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Community
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Ability Scores - Should they increase?
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<blockquote data-quote="TerraDave" data-source="post: 5772714" data-attributes="member: 22260"><p>I think there are a few issues.</p><p></p><p>One is <u>"what is an ability score?"</u> Are they raw talent and hence something that won't change much, or are they something that can be honed in parallel with other things that add to the character.</p><p></p><p>This leads right to <u>"what should the be?"</u> I havealso found myself moving to the position that other level based benefits should represent gains from experience, and ability scores should probably not change much...</p><p></p><p>But there is still the detail of <u>"what exactly is there use in the game?" </u> Which is really the key issue. If the point is define archetypes together with class, they don't really need to change. Your wizard is smart. He may have a 16, or 18 or 25 intelligence, but, depending, any of those can be smart. Maybe he is also pretty charismatic also (and hence this is not just lined up with and redundant with class). Again, this could be 14 or 16 or 22 depending on the system. </p><p></p><p>In 4E, the problem is that system is one where definitely one and maybe two scores (and gods help you if you have 3) are closely tied to class, and you must increase them to be effective. So the archetype is maintained, but in a redundant way that actually causes other problems in char building, as Merric has noted, and are not really a choice. The fact that you get an otherwise flat bonus from level means that this is very hard wired into the system: your ability scores remain a critical point of differentiation at all levels. Of course, this has also led to various patches to then mitigate the impact of the system...</p><p></p><p>In 3E (and earlier) there are two issues. One is that magical boosts to ability scores where also implicitly built into the math (just not as transparently). This I see as inferior to 4E, though I guess it is more "simulationist". The other is that scores were mostly rolled for, so you could get a low score that you might want to comp for (and honestly, in 4E all my players have had some low scores they just wanted to patch over). </p><p></p><p>So, where I am going with this. If abilities are rolled for, then I might favor a cap (say 20) with some boosts for lower scores. If its point buy, you could do the same, or just leave them be. </p><p></p><p>The girdles of giant strength....these I think need to just be different then in past incarnations.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="TerraDave, post: 5772714, member: 22260"] I think there are a few issues. One is [U]"what is an ability score?"[/U] Are they raw talent and hence something that won't change much, or are they something that can be honed in parallel with other things that add to the character. This leads right to [U]"what should the be?"[/U] I havealso found myself moving to the position that other level based benefits should represent gains from experience, and ability scores should probably not change much... But there is still the detail of [U]"what exactly is there use in the game?" [/U] Which is really the key issue. If the point is define archetypes together with class, they don't really need to change. Your wizard is smart. He may have a 16, or 18 or 25 intelligence, but, depending, any of those can be smart. Maybe he is also pretty charismatic also (and hence this is not just lined up with and redundant with class). Again, this could be 14 or 16 or 22 depending on the system. In 4E, the problem is that system is one where definitely one and maybe two scores (and gods help you if you have 3) are closely tied to class, and you must increase them to be effective. So the archetype is maintained, but in a redundant way that actually causes other problems in char building, as Merric has noted, and are not really a choice. The fact that you get an otherwise flat bonus from level means that this is very hard wired into the system: your ability scores remain a critical point of differentiation at all levels. Of course, this has also led to various patches to then mitigate the impact of the system... In 3E (and earlier) there are two issues. One is that magical boosts to ability scores where also implicitly built into the math (just not as transparently). This I see as inferior to 4E, though I guess it is more "simulationist". The other is that scores were mostly rolled for, so you could get a low score that you might want to comp for (and honestly, in 4E all my players have had some low scores they just wanted to patch over). So, where I am going with this. If abilities are rolled for, then I might favor a cap (say 20) with some boosts for lower scores. If its point buy, you could do the same, or just leave them be. The girdles of giant strength....these I think need to just be different then in past incarnations. [/QUOTE]
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Ability Scores - Should they increase?
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