GMMichael
Guide of Modos
This question pertains to a modular game that requires concentration for long duration spells, uses bounded accuracy, gives characters three actions per round (move, main, and reaction?), has free core rules, gives advantage for roleplaying, has separated skill bonuses from feats, allows swapping between feats and ability points, assumes campaigns begin above first level, and uses ability checks as saving throws. And no, it's not fifth edition.
It's for my homebrew, and I fell asleep last night wondering this: is it fair for two characters of equal level to have vastly different ability scores?
I'll start with an example:
Character 1, Zaphod, level 5, ability scores Physical 12, Mental 8, Metaphysical 15
--Skills: profession-politician 1, persuade 3, defend-parry 1
--Perks: extra head, specialize (politician), stubborn (max mental dmg +3), lucky day, observant
Character 2, Ford, level 5, ability scores Physical 10, Mental 10, Metaphysical 20
--Skills: profession-journalist 2, persuade 3
--Perks: metaphysical point (x5)
So, these ability scores grant bonuses to skills similarly to The OGL, and persuade is a metaphysical skill. So, Zaphod gets +5 to his persuade contests (MP +2 and skill +3), and Ford gets +8 to his persuade contests. Ford used his perks to buy ability score points, one per level, which apply to all of the metaphysical skills (about 1/3 of the skill choices).
Other considerations:
- Each level, a character gains 1 ability point, 1 skill point, and a perk. Each character started with 10 metaphysical, and put each level-up into metaphysical.
- Ability scores act like hit points, meaning Ford has 5 more metaphysical HP than Zaphod, and Zaphod gains 3 from his stubborn perk, so he has one more mental HP than Ford.
- Skill points are capped at a character's level, so even if Ford had used his perks to buy skill points instead of ability score points, he couldn't have more than 5 in one skill.
- Zaphod's specialize perk gives him +3 to his profession-politician contests. He could have applied this to the persuade skill instead, which effectively lets him exceed the skill cap by a maximum of 3 points.
Is Ford unbalanced due to his high ability score, or does his lack of interesting perks mitigate this?
It's for my homebrew, and I fell asleep last night wondering this: is it fair for two characters of equal level to have vastly different ability scores?
I'll start with an example:
Character 1, Zaphod, level 5, ability scores Physical 12, Mental 8, Metaphysical 15
--Skills: profession-politician 1, persuade 3, defend-parry 1
--Perks: extra head, specialize (politician), stubborn (max mental dmg +3), lucky day, observant
Character 2, Ford, level 5, ability scores Physical 10, Mental 10, Metaphysical 20
--Skills: profession-journalist 2, persuade 3
--Perks: metaphysical point (x5)
So, these ability scores grant bonuses to skills similarly to The OGL, and persuade is a metaphysical skill. So, Zaphod gets +5 to his persuade contests (MP +2 and skill +3), and Ford gets +8 to his persuade contests. Ford used his perks to buy ability score points, one per level, which apply to all of the metaphysical skills (about 1/3 of the skill choices).
Other considerations:
- Each level, a character gains 1 ability point, 1 skill point, and a perk. Each character started with 10 metaphysical, and put each level-up into metaphysical.
- Ability scores act like hit points, meaning Ford has 5 more metaphysical HP than Zaphod, and Zaphod gains 3 from his stubborn perk, so he has one more mental HP than Ford.
- Skill points are capped at a character's level, so even if Ford had used his perks to buy skill points instead of ability score points, he couldn't have more than 5 in one skill.
- Zaphod's specialize perk gives him +3 to his profession-politician contests. He could have applied this to the persuade skill instead, which effectively lets him exceed the skill cap by a maximum of 3 points.
Is Ford unbalanced due to his high ability score, or does his lack of interesting perks mitigate this?
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