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<blockquote data-quote="FireLance" data-source="post: 4837120" data-attributes="member: 3424">Threads like these make me wonder whether the sacred cow of six ability scores that are used as primary variables to determine other secondary variables (such as attack and damage modifiers, AC and other defenses, hit points, initiative checks and skill checks, etc.) ought to be slaughtered, at least in the next edition.Or perhaps the relationship ought to be reversed. Instead of a high Strength increasing a character's base melee attack modifier (or whatever we want to call it), perhaps every character should have a base melee attack modifier that depends on class and maybe race. If a player decides that his character should have a higher than average melee attack modifier (perhaps the player has a small number of feats or other benefits to distribute during character creation and advancement) then he could also increase the character's Strength and flavor the higher melee attack modifier to be a result of the character's high Strength. Alternatively, if the character is more of a swashbuckler, the player could increase the character's Dexterity instead. In this manner, ability scores have no mechanical effect, but become a role-playing tool that helps the player describe his character.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="FireLance, post: 4837120, member: 3424"] Threads like these make me wonder whether the sacred cow of six ability scores that are used as primary variables to determine other secondary variables (such as attack and damage modifiers, AC and other defenses, hit points, initiative checks and skill checks, etc.) ought to be slaughtered, at least in the next edition. Or perhaps the relationship ought to be reversed. Instead of a high Strength increasing a character's base melee attack modifier (or whatever we want to call it), perhaps every character should have a base melee attack modifier that depends on class and maybe race. If a player decides that his character should have a higher than average melee attack modifier (perhaps the player has a small number of feats or other benefits to distribute during character creation and advancement) then he could also increase the character's Strength and flavor the higher melee attack modifier to be a result of the character's high Strength. Alternatively, if the character is more of a swashbuckler, the player could increase the character's Dexterity instead. In this manner, ability scores have no mechanical effect, but become a role-playing tool that helps the player describe his character. [/QUOTE]

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