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D&D Q&A 12/13: Racial Ability Scores, Cleric Options & Monsters
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<blockquote data-quote="dkyle" data-source="post: 6060839" data-attributes="member: 70707"><p>All of which can be done without ability scores. They add nothing new.</p><p></p><p></p><p> </p><p>OK, that's exactly what I'm saying. Perhaps you're misunderstanding my position. What I'm advocating for is to by able to say "I'm a great Fighter" or "I'm a great Wizard" or even "I'm a hybrid of Fighter and Wizard", and then to, independently, also say "I'm great at breaking down doors" or "I'm great at persuading people" or "I'm great at reading books and finding information". Not to be all those things at the same time. Just to have greater flexibility in choosing what things you want your character to be good at.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I would make how much damage you do be based on what class you are, what weapon you are using, and what other build options you took. Not any ability score at all, so there's no "physical damage based on how charismatic they are".</p><p></p><p>And sure, it makes sense for strength to improve dealing physical damage. You as a player could certainly say that your fighter is good at dealing damage because he has a lot of muscle. But that doesn't mean damage has to actually be tied to the ability score called Strength. Just because you are strong doesn't mean you are good at using a weapon effectively to deal damage.</p><p></p><p>And this is nothing new to D&D. In the very first edition of D&D, Strength had absolutely nothing to do with dealing more damage with weapons. It was your class that made you better or worse at fighting things with weapons.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>SAD is only dangerous when some classes are SAD, and some MAD. If noone is dependent on ability scores for combat abilities, then "SAD" and "MAD" are simply nonissues.</p><p></p><p>And if you localize mechanics to doing specific things, instead of having Ability scores that do all sorts of things all over the place, it becomes easier to balance the game. It's harder to "do everything" when each and every "thing" requires a different feat, or class feature, or whatever.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Huh? What don't you really see the point of? I don't get what this has to do with what you quoted.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="dkyle, post: 6060839, member: 70707"] All of which can be done without ability scores. They add nothing new. OK, that's exactly what I'm saying. Perhaps you're misunderstanding my position. What I'm advocating for is to by able to say "I'm a great Fighter" or "I'm a great Wizard" or even "I'm a hybrid of Fighter and Wizard", and then to, independently, also say "I'm great at breaking down doors" or "I'm great at persuading people" or "I'm great at reading books and finding information". Not to be all those things at the same time. Just to have greater flexibility in choosing what things you want your character to be good at. I would make how much damage you do be based on what class you are, what weapon you are using, and what other build options you took. Not any ability score at all, so there's no "physical damage based on how charismatic they are". And sure, it makes sense for strength to improve dealing physical damage. You as a player could certainly say that your fighter is good at dealing damage because he has a lot of muscle. But that doesn't mean damage has to actually be tied to the ability score called Strength. Just because you are strong doesn't mean you are good at using a weapon effectively to deal damage. And this is nothing new to D&D. In the very first edition of D&D, Strength had absolutely nothing to do with dealing more damage with weapons. It was your class that made you better or worse at fighting things with weapons. SAD is only dangerous when some classes are SAD, and some MAD. If noone is dependent on ability scores for combat abilities, then "SAD" and "MAD" are simply nonissues. And if you localize mechanics to doing specific things, instead of having Ability scores that do all sorts of things all over the place, it becomes easier to balance the game. It's harder to "do everything" when each and every "thing" requires a different feat, or class feature, or whatever. Huh? What don't you really see the point of? I don't get what this has to do with what you quoted. [/QUOTE]
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D&D Q&A 12/13: Racial Ability Scores, Cleric Options & Monsters
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