Do you need high stats to be an effective character?

[Thanee]

Do you really think that Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippen had "heroic" stats?

I think Pippin had heroic curiosity!

Bye
Thanee

 

[Thanee]

Vader would be as follows:

Str 17 (enhanced with Robotics)
Con 13 (18 in the suit, personal space suit type thing)
Dex 13
Int 12
Wis 17
Cha 14

I always thought of Vader as a rather high Charisma villain. He really has presence.

Bye
Thanee

 

[JoeBlank]

3.x made mid-range ability scores matter. For example, last session I rolled a passable halfling thief as a henchman/backup character, OD&D style:

str 9
int 7
wis 8
con 12
dex 12
cha 10

I don't think I would enjoy playing this character in 3.x, but he is adequate in OD&D.

I've played 25-32 point buy and been happy with all ranges, although I did feel the need to sacrifice more for spellcasters, ending up with one or more "low" stats to have at least a 16.

 

[Wystan]

I always thought of Vader as a rather high Charisma villain. He really has presence.

Bye
Thanee

I personally think that was just good ranks in intimidate and a natural intimidate bonus due to costuming. Without the helmet he was not quite as charismatic. And neither is Anakin.

 

[Seeten]

He didnt need much to get the princess in his bed.

 

[Ibram]

having read through this it seems that the original poster was asking about needing one or two good stats, not having all 18s. while most of those who have replied have talked about their character with a few low stats and some realy high stats.

the half ogre from above is a good example, yes he was low in the mental department... but i bet he could deal some real damage in combat.

The way the rules are written you need at least one 13+ stat to be able to use any of the classes effectivly, though its not neccisary to have 4 18s.

Its also interesting how everyone shares their stories about low mental stats and not low physical stats.

Breaking that trend...

one combat early in 3rd had a 1st level monk go up against a goblin. the monks strenght was low, and so he was having a terrible time hitting said goblin (he had a -1 to hit), and was dooing very little damage (some how he ran against one of the higher hp goblins). The goblin wasnt doing much better, with his negative modifier. They went at it for a long time before the party fighter came across them and killed the goblin.

 

[Dracomeander]

At high levels though it is not hard to get stat boosts for the spell casters. And fighters don't have that many great feats that need a high attribute.

This is another point that bothers me about the current incarnation of the game. I don't think it should be a requirement to acquire stat boosting magic items to make full use of the various options that become available to characters at higher levels. I have seen characters that lose access to 1/3 - 1/2 of their character feats or spells because an item was stolen or they were surprised in a situation where it wasn't equipped.

Before anyone jumps me about this. None of them have been my characters. I refuse to rely on abilities that my character doesn't qualify for without props. I have had characters rely on abilities and powers from a magic item that was acquired. But those were generally items that had abilities that were not available to the character or enhanced the pre-existing abilities of the character. They were still able to use their own abilities without the item.

 

[Altalazar]

For me, it varies, based on the character concept - some simply require better stats than others to be viable. That is, if you want to stay true to the character concept and have the character actually survive and play out the way it was concieved.

 

[Crothian]

This is another point that bothers me about the current incarnation of the game. I don't think it should be a requirement to acquire stat boosting magic items to make full use of the various options that become available to characters at higher levels. I have seen characters that lose access to 1/3 - 1/2 of their character feats or spells because an item was stolen or they were surprised in a situation where it wasn't equipped.

Then all you need is a 15 in the stat. With all the stat increases you get all the spells at the levels one gets them. I also hate that stat items are so common and don't use them in my game.

 

[Ao the Overkitty]

High stats do not make the effective character. Just ask my old Planescape group just how effective my 56 point character, Priss, was. Nearly completely useless, comes to mind (but tons of fun to play). I've actually found that character much more effective at 30pt buy.

Now, both of my groups run with point buys around 30, so it is hard to have low stats.

I will, however, agree that it depends upon what everyone else has statwise. In that game, if your character wasn't an uber-tweaked munchkin, you were never going to outshine.

It is the concept, the build, and your clever thinking that make the character effective. For example, just look at Dave's Mage in KODT. Sure, he only had a 10 Int, but he could do more with those cantrips than Brian could with his Bouncing Bettys.