genshou
First Post
It's definitely wrong to simply alter the bonuses provided by the ability scores; they are balanced in their current form. If you want the PCs to be less exceptional and heroic, you can always generate lower scores.
If I were a d20 System character, I wouldn't have a penalty in any ability (yeah, I was very genetically blessed). My lowest conceivable ability score would be Strength, at about a 12. My highest would probably be 16. I'm no Olympean athlete or Einstein by any means, but I'm very far above average. It's true that someone with a 130 IQ is a lot more infrequent than those within the centermost standard deviation (86-114 inclusive), but I don't think the infrequency of a 130+ IQ matches with the infrequency of a 13+ on 3d6. I'm also guessing there are fewer than 1/216 people in the world with a 30 IQ, but I've played a human character with a 3 Int (yes, ouch).
If I were a d20 System character, I wouldn't have a penalty in any ability (yeah, I was very genetically blessed). My lowest conceivable ability score would be Strength, at about a 12. My highest would probably be 16. I'm no Olympean athlete or Einstein by any means, but I'm very far above average. It's true that someone with a 130 IQ is a lot more infrequent than those within the centermost standard deviation (86-114 inclusive), but I don't think the infrequency of a 130+ IQ matches with the infrequency of a 13+ on 3d6. I'm also guessing there are fewer than 1/216 people in the world with a 30 IQ, but I've played a human character with a 3 Int (yes, ouch).