Strength.. Is it really the best statistic?

[Crothian]

I really think that the entire idea that Strength is more important than any other stat is based on flawed logic.

I'd say it is based on a certain assuption of the game and that assumption is not always true of course.

 

[hero4hire]

I dunno Str=accuracy AND damage for clubbing someone over the head, you dont have to take a bunch of Feats to make it work well for you in combat.

Dont get me wrong, I like my savvy Dex/Int based characters, but there aint nuthin' like a Big ole Monster with a Two Handed Weapon.

Thats why I hate DnD Giants..They are insanely accurate...Totally unlike any fictional Giant I have read about.

 

[Gruns]

Meh.

Mathematically speaking, 95% of the time, that 1 point doesn't matter anyway. Build your character with flavor and story in mind!
Later!
Gruns

 

[Plane Sailing]

Personally I think Con is the best second-stat.

The best stat depends upon the class of the character I'm playing, but Con is most likely to be the "second best stat" in almost all cases.

Can't do without those hit points...

 

[Kalendraf]

Through the 3e/3.5 campaigns I've participated in, I have to say CON is the most important stat of all. As a player, no matter what class I'd play, I'd always make CON one of my highest scores.

A weak con will hamper a character worse than any other stat. Even an average CON score will sometimes be too low. Not enough CON bonus simply sets the character up for a fall. Either they'll have low hit points or a poor fortitude save (you know...those ones that tend to be save or die style!).

 

[PaulGreystoke]

I dunno Str=accuracy AND damage for clubbing someone over the head, you dont have to take a bunch of Feats to make it work well for you in combat.

Dont get me wrong, I like my savvy Dex/Int based characters, but there aint nuthin' like a Big ole Monster with a Two Handed Weapon.

Thats why I hate DnD Giants..They are insanely accurate...Totally unlike any fictional Giant I have read about.

Right. This is one of the reasons that the 3E designers felt that STR is the "most powerful" stat. For a melee-focussed character one stat does almost all of the work. High STR increases average melee damage 2 ways - first directly by increasing damage per hit, but also second indirectly by increasing the chance of a successful hit. And this second way also increases the chances of confirming a critical hit, which increases damage as well. So a high STR meleer is significantly more effective than a low STR one.

And the character gets the whole benefit of this right at 1st level, as opposed to a caster who may only gain the benefit of bonus spells from a higher casting stat at a level when he can actually cast the spell. For instance an 18 INT wizard gets the higher saving throw on his spells & the bonus 1st level spell at 1st class level, but can only benefit from the bonus 2nd, 3rd, & 4th level spells gradually as he gains levels over his career. So the 18 INT wizard is only marginally more effective than the 12 INT wizard at low level - & no more effective at all in spellcasting if he only uses spells with no saving throws. But the 18 STR meleer is much more effective than his 12 STR counterpart right out of the gate & keeps this advantage throughout his career.

 

[BryonD]

I think that DEX is about as good as STR.
I think that a -2 CON is much worse than a +2 CON is good.

However, of the three physical stats, I think that STR is far easiest to develop a max/min character around. Thus I agree that STR can deserve a higher cost.

I would not allow a player to write up a human fighter and then after it is complete trade a +2 STR for -2 INT. I probably wouldn't even allow +2 STR for -2 INT and -2 CHR.
However, I would readily allow a player to write up a human wizard and tack on the Orc Blood trait and declare them to BE a half orc character.

 

[PaulGreystoke]

Since I'm bored at work, I thought I would include some stats outlining the advantages of high STR meleers. Assuming a 1st level good BAB meleer using a longsword (or equivalent 1H martial weapon) attacking AC 15 (a fairly standard enemy AC at low levels) here are the expected average damage per STR of the attacker.

STR DMG
10 1.73
12 2.42
14 3.22
16 4.13
18 5.14
20 6.27
22 7.51
24 8.86

Normalized against 15 STR (the default array STR score for a meleer) looks like the following:

STR DMG
10 0.54
12 0.75
14 1.00
16 1.28
18 1.60
20 1.95
22 2.33
24 2.75

So each +2 STR increases expected average damage by almost 30%. And of course this increase stacks with higher damage output from magic, specialization, & so forth. Meanwhile a +2 INT for a wizard only increases his saving throw DCs by 5% (unless it happens to grant a bonus spell that he is qualified to cast) & this saving throw DC increase only applies to his spells that grant saving throws, which (no matter what level the wizard is) will only be a handful of times a day. But the meleer gets the bonus to STR with every melee attack, every round, all day long.