All 18s, All The Time

[Asmor]

To be honest, if you went with the 'all 18s' route I'd say that you should consider that only mechanically and then go ahead and describe your character in appropriate RP terms.

Oh, absolutely. You don't need to have an 8 in wisdom to be the absent-minded wizard. Just play your character as if he's absent-minded.

Part of the idea of this is to get rid of ability scores without actually changing the system, so you don't need to roleplay your character as if you had 18s in everything.

 

[Garthanos]

Similar/Almost etc is a relative thing
20 to 30 hitpoints = 4,5,6 hitpoints ... this is a "fairish translation" of what a version 2.5 D&D player sees looking at 4e mathematically... and boy when my wizards rolled 1 on hitpoints 2 tops, so many times you cant imagine. ;-), I was really wishing for house rules like d4 and d6(4 hp), d8(5hp), d10 and d12(6hp).

That said I really dont see ironing out the subtleties like the proposed rule actually gaining much.(nor losing as much as those who heartily object). insufficient argument has been put forth for it providing benefit.

 

[IanB]

You might do better to just remove stats and assign static bonuses.

 

[Garthanos]

Oh, absolutely. You don't need to have an 8 in wisdom to be the absent-minded wizard. Just play your character as if he's absent-minded.

Part of the idea of this is to get rid of ability scores without actually changing the system, so you don't need to roleplay your character as if you had 18s in everything.

Oh I wasn't saying you had to have mechanical aspects but it can help some players... it can work entirely without.... heres how I see it and its very 4e

Just as players are encouraged to skin what their characters powers look like ..... allowing/encouraging/requiring ;-) players to describe how there characters skills or defenses succeed and fail. If you your highly agile character fails to hit the target it can be because there arrow hit a crosswind. It can be because the enemy defended them self very well, If your character is clumbsy and they fail then they can describe it as them stumbling over there own shaking arthritic condition.... or they can suceed because they were distracted by something and fired at a different target....
I was aiming at the guy on the left honest. That was a critical failure not a critical hit (mechanically he rolled a 20 but that is entirely beside the point)

 

[Crothian]

I have found that players don't like straight 18's. I usually allow players to pick their own stats for their characters and have told my players repeatedly that straight 18's would be fine. I've never had a player take more then one 18 and about 50% of the characters geenrated this way have not had any 18's at all.

So, while I'm open to the idea I don'ty see my own players wanting to do this.

 

[Asmor]

I have found that players don't like straight 18's. I usually allow players to pick their own stats for their characters and have told my players repeatedly that straight 18's would be fine. I've never had a player take more then one 18 and about 50% of the characters geenrated this way have not had any 18's at all.

So, while I'm open to the idea I don'ty see my own players wanting to do this.

That's an even better idea. I think I will be officially stealing that. Thanks!

ETA: Just sent out an email to the group informing them of this decision.

 

[Garthanos]

heh now that I think about it... my players would probably generate straight 13s and 14s with an occasional 16 or 17 a hight point buy but very distributed.

 

[Flipguarder]

I'm not saying this to make anyone feel bad. But I find the all 18 houserule to be heavily exploitable and will be building a character exploiting it as much as I can for fun (I've recently learned Im a HUGE min/maxer). I'll show you my results.

Stay tuned...

 

[Garthanos]

I'm not saying this to make anyone feel bad. But I find the all 18 houserule to be heavily exploitable and will be building a character exploiting it as much as I can for fun (I've recently learned Im a HUGE min/maxer). I'll show you my results.

Stay tuned...

heheh I want to see the ultimate pc by flipguarder..

 

[RyvenCedrylle]

The other option, Asmor, is to throw all ability scores out the window and then adjust the rest of the game down 4. That might be somewhat more convoluted, though.

I've been screwing around writing a game now for the last couple years that has no character stats so I really like this idea. I mean, I REALLY like it -

-except for D&D. Especially 4E.

Why? Not enough noncombat player-narration powers and feats. Straight up. Your two main feat types in this edition are "add or subtract a number" and "substitute x for y." Even most of your utility powers are of those two types with the occasional "make a nonstandard movement" thrown in.

Stuff like Oath of the Relentless Hunter (Avenger Utility 6) and Magpie Filch (Rogue Utility 16) are my favorite types of powers; schticks. My character does this. I don't need to roll, I just do it because that's what I do. The Vancian spell system from previous editions also gave this feel to some extent. They would be gold in a statless system because they a) help differentiate one PC from another apart from fighting style and b) support the feel of a game where the math is as minimized as possible.

If I'm playing D&D, though, I'm here because I want to figure out how to get a +87 to hit. I want to stack bonuses and crunch numbers because that's what the game encourages. If I don't want math, I'll play FATE. There's something about a statless D&D that falls into a mechanical 'uncanny valley' for me.

But I still like the idea.