Dexterity and Intelligence: That stats deities are made of

[Shadowbit]

In the near future, my regular group is going to be picking up an old campaign to restart. On Saturday night, the GM handed those of us with computers a file with a new document regarding stats for the revised game.

Essentially, he's taken all of the stats and broken them down, separating them into subgroupings similar to the substats from 2nd Edition. Strength is a single stat, Dex is now three stats, Constitution is two stats (plus encumberance), Intelligence is two stats, Wisdom is two stats, and Charisma is a single stat. Eleven stats in total.

The belief is that Dexterity and Intelligence are too important, and too much relies upon those particular stats. In our games, everyone typically will have a higher Dex and Int. And so, the house rule.

My character a Cansin Rogue/Bard will pretty much stay the same based on how my stats broke down, so it really isn't going to be much of a change for me. Others in the group are much worse off in revising their characters.

Personally, I think the new house rule for our game overcomplicates things and doesn't really make significant changes to improve the game or enhance the fun.

Does anyone else out there believe that Dex and Int are too important and need to be broken apart?

SB

 

[starwed]

Well, certainly the two stats left alone (Str and Cha) are the two stats most commonly used as dump stats, and dexterity is one of the more important ones. But I think creating so many new stats is an overcomplicated way of solving the percieved problem. Better to somehow make strength and charisma a more important part of the game.

 

[Shadowbit]

I believe that most people tend to boost Intelligence and Dexterity for more skill points and more armor class bonus. One of the other players in the game suggested that all of the untrained skills in Dex are a deciding factor for people putting points into Dex. Myself, I've never even considered giving myself a 16 Dex on a character so I could get a +3 to my Hide check.

I generally gravitate to roguey-light fighter types of characters. In general, if I bump up my Dexterity it's because I don't want to be hit in combat. If I bump up my Intelligence, it's because I want to have more skill points to play around with.

I dunno... It just seems like a lot of work and confusion for little to no result.

Heroic Fantasy! Now With One Third Less Heroism!

SB

 

[Rhun]

Personally, I think the new house rule for our game overcomplicates things and doesn't really make significant changes to improve the game or enhance the fun.

I agree with this.

Does anyone else out there believe that Dex and Int are too important and need to be broken apart?

I don't think Dex and Int are broken at all. It is all dependent on the character build. I've got plenty of PCs in play with low DEX and INT.

 

[Hammerhead]

Play a paladin. Their primary stats are Strength and Charisma, their dumps are Intelligence and Dexterity.

 

[Shadowbit]

Play a paladin. Their primary stats are Strength and Charisma, their dumps are Intelligence and Dexterity.

Ha! I just worked out possible stats:
Strength 18
Aim 10
Balance 10
Reflexes 10
Fortitude 14
Endurance 14
Knowledge 10
Reason 10
Intution 18
Willpower 18
Charisma 18

My Rogue/Bard has a cohort, and I think I'm going to initially drop this paladin in as the cohort, just for the reaction.

SB

 

[Hammerhead]

Dude, you gotta switch your Constitution and Wisdom.

 

[Shadowbit]

Dude, you gotta switch your Constitution and Wisdom.

That's true. While the GM is normally a bit on the apathetic side, not really caring about anything and reacting to most things with a shrug (though, he does seem a bit overly passionate about this particular change, at least for him). I am hoping the character that emerges out of this will produce a quavering whimper from him just before he curls himself into a ball and begins rocking back and forth.

SB

 

[GreatLemur]

Strength
Aim
Balance
Reflexes
Fortitude
Endurance
Knowledge
Reason
Intution
Willpower
Charisma

Oh, man, your DM is insane.

And this is coming from a guy who wants to replace Wisdom and Charisma with Perception and Willpower, base Will saves on Willpower, base Reflex saves on Perception instead of Dexterity, use Reflex saves for initiative checks, use class-based defense bonuses and armor as DR, rework crits so that they're based on beating your target's AC by a certain degree rather than getting a high natural roll, remove alignment completely, redesign Clerics on a god-by-god basis, and generally rewrite the whole SRD, all without having the practical experience to know how to balance a damn thing.

 

[Shadowbit]

We'd run the campaign before. Stats were originally generated rolling 4d6 seven times, dropping the low number from each roll and the low generated roll. With the revision, the GM split out all the stats, told us to keep our existing stats and fill out the remaining of the five new stats. Total stats added up to 150.

Because no one is playing a cleric, I told the rest of the group that my character's cohort would pick up the cleric duties. So, the character is a Cleric/Paladin of Torm (Our game is set in Forgotten Realms).

The GM didn't really specify how to generate stats for a new character, so I just picked points and generated the following character:

Name: Ilmryn Evenwood
Race: Half-Elf (Drow)
Gender: Male
Alignment: Lawful Good
Class: Paladin 5/Cleric 5
Deity: Torm

ATTRIBUTES
Strength: 18 (+4)
Aim: 10 (+0)
Balance: 10 (+0)
Reflexes: 10 (+0)
Fortitude: 14 (+2)
Stamina: 14 (+2)
Knowledge: 10 (+0)
Reason: 10 (+0)
Intuition: 18 (+4)
Willpower: 18 (+4)
Charisma: 20 (+5)

***
COMBAT:
Basic Melee Attack: +12/+7
Basic Range Attack: +8/+3

Initiative: +2

SAVING THROWS
Fort: 8 + 2 + 5 = 15
Ref: 2 + 0 + 5 = 7
Will: 5 + 4 + 5 = 14

FEATS
Blooded (+2 on Init, +2 on Spot)
Combat Casting
Power Attack
Cleave

RACIAL ABILITIES
Medium size, 30ft movement
Immunity to sleep, +2 to saves against enchantment spells/effects
Low-light vision
+1 to Listen, Search, and Spot checks
+2 bonus on Diplomacy and Gather Information checks
Elven Blood

CLASS ABILITIES
Aura of good
detect evil
smite evil 2/day
Divine grace
lay on hands
Aura of courage
divine health
Turn undead (3 + Cha bonus/day as cleric 3 levels lower)
special mount
Turn undead (3 + Cha bonus/day as cleric)
Cleric Spells

SKILLS
Heal
10 (Rank 6 + Wis 4)
Ride
5 (Rank 5 + Dex 0)
Diplomacy
12 (Rank 5 + Cha 5 + 2 Racial)
Knowledge (Religion) 5
5 (Rank 5 + Int 0)
Concentration
7 (Rank 5 + Con 2)
+4 for Defensive Casting healing spells in melee
Spot
7 (Wis 4 + Feat 2 + Racial 1)
Listen
5 (Wis 4 + Racial 1)
Search
1 (Int 0 + Racial 1)
Gather Information
6 (Wis 4 + Racial 2)