Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
D&D Q&A 12/13: Racial Ability Scores, Cleric Options & Monsters
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="dkyle" data-source="post: 6060816" data-attributes="member: 70707"><p>Why would it be cookie cutter if you have races, classes, specializations, and feats all allowing character to differentiate themselves in combat? What does 6 ability scores really add there?</p><p></p><p>If anything, ability scores make things <em>more cookie cutter</em>, because if you want to be a good Fighter you need good Strength, which means you can only really be good at Strength based skills. If you don't tie ability scores to class features, then you could be a great Fighter, yet also be really good at diplomacy, or researching in books, or anything. You gain more freedom to build whatever character you want, not less.</p><p></p><p>In addition, if you can just, say, "cast spells" by being a Wizard, instead of also needing to have good intelligence, which conflicts with other classes' ability requirements, it makes it easier to have, say, Fighter/Wizards that are actually passably good at fighting and casting. Again, easier to <em>avoid</em> cookie-cutter builds.</p><p></p><p>As for why have ability scores? Like I said, for skills. Skills for non-combat tasks are necessarily more freeform than combat abilities, because combat is so much easier to mechanize (as every edition of D&D has borne out). Having 6 generic "base skills", as ability scores would essentially be (and <em>are</em> in D&D:Next), to work from is a decent way to do it.</p><p></p><p>I don't know why you'd think that any of that suggests having a fixed array of stats. That would limit precisely the creativity I'm trying to encourage.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="dkyle, post: 6060816, member: 70707"] Why would it be cookie cutter if you have races, classes, specializations, and feats all allowing character to differentiate themselves in combat? What does 6 ability scores really add there? If anything, ability scores make things [I]more cookie cutter[/I], because if you want to be a good Fighter you need good Strength, which means you can only really be good at Strength based skills. If you don't tie ability scores to class features, then you could be a great Fighter, yet also be really good at diplomacy, or researching in books, or anything. You gain more freedom to build whatever character you want, not less. In addition, if you can just, say, "cast spells" by being a Wizard, instead of also needing to have good intelligence, which conflicts with other classes' ability requirements, it makes it easier to have, say, Fighter/Wizards that are actually passably good at fighting and casting. Again, easier to [I]avoid[/I] cookie-cutter builds. As for why have ability scores? Like I said, for skills. Skills for non-combat tasks are necessarily more freeform than combat abilities, because combat is so much easier to mechanize (as every edition of D&D has borne out). Having 6 generic "base skills", as ability scores would essentially be (and [I]are[/I] in D&D:Next), to work from is a decent way to do it. I don't know why you'd think that any of that suggests having a fixed array of stats. That would limit precisely the creativity I'm trying to encourage. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
D&D Q&A 12/13: Racial Ability Scores, Cleric Options & Monsters
Top