S
Sunseeker
Guest
Strings. I see the ability-score system as a core element of the game. It defines you. It determines your class(assuming you roll in-order), which determines your combat role, your skills, your saves, and so on. Remove that corner stone and all you are left with is player choice.Sure you could do all those things, but then if it doesn't "scream" D&D, it seems to me it's due to all those other things you've done, not just taking ability scores out of combat.
Having not played it, nor having any strong desire to do so, I can't really say. Perhaps when D&D was first created it screamed D&D much more loudly, because it did so in a fairly large RPG vacuum.Are ability modifiers in combat really what makes 3.5 "scream" D&D, and without them, it doesn't? Is the original D&D, with it's almost absent ability modifiers, somehow almost absent of D&D-ness?
Class mechanics don't need levels. Class features do. It doesn't matter if you're level 1 or level 15, wizards still have vancian casting. Use point-buy to purchase new spell "tomes", powerful spells simply cost more. You wouldn't have low XP players buying Disintegrate right off the bat.Also, for 3.5, I probably would scale the modifier to make it fit with the expectations of the rest of the system. But even without that, taking levels in classes is still a mechanic that's not easily converted into a pure XP point-buy system. Classes organize mechanics, and can be easier to balance, than freeform point-buy.