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<blockquote data-quote="Kobold Stew" data-source="post: 6133642" data-attributes="member: 23484"><p>Ability scores don't measure "strong for their size" -- strength is a fixed (external) scale, on which most humans fall between 3 and 18 (though you could say 9-20 in DDN; whatever -- all human strength falls across these 12 or 16 points, which spreads over a bell curve).</p><p></p><p>Now to small races: However one imagines a halfling or a gnome, you are dealing with less than a third of the muscle mass involved in an average human. And one component of strength is the cross sectioned area of a muscle. Short of magic, a halfling is incapable of working on the same curve. I'm no kinesiologist, but I imagine a flat -6 to strength (so the point buy starts at 4, and the effective range is 5-14 when measured against the default human range) would be right, even if they are a hardy race of farmers. It just wouldn't be "fair", and that would be tough to balance for play. Farmers and miners do require physical strength, but the raw potential isn't there without the muscle mass.</p><p></p><p>So we fudge it, and we do so happily. But suspension of disbelief is required, and the amount is more than the difference of a spear doing d6 or d8 damage.</p><p></p><p>even if we scaled things back -- -4 to strength for small races, or a hard cap of 14 but the same base -- we would more closely describe the limits of potential for physical strength. But it's not somehtin g I suspect people want in their game.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Kobold Stew, post: 6133642, member: 23484"] Ability scores don't measure "strong for their size" -- strength is a fixed (external) scale, on which most humans fall between 3 and 18 (though you could say 9-20 in DDN; whatever -- all human strength falls across these 12 or 16 points, which spreads over a bell curve). Now to small races: However one imagines a halfling or a gnome, you are dealing with less than a third of the muscle mass involved in an average human. And one component of strength is the cross sectioned area of a muscle. Short of magic, a halfling is incapable of working on the same curve. I'm no kinesiologist, but I imagine a flat -6 to strength (so the point buy starts at 4, and the effective range is 5-14 when measured against the default human range) would be right, even if they are a hardy race of farmers. It just wouldn't be "fair", and that would be tough to balance for play. Farmers and miners do require physical strength, but the raw potential isn't there without the muscle mass. So we fudge it, and we do so happily. But suspension of disbelief is required, and the amount is more than the difference of a spear doing d6 or d8 damage. even if we scaled things back -- -4 to strength for small races, or a hard cap of 14 but the same base -- we would more closely describe the limits of potential for physical strength. But it's not somehtin g I suspect people want in their game. [/QUOTE]
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