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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Oni" data-source="post: 5793363" data-attributes="member: 380">Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma.  Ability scores, every edition of D&D has them, and it's highly unlikely they're going anywhere.   So what should we do with them?  Should we roll them, point buy them, or just have everyone start with the same array?  Should they be 3-18, or should we strip away the extra step and get to what they're all about, the modifier?  How important should they be?  Should every fighter have to be super strong and every wizard super smart?  Should they dictate whether your character shouldn't bother with a class or not?  What should they do for your character?  What shouldn't they do for your character?  ------------------------------------------------To answer my own question, one thing that has, IMHO, become an ever increasing problem since the time of AD&D is the increasing importance of ability scores.  The stat mods were so important in 3e that you'd see just about every character decked out with those incredibly boring stat increasing items.  And in 4e nearly every character is running around with an 18 or 20 in their primary stat, because that's just what you had to do to be able to hit properly.  The more important stats and mods are, the more potentially unbalancing rolling for stats is, and the more certain stats are required to be certain values to make a functional character the more the same all the characters begin to look under point buy.  I'd love to bring back the thrill of rolling characters, but in order to really make that happen we've got to step back to the why this worked in early days of the game, and it wasn't because gamers were more hardcore or less entitled, it was because the mods weren't that big a deal.  Used to be a good roll might get you a +1, then it became a +2, or maybe a +3 if you rolled an 18, and it's ballooned form there, not only the mods, but the importance of the mods.  I think the importance, especially on combat capability, of stats needs to be dialed back in the next edition, so that people can feel free to roll, or to sculpt characters more closely match what's in their head without sacrificing the ability to be functional.  But there needs to be some difference between a character with a high strength and a high charisma, so to that end I think it each stat needs to bring some unique advantage to a character, but at the same time it shouldn't dole out some huge numerical advantage.</blockquote>

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