eamon
Explorer
Yeah, if attacks weren't based on abilities, that would fix some things. But it's not a necessary change: There's no problem with basing attacks on ability scores; it's that (A) all kinds of less crucial other stuff is also based on ability scores (unavoidable) in combination with (B) ability score diverging. That means that PC's basically always raise primary abilities (in 4e, primary and secondary ability scores), which in turn means scores diverge, which in turn means that everything else ability score related diverges too.
And that means that a DM can't rely on any sort of balance in non-attack issues. In the same party you'll have a super-perceptive character and a blind man. And if it were just one skill, that'd be fine; but right now, it's more likely than not to involve almost every skill and almost every defense (and more) - with the possible exception of AC. And even AC is terrible on various light armor builds without a Dex/Int primary or secondary score.
So, a hypothetical future 5e could well use ability scores for attacks - ability scores just shouldn't change after character creation. (To be clear, I don't think that would be a good house rule in 4e; it changes balance too much).
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