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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Li Shenron" data-source="post: 6276528" data-attributes="member: 1465">I don't have the playtest rules at hand, so I cannot do the following at the moment, but if someone else wants to...To assess MAD levels and discrepancies between classes, what I would do first, is check only what ability scores explicitly affect non-optional class features.For example, for the 3e Paladin, Wisdom directly affects spells (max level of spells you can cast, bonus spells per day, spells DC), Charisma directly affects Turn Undead, Lay on Hands, Divine Grace and Smite Evil. Among these, I would also check when the ability scores are true enabler of a certain ability: Turn Undead and Smite Evil don't require a minimum Charisma score, while the other three do. It can be argued that being weak at something is in practical terms almost as bad as being unable at something, but to me there is still a significant difference between unlikely and impossible (at least the difference in feel is huge between "I have this class ability, but it won't work often" and "I have this class ability, but I cannot use it at all"). Separately, I would think which other ability scores are typically supposed to be high for such characters. Most Paladins are melee warriors, hence Strength is usually assumed. But it's different from the previous case, because this is rather an ability score that has synergy with the rest of the class features (Paladin have good weapon and armor proficiencies, and lots of hit points, so they make among the best melee) but is not explicitly needed by any class feature. Indeed Paladins make almost as good archers as Rangers or Barbarians, it's mostly because of a traditional image that people think Rangers should be archers and Paladins should be sword and board. Similarly, people expect Rogues to have as many skills as possible, therefore they consider high Int a must-have, but it really doesn't have to be (this is typically a consequence of the bad habit of seeing each PC in a vacuum, instead of seeing her as a member of a party).In other words, I would make a distinction between ability scores that are strictly required to be even able to use some class features, those which determine the magnitude of effect of class features (but no minimum score is required), and those which only determine the magnitude of effect of non-class specific mechanics that people expect that class to use.</blockquote>

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