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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 6911104" data-attributes="member: 996">That'd be killing a heavily armored sacred cow, indeed, even 4e barely took a swipe at it (in a stealth sense, 4e could have been said to have had only 3 stats, because of the way they were paired off).  Call it a sacred Gorgon maybe.  Checks as saves is a bit of sacred cattle mutilation, in itself, and 3 saves, as in 3e (and 3 non-AC defenses in 4e) would arguable be a holy bovine in its own right.Anyway, coincidentally enough, I was thinking about alternate approached to characteristics today, anyway.  My train of thought was totally different.  Y'see, there was this pretty terrible game in the 80s called DragonQuest, and it had a Magical Aptitude, I think it was, magicky something, stat, that only casters needed, so everyone else could dump it, and none of the other stats were that dump-worthy, so casters were always hurt'n for stats.In D&D, if you're a caster, you need one caster stat for all your important stuff, while CON, DEX & WIS are critical for saves, and DEX for initiative & AC, and CON for hps, and WIS for perception.  STR, INT & CHA are potentially dumpable.  Upshot is you have SAD classes and MAD classes.  If casters were always MAD, that'd go a ways towards balancing out their power/versatility, or at least jacking up the price of it.Vague idea, 6 stats:Physique - size, strength, stamina, health, durrabilityAgility - speed, dexterity, wit, adaptability, reactionsPsyche - will, personality, memoryMagical Aptitude - ability to learn magic (low magical aptitude means you can handle the odd superstitious practice, him magical aptiutde lets you learn complex, dependable, almost scientific sorts of magic)Magical Power - exactly what it sounds like, when you use magic, how much sheer power can you put behind it or channel through yourself.Magic Resistance - how hard is it to affect you with magic, usually inversely related to the other two.Then comes some /real/ complexity.  Every task has a governing stat (possibly even two) and contributing stats.  All those stats add to the roll to perform the task, but no single stat can add more than the governing stat.  So fighting with heavy weapons & armor would be Physique governing, Agility & Psyche, while dueling with a rapier might be Agility governing Psyche & Physique.  Casting a long Ritual could be governed by both Physique (endurance) and Magical Aptitude, somatic components require agility as well MA, illusions & enchantments Psyche as well as MA, and all magic needs MP, etc...  That sort of thing.  Part of the idea is that non-casters can dump both MA & MP, and take a high MR, while casters can't afford any dump stats without sacrificing some of the range of magic they can do well.:shrug:  Nothin'll ever come of the idea.</blockquote>

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