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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 4729776" data-attributes="member: 82106">Did they? Stats didn't go up and were pretty much capped at about 19, but they gave pretty similar bonuses at similar numbers. 4e characters end up with a huge disparity in stat bonuses as they level up, so the stats end up creating a much bigger differential between core character capabilities and "everything else", but having a fighter in the old days with a high strength or con was a pretty big bonus. Same with magic users and clerics where a high stat could triple your available spell arsenal at lower levels easily.Of course character's had their shtick back in 1e just as they do in 4e, but because monsters didn't generally become vastly harder to hit etc as levels went up you were a lot less crippled in your ability to do non-shtick sorts of things. Or at least those things didn't stop working AT ALL at higher levels like they do now. So it was much more viable to play a character that had some genuine weaknesses in stats. At least it sure seemed that way. The other aspect of that is that with the way the starting stat arrays work now the range of ability scores is a lot narrower. Nothing is ever below 8. Granted you will have one stat that is way up there, but the rest will pretty much hover between 10 and 14, not much of a range. Character's were more idiosyncratic and stats provided more "character" to the character when you were likely to have a range from possibly under 6 all the way up to possibly 18 on secondary stats. In that sense characters are a lot more 'bland' now, and that just piles onto the almost utter futility of using anything based on a tertiary stat in 4e above mid-heroic levels. I'm not putting 4e down, overall it is a great system, but it has actually in a backwards sort of way devalued stats a lot IMHO as a character element, and I kind of regret that.</blockquote>

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