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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nichwee" data-source="post: 5700633" data-attributes="member: 84242">Personally I think stats shoudl continue to be as they are.The main reason I think this is twofold.1) While defining all stats from an arbitrary average is fine, it still feels wrong to say the average human has zero constitution (str, dex, int, wis or cha). An average person still has some level of strength or some such and to say it is zero feel silly.2) You lose the idea of Zero as a lower cap to a stat. This is relevent to spells that may reduce stats (which have existed in a lot of editions of D&D so far) and it gives you an understanding on what is too low to be viable. This idea of Int 0 (mod -5) = no mind at all for example halps place an idiot on the scale from "No Mind" through "Average" to "Genius". Now you can go with the idea that a -5 mod is the absolute lower limit (as that is currently the mod at Stat 0) but it feels arbitrary and disjointed, while saying well "You can't have a negative strength can you?" makes sense.Having a stat value and a mod lets you put these simple facts into their real world version while being able to easily define relative compotence:1) Zero is the obvious and practical lower limit to a stat, and you can give a logical reason why this will be.2) A zero in a stat mod simply defines the average person's ability at some thing, so the maths gives a modification of probability from the norm. i.e. An average man can perform this "feat of strength" 50% of the time, and your stat mod gives a direct indication of the change in probability for you to do the same feat.3) Having an obvious lower limit makes it easier to trigger effects or conditions based on this limit without it being a jarring effect when observed by players. "My Int has been reduced to zero! Coma time." vs "So my Int is -5 now, what's the big deal? It was always shoddy and it didn't stop me kicking butt before."</blockquote>

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