Another Cheat! Question

[MunchkinMan]

Once you start combat, you can not change the status of any of your carried Items. Playing a Cheat! card would be legal, but that doesn't mean you could then equip the newly usable Item, no differently than if you'd changed Race or Class and now had an Item that you could have been using under that new Race or Class.

Given that I'm saying it's legal to play Cheat! during combat, the only way that would work that you'd get the bonus from the newly cheated Item you were not getting a bonus from previously is if the Item was being used when combat started, you lost the ability to use that Item during combat (e.g., lost Race or Class and it was a Race/Class-based Item), and then you played Cheat! on it.