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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 5700475" data-attributes="member: 82106">Well, I played OD&D, 1e, and 2e very extensively, and some other versions less so. To be totally honest we never used house rules at all in AD&D. I'm sure we ignored a few things and certainly used the system in a way that suited us, and now and then used unofficial stuff. My issues with 3.x were purely based on analysis of the system. It had nothing to do with grognardism. In fact I was rather sorely disappointed that 2e didn't go much further and really clean up the game. 3e DID try to fix things that were issues in AD&D, and sometimes succeeded. It just broke a lot more than it fixed IMHO. Given that I have no problem with 4e in terms of "it changed stuff" I figure I'm relatively free of fond nostalgia based biases.As for 3-18 ability scores I'll just say this. From day one back in 1975 when I first rolled up a PC and played the game your capabilities were largely defined by math attached to those ability scores. Yes, it is tradition, but it is also simply a way of thinking about characters and understanding the game at a low level. You can hate me for sticking to what works for me, but believe me, it works for me. I SUSPECT, though I certainly can't prove it, that this is also the case with a lot of us older players. Chalk it up to loss of mental flexibility if you wish. Whatever the reason I'd feel less comfortable with a different system for scaling ability scores. It may not be entirely logical, but there it is. Finally I'll say that the oddest things will touch people off about a game design. As trivial as switching to bonuses might be in a mechanical sense I suspect, but again can't prove, that this change would set off a fairly significant negative reaction in a lot of players. Again, it is not logical, but again there it is. Again you can hate them for that, but WotC could really care less. If leaving ability scores as-is makes the game easier for the target market to digest, then that's likely what they'll do. You can always leave those spaces blank on your character sheet, it will make basically no difference in play.</blockquote>

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