No more ubiquitous dump stats !?

[Mort_Q]

This has been discussed in many threads, but it seems that most of the discussion is as to whether or not STAT is a dump stat or not.

It seems to me that dump stats will always be around, but there is no longer one ubiquitous STAT that all PCs of a CLASS always pick.

Actual choices! With consequences likely for feats and the like, but nothing suboptimal.

This, to my mind, is a good thing.

 

[Saitou]

This would have made a great Humor thread, lamenting what will surely become a game infested with PCs that have positive CHA.

 

[Chibbot]

You know, I think the net Cha mod of all my 3.x characters is higher than the net Con mon of all my 3.x characters....

Thats not a joke...

 

[Patlin]

The Rogue class seems to have no use for intelligence. It's primarilly Dex based, there's a build focussed on Strength and another on Charisma, Con is usefull to everyone, and Wisdom powers perception. Hard to see any rogue investing much in Int, though, unless Int does something we don't know about yet.

 

[deathdonut]

Every character has 3 stat dumps. They just now have a bit more choice as to which they want to dump.

Strenght/Con is the worst in that any non-melee character will dump Strength.

Dex/Int isn't quite as bad, but unless we see some additional impact of the choice seems almost irrelevant for classes without dependent powers.

I actually like the Charisma/Wisdom dichotomy in that you can be either a people-person or observant but probably not both.

 

[That One Guy]

The Rogue class seems to have no use for intelligence. It's primarilly Dex based, there's a build focussed on Strength and another on Charisma, Con is usefull to everyone, and Wisdom powers perception. Hard to see any rogue investing much in Int, though, unless Int does something we don't know about yet.

Yeah, that's one of the things about 4e that bums me. Hopefully there'll still be INT-powered rogues ('cause I like smarty rogues), but it sounds doubtful.

 

[Mort_Q]

We still haven't seem everything. I hope you're right, but not just for rogues.

 

[Bishmon]

This has been discussed in many threads, but it seems that most of the discussion is as to whether or not STAT is a dump stat or not.

It seems to me that dump stats will always be around, but there is no longer one ubiquitous STAT that all PCs of a CLASS always pick.

Actual choices! With consequences likely for feats and the like, but nothing suboptimal.

This, to my mind, is a good thing.

I disagree, based on what I've seen.

Like others have said, for rogues, Intelligence looks nearly useless as all it does is modify some underwhelming skills.

For rangers, Intelligence again is nearly useless. Charisma is also nearly useless because Wisdom is much more important to the ranger because Wisdom alters typical ranger skills like perception and nature and other useful skills like heal and insight while still giving the bonus to will defense that charisma would.

For a wizard, strength is nearly useless, as they usually do everything possible to avoid athletics checks of strength checks. If a wizard wanted to up his fortitude defense, he'd pick Constitution in order to do so, plus get a few extra hit points and healing surges.

I think they've done a good job making more options more viable, but I think there's still going to be clear choices for most classes of where they want to focus their ability scores, and where they can almost entirely ignore their ability scores. And I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.

 

[Harshax]

You know, I think the net Cha mod of all my 3.x characters is higher than the net Con mon of all my 3.x characters....

Thats not a joke...

I think the net Cha score of all my 3.x characters is higher than the net Int mod of all my 3.x characters...

But only slightly.

I just couldn't get enough of those skill points.

 

[Falling Icicle]

I think the attribute pairings will cause more problems than they solve. You'll never again see a Wizard with high Dex, a Paladin with high Wisdom or an archer Ranger with Strength, unless it's people who don't know what they're doing. As soon as people figure out that they can just completely ignore half of the attributes without consequence, count on them to do so. I sure know what most Wizards will do - put Int as high as possible, have a good Con and Wis, and leave the rest at 8.

And I'll never get over Int adding to AC/Reflex. I've never known a single brainiac that would be good at avoiding hits in a brawl. There's a reason professional fighters train to improve their physique rather than train by reading books.