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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WotC_Trevor" data-source="post: 5802061" data-attributes="member: 82759">Okay, there's a lot of great stuff in here but I'm going to try to respond to just a few things that I might be able to clear up. Here's my obligatory bit about how we're still playtesting and designing and any of this stuff could change. So ability scores are important, but I don't think maxing out an ability score will be as uber important as it has been in some editions. You get stats, and then you choose your race and class. You race could give you a stat bump, and then your class could give you a stat bump too. So if you want to synergize you can, which could bring you a lot closer to that hard stat cap without rolling or point buying that 18.Another thing that goes into making these stats important but not "OMG I NEED 18S IN EVERYTHING!!11!!" goes along with that ability score ceiling. By shrinking the distance of ability score growth, they can condense the scale of challenges as well. So a +1 or a +2 to a specific stat or skill check really makes a difference.I'm hopeful that we'll see through playtesting that while stats are still important, people won't feel left behind or that they need to max a stat to feel useful or to have fun. Ability scores are still used for skills. You need to jump across chasm - the DM looks at your strength stat and if it's high enough, you make it. If not, then maybe he has you make a strength roll. If you get a bonus to strength rolls made to jump, then that gets factored in. It's still a strength roll though, so it's based on your stat.And for NPCs not following the same rules as PCs, the idea is that those NPCs don't have to follow the same rules - not that you couldn't build an npc or monster that did. Maybe I don't understand the underlying issue with that one but I think uncoupling NPC or monster creation from the same rules that PCs might use when creating their characters makes things easier for the DM. I haven't had any difficulty running these monsters or seeing how they work, even with this idea behind it. One of the options for ability score generation is the roll 4d6 drop the lowest, but it's not the only option. I would suspect that the area on stats when we're all done with this will have a main option that it suggests (which might be the 4d6 roll) and some other options such as point buy and array along side it.  We're running with the d20 + mods rolls at the moment.We definitely have not, but hopefully people understand that we're not set on things yet as we're still in the very early stages of playtesting. Everything is still an idea, some tested more than others. That's what this is all about.That said, I can definitely envision a base skill system like the one they've mentioned working in our final version - perhaps with a more robust, optional skill module in the initial release as well, one that reflects the specific skills and ranks like the most recent D&D editions. Time will tell though.</blockquote>

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