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Or Linuspauling. #terrible

I'm glad they're emphasizing the genre/style aspect of HP with specific modules, or at least approaches to modules. The half hp default is causing some consternation, and I'd go with something like Chris_Nightwing's approach where restful environments allow one to rest better. That allows a...

Your point is unchanged, @howandwhy99, but your calculation is incorrect. (Tipped off when you said something has a 1 1/2 chance...all probabilities must be between 0 and 1.) An ability score does have a 1/54 chance of being a 17 or 18 when using the 3d6 method. However, the probability that...

I'm inclined to think of Intelligence as a measure of reasoning, Wisdom as measure of recognizing/mastering desires, and Charisma as the capability to pursue one's desires. Or: Intelligence determines the smart thing to do, Wisdom determines whether or not one can pursue the smart thing, and...

Hmm, fair enough. I would like to note that in the second presentation you do not have to explicitly track how many rolls you have previously made because this is handled implicitly by adding 1 after each roll. An analogy might be tracking hit points, where each "round" you make an "attack"...

Is it absurdly complex? I mean, it's way easier than combat, and I don't think it's harder than point buy. But I have a high tolerance for math shenanigans. Is it any better if explicitly presented as a single value to track that changes after every roll? Have some number that starts at 0...

The big complaint about rolling stats is usually the large variance between characters. That arises naturally from the roll used to determine each ability score, but it is also enhanced because each ability score is rolled independently. We can clamp down on the variance for each score (e.g...

I like the basic direction described in the interaction section. The emphasis seems to be on the natural attitudes, knowledge, and reactions of the NPC, which is really the only foundation that makes any sense for a mechanical framework that should flow spontaneously into and out of pure...

That's true, but there is a distinction, though not a clear-cut one, between how one does things (in terms of mechanics) and what one does (in terms of the non-mechanical fiction.) I probably ought to have used the same term (how/what) for both statements so I could highlight that I meant a...

I prefer a single generic currency that let's the GM pick whatever monetary systems or specific currencies they think is appropriate for the setting. The scale factor of a system is, strictly speaking, arbitrary, but to keep calculations simple the value of the weakest valuable things (to an...

Whether we think of these elements as game mechanics with attached story or story elements with attached mechanics, I think the main thing is that, at a basic level, we often don't have a design pattern/philosophy which would help elevate the combination of the disparate parts to an emergent and...

OK, thank you, that really clarifies things for me. I agree with you as long as the number of ability score bumps can, at best, max both those scores. Really, it's the same thing: to prevent wasting +1s the number of bumps we can get should be less than the number of bumps we really want...

Let's not put words in his mouth, or this will go to the bad place. Here is how I think of the delayed gratification issue. If we balance feats against +1 ability score (such that they are worth +1/2 modifier) the assumption is that we can do it enough that the "graininess" of the progression...

Yeah, the number of tiers and where they begin/end is pretty malleable, albeit somewhat less so if some classes get more feats than others. In a gonzo game the DM could simply say that every feat or bump is equivalent to what I called tier 3. In a grittier setting perhaps they are all tier 1...

Straight point buy will never fly, in my opinion, for better or worse. First, there is existing vitriol about rolling vs. point buy in character creation, so baking it so transparently into advancement would likely be a major turn off to a fair number of players. Second, the fiddliness (as you...

That will tend to mitigate the possibility of ability score increases that don't do anything, but doesn't help us resolve higher level ability bumps being relatively less useful to the character (assuming they've been bumping their primary 1-3 scores) while feats presumably get more powerful...

I proposed my own potential solution (which might suck) in the previous post, but I would like to note that the +1 ability check for odd scores introduces a weird situation where the bonus on attacks/saves/damage is different from that on ability checks, and different only some of the time, and...

Gotta hand it to Mearls for not noodling around in this article. Even some of the vague bits are interestingly vague, rather than just frustratingly so. At the big picture scale, I think making feats the replacement for prestige classes and paragon paths at least puts them into a reasonably...

I favor a single progression overall, despite my personal enjoyment of bonus feats and non-uniform character advancement generally. As I see it, the major table options for any game where feats can be traded for ability score increases (or really any mechanical benefit) are as follows: 1) The...

I get what WotC is going for, but there are some very inelegant bits as others have pointed out. At the end of the post I have some ideas about how to mitigate them, while keeping the spirit largely intact. The even/odd nature of ability scores being useful really hurts the +1 ability xor...