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<blockquote data-quote="Falling Icicle" data-source="post: 6077098" data-attributes="member: 17077">One of the things I liked about 4e was that instead of rolling saving throws, Fortitude, Reflex and Will were defenses that worked like AC. This made everything in the game consistent and made it possible for magic spells to work just like physical attacks. In Next, they're going to be using every ability score for saving throws, and I like that, but I think it would be better if they were a &quot;defense&quot; score instead of being rolled. However, having a &quot;Strength Defense&quot; or &quot;Intelligence Defense&quot; would be... odd, not to mention confusing. But then an idea occurred to me, why not just have the ability score itself serve as the &quot;defense&quot;? For example, in order to hit someone with a fireball, you must roll a spell attack and &quot;hit&quot; their Dexterity score. If a target has a Dexterity score of 15, that would be the DC of hitting that creature with a fireball. Using the ability score as the defense is very simple, easy to understand, and also gives a benefit to having odd-numbered ability scores.It may seem a bit unfair to spellcasters, because targets are effectively getting a +1 to their &quot;defense&quot; for each point of ability score above 10, instead of every 2 points (which gives you a +1 modifier). But after thinking about it, I don't think it would be unfair to spellcasters at all. Casters are also getting a bonus to their magic attacks of +2 or more, and their primary spellcasting ability is very likely to be their highest ability score. A wizard with a 20 Int and a +2 magic attack bonus is rolling +7 to &quot;hit&quot; with his spells. An opponent would have to have a 17 in his ability score just to be on an even footing! And nobody's going to have such a high score in every ability. Most creatures will have lower ability scores that a wizard can target with various spells. There could also, of course, be magical implements that add to spell attacks the same way magic weapons add to weapon attacks.Thoughts?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Falling Icicle, post: 6077098, member: 17077"] One of the things I liked about 4e was that instead of rolling saving throws, Fortitude, Reflex and Will were defenses that worked like AC. This made everything in the game consistent and made it possible for magic spells to work just like physical attacks. In Next, they're going to be using every ability score for saving throws, and I like that, but I think it would be better if they were a "defense" score instead of being rolled. However, having a "Strength Defense" or "Intelligence Defense" would be... odd, not to mention confusing. But then an idea occurred to me, why not just have the ability score itself serve as the "defense"? For example, in order to hit someone with a fireball, you must roll a spell attack and "hit" their Dexterity score. If a target has a Dexterity score of 15, that would be the DC of hitting that creature with a fireball. Using the ability score as the defense is very simple, easy to understand, and also gives a benefit to having odd-numbered ability scores. It may seem a bit unfair to spellcasters, because targets are effectively getting a +1 to their "defense" for each point of ability score above 10, instead of every 2 points (which gives you a +1 modifier). But after thinking about it, I don't think it would be unfair to spellcasters at all. Casters are also getting a bonus to their magic attacks of +2 or more, and their primary spellcasting ability is very likely to be their highest ability score. A wizard with a 20 Int and a +2 magic attack bonus is rolling +7 to "hit" with his spells. An opponent would have to have a 17 in his ability score just to be on an even footing! And nobody's going to have such a high score in every ability. Most creatures will have lower ability scores that a wizard can target with various spells. There could also, of course, be magical implements that add to spell attacks the same way magic weapons add to weapon attacks. Thoughts? [/QUOTE]

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