Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Voadam" data-source="post: 4984267" data-attributes="member: 2209">Social and mental stats are either tangential and not important mechanically or they have significant mechanical impact in 3e. Intelligence is usually only important if you are a class with powers tied to intelligence (wizard, psion, etc.) Same for Charisma. Wisdom has both classes powered by it (cleric, druid, Monk, Ranger, Paladin), but is relevant for all for the will save modifier.If you are a melee fighter in 3e int and charisma are not as important for your combat ability as is your strength and constitution or your dexterity and wisdom.If you make a fighter who is a capable leader and you tie this in with stats you put points into his charisma with no combat effect and therefore fewer stat points into his combat relevant stats. To get 14s in cha takes 6 points in 3e point buy cost. For a 24 point buy game that is one quarter of your points right there with four combat relevant stats to go. If you are a smart and intelligent leader (say Roy from Order of the Stick) that is half your points.His buddy the paladin gets some combat bonuses for every point his charisma goes up. Bonuses that the fighter does not get. Spending a quarter of his point buy on charisma is not wasted as far as combat effectiveness. He still needs all the physicals that the fighter gets because they do similar front line physical things but his points spent in charisma are not wasted when you evaluate his combat value.Their companion the sorcerer however is primarily powered by charisma spells. He can sacrifice strength without problem as he is not a melee combatant, and con, dex, and wis are not as important for him because he is not a front line melee combatant and he has a strong class will save. He can spend the majority of his point buy points on charisma and dump stat str and be fairly combat optimized.You could say leadership is a charisma trait (as the srd does) and sorcerers should generally be leaders followed by paladins as decent ones while fighters should generally not lead. If a fighter wants to be a good leader he should sacrifice his combat stats to get the charisma of an optimized paladin even though he gains nothing mechanically for combat from this choice and takes away from his combat power to do so. To be as good as a sorcerer at leading he should have a stat array similar to a sorcerer and pay the combat price for doing so. This is a class archetype argument in favor of tieing stats to roleplay.I have no aesthetic preference for making fighters pay such a combat value tax to roleplay as good a leader type as a paladin much less pattern his stat build on a sorcerer one.</blockquote>

Verification