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More uses for ability scores?
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<blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 7609543" data-attributes="member: 996"><p>Roll under runs into some numerical issues, like a stat of 20 being problematic, and modeling varying difficulties being a bit fraught. Open-ended bonuses and DCs leave a lot more room to work with, mechanically.</p><p></p><p>A simpler, more honest solution to the 'odd stat out problem,' is just to toss them. Replaces stats with their bonuses: PC stats range from -1 to +5, end of story. </p><p></p><p> I certainly have in the past. I've pegged odd number stats to preqs for Feats, PrCs, PPs, riders on powers, etc in 3e & 4e. I've used them as tie-breakers in contested checks (hardly worth it).</p><p></p><p>And, in older pre-d20 games that didn't have standardized checks, I used a variation on roll-under:</p><p></p><p>Roll as high as you can without going /over/. It's the same chance of success as roll-under, but it gives you degrees of success that can be intuitively compared across different stat and lets you set a "difficulty" (so, like "roll over 5 without going over your stat." </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Sounds reasonable, I suppose you're looking for ideas on the other two?</p><p></p><p>WIS: Number of downtime days (or min or hrs depending on the situation) you can spend focused on one task without break before you need to start making WIS checks to avoid careless errors or just giving up.</p><p></p><p>DEX: … Really has enough going for it, already. ;P Heck, DEX grants it's bonus to so many things you might split them, push some bonuses by one to an odd break-point? So your damage bonus could +1 at DEX 12, but the hit bonus kicks in at 13, save bonus is +2 at 14, but the AC bonus of +2 starts at 15. Needlessly complicated, but DEX deserves to be picked on a bit.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Tony Vargas, post: 7609543, member: 996"] Roll under runs into some numerical issues, like a stat of 20 being problematic, and modeling varying difficulties being a bit fraught. Open-ended bonuses and DCs leave a lot more room to work with, mechanically. A simpler, more honest solution to the 'odd stat out problem,' is just to toss them. Replaces stats with their bonuses: PC stats range from -1 to +5, end of story. I certainly have in the past. I've pegged odd number stats to preqs for Feats, PrCs, PPs, riders on powers, etc in 3e & 4e. I've used them as tie-breakers in contested checks (hardly worth it). And, in older pre-d20 games that didn't have standardized checks, I used a variation on roll-under: Roll as high as you can without going /over/. It's the same chance of success as roll-under, but it gives you degrees of success that can be intuitively compared across different stat and lets you set a "difficulty" (so, like "roll over 5 without going over your stat." Sounds reasonable, I suppose you're looking for ideas on the other two? WIS: Number of downtime days (or min or hrs depending on the situation) you can spend focused on one task without break before you need to start making WIS checks to avoid careless errors or just giving up. DEX: … Really has enough going for it, already. ;P Heck, DEX grants it's bonus to so many things you might split them, push some bonuses by one to an odd break-point? So your damage bonus could +1 at DEX 12, but the hit bonus kicks in at 13, save bonus is +2 at 14, but the AC bonus of +2 starts at 15. Needlessly complicated, but DEX deserves to be picked on a bit. [/QUOTE]
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