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Message: <blockquote data-quote="billd91" data-source="post: 8772048" data-attributes="member: 3400">The problem with this debate is, as I see it, from a role playing game design perspective where there are nods to genre conventions, using a stat just because it's higher is a bad justification. That's just a purely game mechanical/power wish fulfillment justification when we should be looking at the elements of genre.This is a heavy weapon and requires application of power to wield effectively.This is a finesse weapon and requires application of deftness.This is a projection of your mental power and requires the application of mental strength.etc.So this takes us back to something I've talked about on these boards before with respect to giving stats better weights and where I think 4e went wrong in its application of picking stats for your NADs. 4e paired the stats, and gave players a choice then semi-cooked classes to make use of 3-4 of those stats. That enabled some PCs to dump 3, others to only dump 2, and optimize their characters.I believe they should have paired them but set one to be offensive and one to be defensive. That gives all 6 some weight, though some classes will still be able to dump some because they are less relevant. In this arrangement you get:<table style='width: 100%'><tr><td></td><td>Offense (used for offense - attacks/spells)</td><td>Defense (used for defenses, saves, AC, etc)</td></tr><tr><td>Physical-oriented</td><td>Strength</td><td>Constitution</td></tr><tr><td>Skill-oriented</td><td>Intelligence (call it Acuity, maybe?)</td><td>Dexterity</td></tr><tr><td>Mental-oriented</td><td>Charisma</td><td>Wisdom</td></tr></table>The only pairing that's really kind of weird is Intelligence/Dexterity but that was weird in 4e as well. It kind of works if you consider Intelligence as a degree of acuity, possibly mental or physical or both. Dexterity as a defense is more along the lines of reflexes.Then if, by genre convention, it's a heavy weapon that requires application of physical power, the offensive stat is Strength. If it requires deftness/finesse, it's Intelligence. If it requires a projection mental power, it's Charisma. It's not about just putting all of your offense under your highest stat and maximizing its use for both offense and defense if you can.</blockquote>

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