D&D General Doing away with INT/WIS/CHA

Jer · Jul 11, 2019

ParanoydStyle said:
Strictly speaking in terms of action economy, I think it would probably "feel" better for a spell that takes twice as long to cast being more like 2.5x as powerful as opposed to 2X as powerful, because players generally don't like to spend their turn doing "nothing", even if it's clearly in service of doing something powerful the next turn, but I'd have to experiment with it more to know for real.[/FONT]

In 13A the sorcerer also gets a random chaos effect on the round they lose to gather power. It's either some kind of small but automatic damage to nearby enemies or a bonus to your defenses until your next turn starts. I know the sorcerer in my group typically has zero problems making that trade off and uses gather power whenever they can.

Jonathan Tweet · Jul 11, 2019

ParanoydStyle said:
That "charge up" mechanic is really cool. Reminds me of Final Fantasy Tactics which is virtually always a good thing. Strictly speaking in terms of action economy, I think it would probably "feel" better for a spell that takes twice as long to cast being more like 2.5x as powerful as opposed to 2X as powerful, because players generally don't like to spend their turn doing "nothing", even if it's clearly in service of doing something powerful the next turn, but I'd have to experiment with it more to know for real.

That's a good analysis. The other trick is that if charging up let's you get double-value out of your daily spells, it increases your per-day power level even if it doesn't increase your per-round power level.

Jonathan Tweet · Jul 11, 2019

Tony Vargas said:
Where did the "Blood of Dragons" bit come from?

I wrote that kobolds had "sorcerer" as their favored class and that they say that they have the blood of dragons coursing through their veins. I meant everyone to figure that they were deluding themselves, but everyone loved the idea and it became canonical, basically. I don't remember how that got applied to human sorcerers, but we were definitely trying to make 3E cooler than 2E.

Tony Vargas · Jul 13, 2019

I'm glad I stared the thread, if only for the kobold blood of dragons story. Thanks.

But, the original topic ultimately attracted no attention from the folks I hoped might see value in it.

::shrug::

Garthanos · Jul 13, 2019

Jer said:
In 13A the sorcerer also gets a random chaos effect on the round they lose to gather power. It's either some kind of small but automatic damage to nearby enemies or a bonus to your defenses until your next turn starts. I know the sorcerer in my group typically has zero problems making that trade off and uses gather power whenever they can.

That is very nice... I was still thinking a minor action un-related but this is better its like the after effect in that ti can be customized to the specific muli-round action. I like it.

And of course given my purview for for martial equity now I am trying to think of something interesting for martial during the initial stages of a multi-part combo.

Lylandra · Jul 13, 2019

I guess that this is doable, but I generally don't think that getting rid of mental scores is a good idea.

Why? Because it creates a major imbalance between the effectiveness of more intelligent or persuasive or socially adapt players. Plus it one-ups the already omnipresent problem that some DM's and player's ideas on "what's plausible" align more than others.

It may work in homogenuos groups where everyone knows each other pretty well. But use it in a new group or, worse, a con environment, and people will get frustrated.

Garthanos · Jul 13, 2019

Lylandra said:
I guess that this is doable, but I generally don't think that getting rid of mental scores is a good idea.

I think he even said it was a bad idea...

I know people normally mean the opposite when they say that, but in this case I am thinking it is actually face value LOL

GreenTengu · Jul 13, 2019

I think it would be fine to fix the attribute overall.
Frankly, I am not even sold on the value of the physical scores being exactly what they are given this edition's allowance for players to basically have their Dexterity do everything Strength would normally do plus more.

I am not sure though that "Power" and "Faith" are any more clearly defined for me when it comes to skills than "Intelligence" and "Wisdom" are.

Garthanos · Jul 13, 2019

GreenTengu said:
I think it would be fine to fix the attribute overall.
Frankly, I am not even sold on the value of the physical scores being exactly what they are given this edition's allowance for players to basically have their Dexterity do everything Strength would normally do plus more.

Dex the uberstat... if strength can share its stuff let Wis,Int,Cha and occasionally Con steal some of Dex stuff (forethought fast decisive or even instinctive thinking and spirited eagerness sound like a foundation of initiative if you weren't surprised more than reflexes)

GreenTengu · Jul 13, 2019

Garthanos said:
Dex the uberstat... if strength can share its stuff let Wis,Int,Cha and occasionally Con steal some of Dex stuff (forethought fast decisive or even instinctive thinking and spirited eagerness sound like a foundation of initiative if you weren't surprised more than reflexes)

Sure-- another one might be-- shouldn't the stat that adds its bonus to Perception (i.e. Wisdom) be the stat attribute that ranged attacks with bows and such be based on rather than the stat that dictates ones ability to Dodge attacks (i.e. Dexterity)?