Idle Thought

[mythusmage]

The 3-18 scale is pegged to humans, who have an average characteristic of 10.5. Works fine for humans, but it's not scaled up well (in my opinion), and breaks down when you try to scale down. What if you pegged it to fine creatures and scaled up from there?

For example, the common housefly would have characteristic averages of 10.5, with larger creatures scaling up from there. How would you handle this scaling? How would a diminuitive or tiny creature determine characteristics? Medium size or larger?

Sort of related...

Runequest has Size as a characteristic. Give fine creatures a range of 3-18 in Size, with Strength pegged to Size, and Intelligence quasi-pegged. (Smaller brains and all that) Wisdom is quasi-pegged to Intelligence, while Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma remain mostly as is.

 

[Kuld]

Well, I have thought of this before. It just doesn’t make sense that a 30 lb Halfling only has a -2 to strength. My son is a few months shy of two years old and weighs over 30 lbs. I couldn’t imagine the wee lad in an adventuring party sporting a shortsword and taunting his foes. Well, actually I can…
The point is, if we were to use the 3d6-2 method then an individual his size has the potential to have a 16 strength. This means that they would have the ability to lift multiple times their own weight. Which I don’t see happening.

 

[Woas]

Isn't that why items made for creatures weigh differently and why the light, medium and max loads change? Or am I not udnerstanding it?

 

[Umbran]

It doesn't matter much exactly where you start your scale. In technical terms, it's "arbitrary". In practical terms, it should be set by what is most convenient for the players and DM.

Setting the scale so that the fly has a 10.5 Strength (+0 strength modifier), for example, means that the average human starts with a something like a 20 strength (+5 modifer),and the upper end of normal humans is running more like a +9 modifier.

This functions, sure. But it isn't convenient for anybody. The convenient scale is the one that requires the least work to use most of the time. Given that the most commonly references stats are those for medium sized critters (like the PCs and most NPCs) it makes most sense to set the zero of the scale to match that case.