Asmor
First Post
I think everyone should start with 18s in every ability. The stats all progress at the same rate, as well. +1 at levels 4, 8, 11, 14, 18, 21, 24 and 28. The only thing to differentiate characters' abilities would be racial modifiers.
Ok. Take a second, think about that, and then read it again. It sounds radical and munchkiny, but the more I think about it the more I think it's a really good idea.
Frankly, I don't think ability scores serve much of a purpose in this game except as a sacred cow. If I had my way, I'd get rid of them entirely. But that would cause massive problems, from requiring re-balancing of everything in the game (albeit by just a few points) to completely invalidating the Character Builder.
This sidesteps all those issues nicely and virtually does away with ability scores. It even has the interesting bug/feature of making the various races continue to stand out in their areas of expertise by having an extra +1 modifier to whichever attacks/effects are based on their racial stat.
Let's take a look at what is lost.
The most obvious thing is balance... or is it? I'll go out on a limb and say that every single serious D&D 4th edition character has at least a base 16 in their attack/damage stat. Further than that, I'd guess at least half, if not more, have an 18 in that stat already. And this is before taking racial modifiers into account. If you don't have an 18 in your primary stat after racial modifiers, you're gimping your character.
There are only two real power gains under this system; players' lowest defenses won't be quite as low, and effects of powers based on their secondary ability scores will get a bump of a couple points. Personally, I don't think either of those are big deals in the long run, based on what we stand to gain. YMMV.
The next thing you might argue would be some vague notion of individuality among characters, but I think that the ability scores play little part in that. It's the class, power, feat and skill choices that make a character who he is; at most the ability scores just enhance those. On top of that, you've already got the vast majority of your point-buy points spent as soon as you pick your class, since you've got to put at least a 16 in your primary stat and likely a 14 in one of your secondary stats. I'd go so far as to say that if you tell me your class and chosen feature, I could guess your ability scores to within a few points. Individuality indeed.
The biggest loss that I can see is a bit of fidelity in skills. Previously, with a skill you had two "chances" of being "good" with it; either naturally (i.e. through having a high ability score) or through training (e.g. other bonuses, including actually training in the skill, feat bonuses, racial bonuses, items, etc). So it was possible to be poor (no natural ability or training), moderate (natural ability OR training), or good (both natural ability AND training). Now you're either trained (good) or you're not (poor).
Let's look at what we gain, however.
First, all of those sad, neglected "V" classes (Paladin, Ranger, Warlock, etc) would rejoice. No longer would you be forced to choose from a subset of your powers because they happen to target the correct stat for your ability. All your class's powers are game for every character.
On top of that, we have just opened the door for much wider and more interesting multiclass. Previously, you really had to choose a multiclass (or hybrid) which had some ability score synergy with your primary class. Now that's no longer a concern-- all that matters is the implements, and those are cheap and easy for any character to acquire with a bonus of at least one less than your main weapon/implement (e.g. if you have a +3 sword, a +2 magic wand should be very affordable for you since it costs at most 1/5 the price of your sword).
And finally, it's just plain easier. There's a lot of stuff to think about as a player when you're designing your character. Ability scores might not seem like much, but it is one fewer headache to deal with, and isn't that a good thing?
Ok. Take a second, think about that, and then read it again. It sounds radical and munchkiny, but the more I think about it the more I think it's a really good idea.
Frankly, I don't think ability scores serve much of a purpose in this game except as a sacred cow. If I had my way, I'd get rid of them entirely. But that would cause massive problems, from requiring re-balancing of everything in the game (albeit by just a few points) to completely invalidating the Character Builder.
This sidesteps all those issues nicely and virtually does away with ability scores. It even has the interesting bug/feature of making the various races continue to stand out in their areas of expertise by having an extra +1 modifier to whichever attacks/effects are based on their racial stat.
Let's take a look at what is lost.
The most obvious thing is balance... or is it? I'll go out on a limb and say that every single serious D&D 4th edition character has at least a base 16 in their attack/damage stat. Further than that, I'd guess at least half, if not more, have an 18 in that stat already. And this is before taking racial modifiers into account. If you don't have an 18 in your primary stat after racial modifiers, you're gimping your character.
There are only two real power gains under this system; players' lowest defenses won't be quite as low, and effects of powers based on their secondary ability scores will get a bump of a couple points. Personally, I don't think either of those are big deals in the long run, based on what we stand to gain. YMMV.
The next thing you might argue would be some vague notion of individuality among characters, but I think that the ability scores play little part in that. It's the class, power, feat and skill choices that make a character who he is; at most the ability scores just enhance those. On top of that, you've already got the vast majority of your point-buy points spent as soon as you pick your class, since you've got to put at least a 16 in your primary stat and likely a 14 in one of your secondary stats. I'd go so far as to say that if you tell me your class and chosen feature, I could guess your ability scores to within a few points. Individuality indeed.
The biggest loss that I can see is a bit of fidelity in skills. Previously, with a skill you had two "chances" of being "good" with it; either naturally (i.e. through having a high ability score) or through training (e.g. other bonuses, including actually training in the skill, feat bonuses, racial bonuses, items, etc). So it was possible to be poor (no natural ability or training), moderate (natural ability OR training), or good (both natural ability AND training). Now you're either trained (good) or you're not (poor).
Let's look at what we gain, however.
First, all of those sad, neglected "V" classes (Paladin, Ranger, Warlock, etc) would rejoice. No longer would you be forced to choose from a subset of your powers because they happen to target the correct stat for your ability. All your class's powers are game for every character.
On top of that, we have just opened the door for much wider and more interesting multiclass. Previously, you really had to choose a multiclass (or hybrid) which had some ability score synergy with your primary class. Now that's no longer a concern-- all that matters is the implements, and those are cheap and easy for any character to acquire with a bonus of at least one less than your main weapon/implement (e.g. if you have a +3 sword, a +2 magic wand should be very affordable for you since it costs at most 1/5 the price of your sword).
And finally, it's just plain easier. There's a lot of stuff to think about as a player when you're designing your character. Ability scores might not seem like much, but it is one fewer headache to deal with, and isn't that a good thing?
