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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Felon" data-source="post: 4173034" data-attributes="member: 8158">OK, what are the "actual choices" here? Whoopie, someone in the party has a low number by their Con score on their character sheet. I mean, let's say some guy with a 4e warrior character will dump-stat Con. It's not because he's chosen to play a frail and unhealthy character, but rather because he's substituted Str for their Fort defense bonus, and he realizes the hit point gain from Con is small, and maybe he's figured out various other ways to marginalize the importance of Con for whatever's left over (through racial traits, feats, class features, or whatever). So he's still plenty sturdy, he's just found a way to be sturdy without having distribute any points in Con. So now there's a guy in the party who has a low number next to his Con score, and has a penalty that he rarely takes note of. What did that accomplish that was so great? In another scenario, a guy with a wizard character has to decide what score to assign Charisma. Should he invest anything? Well, it affects Charisma-based skills, but this is the same guy who used to dump-stat Cha in 3.5e. He doesn't care about how unappealing his character is it if means steering resources away from maximizing his butt-kicking potential. What else is Cha good for? Well, let's see....ah, yes, Will defense. But he can use Wis for that as well. So, now he has to decide whether the Wis-based checks his character makes will be of more important than the Cha-based checks. Regardless of which he chooses, what does the choice accomplish that I should applaud?Final scenario: a guy tries to design a 4e rogue with a high Int score. He invests the points, but he's already got a good Dexterity, so it's a waste because the system interpolates Int and Dex.  Now, why should I love this development?I'ld also like to add that there was no ubiquitous dump stat in 3.5e, at least not any more than there will be in 4e. Charisma, you say? Anyone who wanted to be good at social skills suffered if they penalized Cha. So did sorcerers and paladins and many classes that came after them (warlocks, warmages, favored souls, healers, marshals...). And in 4e, if a character doesn't cherish face-man skills or have some class ability based off of Cha, then that player will still have a strong incentive to dump-stat it. Nothing changed there, except that he has more cause now to turn around and dump-stat Wis.</blockquote>

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