Abilities Capped at 20 Won't Work

[2e Player]

It worked fine in the old days. I'm fine with this. Having played characters with outrageously stacked ability scores in 3e, I definitely considered it a flaw of the system.

 

[Yora]

In the playtest packet, pg 3, paragraph 3:

Well, that does not adress the issue of magic items or higher levels.

Uh... whether you use point buy or roll, this has never been true in D&D's history.

Yes, but it should have.

And the chance to actually roll an 18 is less than half of one percent. The chance to roll over 15 is less than 5%. It can happen, as a lucky accident, but is very unexpected.

 

[Campbell]

Nothing about flatter math makes it more necessary to have higher ability scores than escalating bonuses vs. escalating target numbers. The results are the same mathematically.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I would totaly cap the scores at 20 and give out 2 +1s every 4 levels

4,8,12,16,20 so a 15 stat at level 1 can become a 20... But a 20(18 roll+1 race+1 class) never becomes a 25

Then items give scores...belt of giant str 24 would be epic

 

[Tehnai]

I would totaly cap the scores at 20 and give out 2 +1s every 4 levels

4,8,12,16,20 so a 15 stat at level 1 can become a 20... But a 20(18 roll+1 race+1 class) never becomes a 25

Then items give scores...belt of giant str 24 would be epic

I still think Strenght items should give flat values like they did in the olden days. We could have Bracers of Strength (sets strength to 16), Gloves of ogre strength (sets strength to 18) and, for the truly powerful bruiser, the Belt of Giant's Strength (sets strength at 20)

In all three cases, they would be cool, useful and flavorful magical items without hurting the maths too much. Hell, we could even have another item, the biggest of all strength items, pumping it up to 22, probably an artifact of some sort (Thor's Bracers, Moradin's Nosering, I dunno).

 

[Nebulous]

I hope there is no increase to ability scores from gaining levels.

I would like to see these very rare stat increases come from something other than automatic level bonuses as well.

 

[CAFRedblade]

I'm hoping the default is no stat increase post chargen except through wish like magical spells/items which are DM use only.

 

[CM]

As a 3e-turned-4e DM, I intensely dislike uncapped player character ability scores. I would rather have characters bump up against the cap and then get the opportunity to broaden their horizons by boosting lesser-used stats.

I also think that if stat-boosting items are to return, they should have diminishing returns. For example gauntlets of ogre power could provide a +6 to characters with strength 13 or lower, +4 if 14-17, or +2 if 18+.

 

[Sunseeker]

I'm fine with not providing ability-score boosts at certain levels, or magic items that do the same. But ability-score caps are just the lazy-mans solution to the problem.

There does however have to be progression in some form. Attacks get more accurate, more powerful, something. Gaining new "options" is neat, but ultimately pointless if none of the options are explicitly better than the others.

That aside, no growth in abilities directly punishes the non-Vancian. A Wizard doesn't ever need more than an 18 Int, but they keep gaining more spells of increasing power. A fighter who gets no stronger, hits no harder, or more accurately is just a pile of HP, he gets nothing.

 

[Steely_Dan]

I like the idea of your attack bonus being your ability score modifier plus the odd and rare bonus, so a +1 magic weapon is huge.

I never liked a 1st level fighter starting out at +5 to hit, and at 20th level having +43 to hit or what-have-you.

I think no matter your level, you should worry about 50 dudes surrounding you.

The best warriors in the history of the world (and most fantasy/mythology) would not handle that.