Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Skyscraper" data-source="post: 5903692" data-attributes="member: 48518">No support for random HP or ability scores? I'm surprised. I really wish for those to return, with point buy being an option only.The disappearance of randomness resulted in PCs of a given class being all the same, except where sub-choices in that class exist, in which case all sub-choices are the same. In 4E you end up with the "big decision" of having 18 or 20 as your highest ability score - I hope no one is too stressed out about that kind of difficult decision making <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> All PCs and monsters have at least 18 in their main score, there is absolutely nothing special about that value anymore. If everyone has it, and all defenses are geared accordingly, this means that this high value in fact means nothing mechanically speaking. It brings only illusion of being good.What you want to avoid, IMO, is a very swingy chararacter creation where you can have, say, between 1-20 starting hit points because obviously the game plays out totally differently for the PC with 1 HP than for the one with 20 HPs. One solution is to give a base value and then a random value to top it off, for example 10 + 1-10 hit points. You can play with variability on a very few key stats like HPs.As for ability scores, there are many ways to control the outcome to avoid disastrous 4 STR fighthers or 4 INT wizards: 4d6 drop lowest, roll 3 arrays and keep the one you want, swap two ability score values, ...My point is: you need a system that avoids disaster values (such as 1 starting HP or below-average main ability score) but apart from that, random is cool. It's cool because it drives my imagination at character creation to explain why my character has 5 in Wisdom. It's cool because having high numbers is impressive, not the norm. It's cool because all of a sudden you have intelligent fighers and strong wizards (more rare than the other way around, but still existent. I haven't seen a single one of either of those in 4 years of playing 4E). It's cool because of the role-play that comes from weird values such as very low scores or a couple of high ones. It's cool because of skills that derive from those ability scores and suddenly you have stealthy clerics or learned fighters. It's cool because the lower-hit-point character needs to find ways to stay alive. It's cool because the game designers won't make a game that is so pre-set mechanically that everyone has just about the same number of hit points and does about the same damage and so on, that no one stands out; and challenges should be flexible as a consequence.I hear people saying that they get screwed with low scores. Disaster values apart (see above), I say we get screwed with uniformity, by that I mean the entire game experience suffers. And, really, is there a better feeling than rolling a 10 on that d10 hit point die? Sure you'll also have the 1 to cry about, but I'll take the occasional coolness and the occasional badness, over constant indifference, anytime. I'm looking for a roller coaster of emotions, not a boring straight predictable line.Let's roll baby!!</blockquote>

Verification