D&D General Friday Nonsense: Add One Stat To D&D (For PCs)

Yaarel said:

For "fame", status, reputation, societal impact, social connections and pull, clout, recognizability, etcetera, I refer to the leveling tiers. The higher the level, the larger the population a character affects.

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The problem with that is that XP does not come from recognition. A party could be a group of 1st level unknowns, then head off to the dungeon and hit 5th level before moving on to a totally different town. Their "deeds" are known only to them.

Dedication

It determines how much a charachter can stick to the plan, stay focused, and self sacrifice.

Mostly because im tired of players assuming thier charachters are hyper dedicated workaholics who use every minute of downtime for self improvement or focused on the quest. Who will sleep on the floor of an inn and eat iron rations to save a silver piece.

PLAYER One: ok when we get back from town we have three days of down time before the ship leaves. My wizard spends them brewing potions. So if he works 16 hours a day he will get three done.

DM: roll a dedication check.

PLAYER One: oh a 10 but my modifer is -3 so a 7

DM: yeah you sleep in, decide you need to rearrange the lab, play with your familiar, and doom scroll your Crystal ball for most of the days you get nothing done.

PLAYER Two: My bard is going to use the Bastion Tavern to generate some income so we can fund supplies. Dang I got a 9 on my motivation check.

DM: you spend your time drinking and flirting with patrons. You actually lose money comping bottles of eleven wine for a Dwarven Bachelorette party, busying your self expensive pastries, and splurging on the new capes that are in style right now.

Reynard said:

The problem with that is that XP does not come from recognition. A party could be a group of 1st level unknowns, then head off to the dungeon and hit 5th level before moving on to a totally different town. Their "deeds" are known only to them.

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I have the Fame increase expomentially, spreading by word of mouth, troubadours, divination, etcetera.

So the higher the level, the more likely the new town recognizes who the characters are.

Fame = population impacted = 10^(level / 2)

So at level 6, a thousand people (small town).
At level 12, a million people (small nation, huge city) are aware.
At level 19, about 3 billion (medieval planet).
At level 20, multiple planets/planes.

Preparedness: write down the items you have that matter to you. Weapons, potions, heirlooms, and other stuff like that. Torches, flint, extra pouches, soap, mirror, rope, and other common items that spend 99% of their time in your pack? Just make a Prep roll to see if you have the item in question when you need it. Different packs grant advantage on certain types of items.

Meta-knowledge: make a meta roll to be allowed to open up the MM or DMG to look up one thing you choose. A nat 20 let's you peak at the DMs notes (value of this varies by DM). A nat 1 and the DM makes all your rolls for you behind a screen and only tells you if you succeeded or not for the next 20 minutes.

Hunger. Not just, “I need to eat” but some kind of internal drive that you can burn to power abilities but using it drives your character to do something that potentially complicates their lives.

Getting away from ability scores, I think Damage Reduction could help a lot with figuring out the fictional difference between AC and HP.

One houserule I've used privately in the past is "first impression score" - a number that indicates how impressive you look to people when they first see you. Bonuses for heavy armor, magic items, supernatural effects, etc. Mostly as a reminder for the dm that you no longer look like the armed bums you were at 1st level. Of course a rogue or sorcerer might not want to look impressive, but a 16th-level paladin rolling into town on a griffon isn't jut another stranger.

Reynard said:

I think the 2E Player's Option books split stats like this, but I can't remember exactly how each one was split up.

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Tonguez said:

I've always wanted to separate Dexterity (fine motor control, precision, timing) and Agility (balance, flexibility, motion)

Dexterity gets Sleight of hand, tool use, picklocks, medicine, ranged combat, initiative and AC
Agility gets Acrobatics/Athletics (climbing, swimming, jumping), Stealth, dodging (Agility save)

Finesse Weapons use Dexterity for attack and Agility for Damage
Other weapons use Str
Ranged weapons use Dex

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2E Skills and powers divided all ability scores into 2 sub-abilities:

Strength - Stamina and Muscle
Dexterity - Aim and Balance
Constitution - Health and Fitness
Intelligence - Knowledge and Reason
Wisdom - Intuition and Willpower
Charisma - Leadership and Appearance