Ability Scores

[Scars Unseen]

Having read a bit of the discussion(that didn't devolve into pedantic rules corrections that had nothing at all to do with the thesis of this discussion) as well as similar discussions elsewhere, and in part due to having a new perspective after a good night's sleep, I'd like to revise my stance on the matter. So I'll restate it from the top. It'll be a bit shorter, because my view on the way WotC era ability score bonuses work has not changed. No need to restate that when its plainly visible just two pages prior.


I'll agree that stats should matter, just not for class competence. It just gets in the way of creating a character rather than a character build. I say put strongly defined barriers between what is governed by class(for combat), skills and raw ability. If you absolutely must have some relationship between them at all, go for a "you must be this tall to enter this ride" type so you don't have a skilled investigator with a 3 intelligence. Or maybe under certain circumstances(defined by the rules rather than the DM), you could allow for synergy between the categories by way of granting an Advantage(though never for combat, as that is the most likely category to devolve into min maxing and dump stats).

And for the love of hobbits, don't have ability related bonuses only go up every other point gain. That just makes odd scores pointless. Adjust the math to support an [ability] + 1d20, or if you want to make the score matter more, [ability] + 1d10.

 

[Keldryn]

Odd scores aren't pointless.

They still serve as a basis for describing a character's physical and mental attributes.

If we're strictly talking about it from the perspective of game mechanics, odd scores can serve as tie-breakers in any contest of ability scores (a 17 Str will beat a 16 Str on a tie).

Odd ability scores also make a difference when determining if a check is automatically successful. The playtest rules suggest that if a character's ability score is equal to or greater than the check DC +5, then no roll is necessary. Thus, with a DC 12 check a 17 is significantly better than 16, despite having the same +3 modifier. Now that DCs fit into a much more compressed range, a single point can be very significant.

There may be other areas where an odd ability score provides a benefit, similar to how the raw Strength score is used to determine carrying/lifting capacity and jumping, and how the raw Constitution score is used to determine starting hit points and how long you can hold your breath.

If ability score modifiers are constrained to the -5 to +5 range, then most checks are likely to be made by adding a single-digit number to a d20 roll. If you expand the range of modifiers to the -10 to +10 range, then the total die roll modifier is likely to hit double-digits much more quickly. Double-digit arithmetic is certainly not difficult, but adding two double-digit numbers is generally slower than adding a single-digit number to either a single-digit or double-digit number. This sounds like a pretty minor thing, but in my experience, it makes a big difference to the speed of play.