LA for mutation points

[Mithran]

The drawback btw is worth 4 MP. Now I know having high ability scores is special but we are talking mutants here...

 

[Ymdar]

That article says 10MP for each point of increase to an ability score... that can't be right can it? Shouldn't it be worth the same as the drawback that lowers an ability score by 2?

Here's your answer:

Mutation as a Template

A GM can use mutation as a template that can be applied to PCs and foes alike. This template simply grants 8 MP in return for a +1 level shift or CR boost. (For rules on how to handle PCs with a level shift, see the entry for the weren in Chapter 13 of d20 Future.)

 

[C. Baize]

Well ... considering you can balance a race with a +2 -2 to stats...
+2 to a stat should cost the same as a -2 gives.
In other words, if a -2 GIVES 4mp, then a +2 should COST 4mp.
It's basic balance.

 

[Templeton580]

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[C. Baize]

Except when it isn't.

The average player is going to add a point to his most useful stat, while dropping points only from the most useless stats. So you have point adds that benefit the character, and point subtractions that have little, if any, effect on game play.

In addition, I think ability points gained or lost later in the PC's career are a little different from "adjustments" to beginning stats. Racial adjustments don't really involve "losing" or "gaining" any points, since most players will arrange their stats in anticipation of the adjustment, no?

So... you make it cost more to punish the powergamers?
I prefer to let GMs deal with how to keep that stuff from happening.

Having a stat boost cost the same points that a stat drop gives is basic balance.

And it's how I would house rule it.

Edit: Besides... it's not actually about +2/-2, it's about cost. You're not asking someone to drop one stat by 2 in order to boost a different stat by 2. We're talking about the Mutation Point cost. The rules as written don't balance it out. They're skewed toward dropping points.
If someone WANTS to drop one stat by 2 in order to get the points to boost another... so be it. That character will be less useful in situations where skills based on that stat are important.

 

[Templeton580]

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[C. Baize]

Fair enough...

I don't particularly care for the point of dropping stats in exchange for gaining other abilities, at all, but if it's going to be in the rules... *shrug*

 

[Templeton580]

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[C. Baize]

Oh, I'm right with you on that one. But all my players went out and bought d20 Apocalypse, and if I start denying them Mutations I'll have a mutiny on my hands.

So I'm just trying to balance it as best I can...

Sure.
Plus... don't think I'm against higher stats for PCs and named NPCs...
My standard stat generation goes like this:
3d6+1d8 Drop the lowest, and nothing unmodified over 18.
I like the heroic characters to be heroic.
I pretty much use ordinary stat arrays for ordinary NPCs ... mooks and the like. But I like heroes and actual villains to stand out from the herd, ya know?
It's not enough to make them super, but JUST enough to let them stand out as something apart from the average Joe.

 

[Omega Lord]

Oh, I'm right with you on that one. But all my players went out and bought d20 Apocalypse, and if I start denying them Mutations I'll have a mutiny on my hands.

So I'm just trying to balance it as best I can...

So it would be a mutant mutiny eh? *badum CHING*




... what? someone had to say it.