ability scores beyond the normal limit of 20.

The Player's Handbook, on page 15 in the section about applying ability score improvements, states the following rule:

Some of these features allow you to increase your ability scores, either increasing two scores by 1 each or increasing one score by 2. You can't increase an ability score above 20.

Note that, specifically, this does not say "you cannot have an ability score above 20"; it states that you cannot use ability score improvements to increase an ability score above 20 - the rule only has importance at the moment you are altering your stats.

Following standard "specific beats general" interpretation, the Star card offers you an ability score improvement which specifically clarifies that it can, in fact, raise your ability score above 20, up to 24. Having applied the benefit of the card, if your ability score is now 20 or higher, you can't improve it further with a normal ability score increase, as that's subject to the general rule that you can't increase the score above 20. But there's no rule that states that, if you have legally increased your score past 20 by some means, it has to go back down again. It's not really so much a "cap" as a threshold - it's difficult to cross but you're not forced back if you do it.