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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tequila Sunrise" data-source="post: 6348445" data-attributes="member: 40398">Yup, the 'need' for high stats has always been in large part a matter of perception.The XP bonuses and stat prereqs for spell levels in pre-WotC D&D probably made high stats more 'mandatory' than any WotC edition, but don't tell that to an old school fan! "The XP bonus is nice, but you don't need it!"3.x spell level prereqs still suggest that at least casters need at least a 15 in their casting stat at level one, and must boost that to a 19 by level 16 to make full use of their spells. And indeed, the standard ability array in 3.x includes a high score of 15. So I'd peg that as the 3.x minimum, but an 18 is by no means mandatory.4e certainly expects players to boost their prime stat at every level-up opportunity, but again, starting with a 20 is by no means necessary. Given that the standard array's high score is 16, I consider it the 4e minimum. But then, I had one player go lower still, so even that's subject to interpretation.And I don't think that 5e will be notably different. CharOp will use 15 as the new 18 due to the weird point buy cap, but savvy players will nevertheless know that boosting your prime to 20 needs to be done ASAP. And I'm sure that there will be a fairly clear order of priorities concerning which stats are best to boost after one's prime stat.I think it's a matter of perception. If you're playing a 3.x greatsword-dude, the difference between a 17 and an 18 is a +1 to attack rolls and a +2 to damage, which is a pretty big deal at low levels. And if you're playing a caster, a 20 means two bonus 1st level spells! But overall in 3.x and 4e? I haven't noticed a big difference between one modifier and the next. It's a 5% chance to hit more or less often, and 1 point of damage.I think that there are basically two types of gamers who feel they 'need' to max out one stat or other: Natural optimizers, and forum-goers who take the CharOp forum at face value. And I don't think that 5e will change either group. Fortunately, I've known plenty of gamers who don't fall into either category and still manage to have a blast playing the game. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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