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<blockquote data-quote="Felon" data-source="post: 445274" data-attributes="member: 8158">Speaking in terms of linear, percentile systems in general (and not specific games), they don't seem to compensate well for the fact that there is a &quot;hard&quot; ceiling on what you can roll (the ceiling being 100%). Too often I've seen starting characters with melee combat scores of 48% and an archery score of 37%. And these players were tyring to make up badass warriors, mind you. IMHO, if you're missing more often than you're hitting, you don't need to be out adventuring. If you can't hit at least 51% of the time, you suck at fighting. Go back home and practice. OTOH, characters should have room for improvement, so I don't want to see starting characters running around with 98% in a skill either. I don't think it's a good game mechanic to allow percentages in skill to go over 100%, and simply count on penalties being applied in order to create an element of risk. I don't think &quot;regardless of your percentage, rolls of 96-100 always fail&quot; is a terribly good mechanic either.Ability scores don't seem to mean much in percentile systems either. If a skill's base is (DEX + INT)%, the fact that I have an 18 DEX doesn't really amount to much, right?Systems like d20 realize that difficulties should be scaled to a character's ability. As a first-level character, I shouldn't need to hit a terasque's armor class, or make a Reflex save against an adult red dragon's breath, and I won't be using my tumbling skill to move through a square occupied by an opponent (DC 25). In a linear percentile system, everyone's using the same scale, newbie or godling.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Felon, post: 445274, member: 8158"] Speaking in terms of linear, percentile systems in general (and not specific games), they don't seem to compensate well for the fact that there is a "hard" ceiling on what you can roll (the ceiling being 100%). Too often I've seen starting characters with melee combat scores of 48% and an archery score of 37%. And these players were tyring to make up badass warriors, mind you. IMHO, if you're missing more often than you're hitting, you don't need to be out adventuring. If you can't hit at least 51% of the time, you suck at fighting. Go back home and practice. OTOH, characters should have room for improvement, so I don't want to see starting characters running around with 98% in a skill either. I don't think it's a good game mechanic to allow percentages in skill to go over 100%, and simply count on penalties being applied in order to create an element of risk. I don't think "regardless of your percentage, rolls of 96-100 always fail" is a terribly good mechanic either. Ability scores don't seem to mean much in percentile systems either. If a skill's base is (DEX + INT)%, the fact that I have an 18 DEX doesn't really amount to much, right? Systems like d20 realize that difficulties should be scaled to a character's ability. As a first-level character, I shouldn't need to hit a terasque's armor class, or make a Reflex save against an adult red dragon's breath, and I won't be using my tumbling skill to move through a square occupied by an opponent (DC 25). In a linear percentile system, everyone's using the same scale, newbie or godling. [/QUOTE]

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