Ability Modifiers and the +1/2 Effect

[airwalkrr]

Something that always bugged me with 3e, 3.5, and 4e was that you could bump a stat, from say, 14 to 15, and see no appreciable increase in ability whatsoever. Your Int went from 14 to 15. Well, yay! You are halfway to another +1 and that is all. At least in AD&D there was usually some measurable difference between a 14 and a 15 in most stats, even if it was just knowing another language or something small like that. In 3e, 3.5, and 4e, Strength was the only score to benefit from such a bump. I want to see this +1/2 effect abolished and replaced with something else. Regardless of whether they are going to continue with level bumps to stats, there ought to be a difference between a 14 and a 15.

 

[Cadfan]

The problem is that if D&D were being designed from scratch today, it wouldn't have a stat system where you have one set of stats that do nothing except generate a different set of stats. Its not good design.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Technically, Constitution also had a mechanical effect based on the score itself (the amount of time you could hold your breath, and possibly other things). Spellcasters required 19 in their casting stat to learn 9th level spells. The rules suggest that in very direct contests such as arm wrestling, the higher score simply wins. There's also the odd-numbered prerequisites for feats, and the fact that ability damage or penalties might make you glad you had a "useless" extra ability point. So there are a significant number of applications (all of this is 3.X) for the odd-numbered ability score, but it's certainly not a huge part of the rules.

That said, the broader issue here is that the score/modifier distinction has become a bit of an anachronism. The 3-18 number just doesn't do what the designers want, but they don't want to change the universal language of D&D. It's definitely a problem, but I don't know what the solution is.

 

[airwalkrr]

I want a pronounced tie to the difference between a 10 and an 11. It does not have to be crippling to the character with the 10, but it needs a bonus aside from something that will only come up every other blue moon. Holding your breath? How often does that happen? A spellcaster without a 19 in 3e? I can do that easily with a base 10 casting stat. Odd-numbered prerequisites for feats are so few and far between and generally play to a strong ability score in that category anyway that it is a non-issue. I mean how many characters with a Str of 12 want Power Attack? The only one that ever matter to me was the 3e requirement to have a 15, 17, and 19 respectively for TWF, ITWF, and GTWF, and that was because it was generally better to focus on Strength if you wanted to be an awesome melee combatant in the first place so you had to make Dex a secondary score.

Anyway, my point is, odd ability scores in 3e/4e are corner cases and did not come up on a regular basis. I want them to.

 

[hanez]

I couldnt care less about this effect. I understand it, just very very very low on the concern scale on how to make the game more fun.

Then again Im not opposed to a solution to your concerns

I'd like to find some way to de-emphasize stats. I mean really, people pay waaaay to much attention to it. I dont know how to do it, but this is a fantasy roleplaying game, there should be THOUSANDS of other things more interesting and important to focus on. Heres hoping they find a way to do that, cause I rarely could (Well... my liberal dousing of magic items kind of did help)

I had one player, who if he had any stat less then a 10 would complain about being a farmer... then when the adventure would start he'd say "I go back to my lot and start farming......" And then he'd ask since thats all his players ever going to do... could he just roll a new one? Funny.... we went to static stats shortly after this.