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<blockquote data-quote="UltimaGabe" data-source="post: 1506150" data-attributes="member: 16019">I'm afraid I must argue. The writers of the Lord of the Rings trilogy knew exactly what was going to happen before they wrote it- they were not depending on the luck of dice rolls in order to find out whether Frodo would climb up the side of the mountain, or see if he would be able to keep himself from trying to save Gandalf, or find out if he could survive the heat of Mt. Doom. Even if Frodo was a one-armed leper, if the writers wanted him to accomplish the same thing that the Frodo we knew accomplished, it wouldn't matter what his stats were. Therefore, that's a bad example.A character's stats in D&amp;D don't determine what they're capable of- they DO, however, determine what they'll do most of the time. If a person never has more than a +1 on any attack roll or skill check, he has a very, very low chance of succeeding at something with a DC 15 or higher. A person with low stats is much less likely to succeed at thwarting the evil warlord's plans by singlehandedly fighting off his armies of undead than the person with very high stats. True, an epic hero is defined by his accomplishments- but there's no way that he could have accomplished some of the things he did if he wasn't as strong, quick, hardy, and intelligent as he was.Stats DO make the character, no matter how you look at it.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="UltimaGabe, post: 1506150, member: 16019"] I'm afraid I must argue. The writers of the Lord of the Rings trilogy knew exactly what was going to happen before they wrote it- they were not depending on the luck of dice rolls in order to find out whether Frodo would climb up the side of the mountain, or see if he would be able to keep himself from trying to save Gandalf, or find out if he could survive the heat of Mt. Doom. Even if Frodo was a one-armed leper, if the writers wanted him to accomplish the same thing that the Frodo we knew accomplished, it wouldn't matter what his stats were. Therefore, that's a bad example. A character's stats in D&D don't determine what they're capable of- they DO, however, determine what they'll do most of the time. If a person never has more than a +1 on any attack roll or skill check, he has a very, very low chance of succeeding at something with a DC 15 or higher. A person with low stats is much less likely to succeed at thwarting the evil warlord's plans by singlehandedly fighting off his armies of undead than the person with very high stats. True, an epic hero is defined by his accomplishments- but there's no way that he could have accomplished some of the things he did if he wasn't as strong, quick, hardy, and intelligent as he was. Stats DO make the character, no matter how you look at it. [/QUOTE]

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