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General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Ability Scores - Should they increase?
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<blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 5772711" data-attributes="member: 22424"><p>That's a pretty solid idea, actually.</p><p></p><p>What you could do, it have the character's race and class combo determine their scores at 1st level (perhaps with a handful of discretionary points to spend) - but no rolling, and no point buy.</p><p></p><p>Then, at each level, or after each adventure, let them re-assign one point (or a small number) from one stat to another. Put minimum and maximum caps on any individual stat for each tier. And, at key levels, instead of 'retraining' a stat they get to just increase one for free.</p><p></p><p>That way, a player who assigns his stats in the 'wrong' places gets to fix his character over time, it prevents the issue of one player rolling well and one badly, and it means that the ability to optimise a character is limited, since the game enforces a minimum level of competence.</p><p></p><p>The big issue with it, of course, is that it does absolutely nothing to prevent people from having a 'dump stat'. In fact, it makes that much more beneficial and so much more likely. YMMV on whether that is a problem or not.</p><p></p><p>(You could even combine this with a rolling method. Give each player a 'reserve' of ability points - say 75 points. Have them roll 4d6-drop-lowest, and assign the result to one of their stats. Reduce the reserve by that amount. Repeat for the remaining stats. However, if the reserve runs out, stop rolling - the remaining stats are set to '3'. If, once it's done, points are left over in the reserve, the character starts play with low stats. However, for the first several times they get to 'retrain', they get to assign those points from their reserve rather than lowering an existing score.)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="delericho, post: 5772711, member: 22424"] That's a pretty solid idea, actually. What you could do, it have the character's race and class combo determine their scores at 1st level (perhaps with a handful of discretionary points to spend) - but no rolling, and no point buy. Then, at each level, or after each adventure, let them re-assign one point (or a small number) from one stat to another. Put minimum and maximum caps on any individual stat for each tier. And, at key levels, instead of 'retraining' a stat they get to just increase one for free. That way, a player who assigns his stats in the 'wrong' places gets to fix his character over time, it prevents the issue of one player rolling well and one badly, and it means that the ability to optimise a character is limited, since the game enforces a minimum level of competence. The big issue with it, of course, is that it does absolutely nothing to prevent people from having a 'dump stat'. In fact, it makes that much more beneficial and so much more likely. YMMV on whether that is a problem or not. (You could even combine this with a rolling method. Give each player a 'reserve' of ability points - say 75 points. Have them roll 4d6-drop-lowest, and assign the result to one of their stats. Reduce the reserve by that amount. Repeat for the remaining stats. However, if the reserve runs out, stop rolling - the remaining stats are set to '3'. If, once it's done, points are left over in the reserve, the character starts play with low stats. However, for the first several times they get to 'retrain', they get to assign those points from their reserve rather than lowering an existing score.) [/QUOTE]
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Ability Scores - Should they increase?
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