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<blockquote data-quote="Cadfan" data-source="post: 3968881" data-attributes="member: 40961">Mathematically, having ability scores that immediately translate into another value adds nothing to the game.&nbsp; Its an extra calculation.But its probably one of the most sacred of all the sacred cows.What they SHOULD do, but almost definitely won't do, is this-The 3 to 18 distribution exists because 3d6 provides an ok little bell curve for people who roll for stats.Roll 3d6 just like we do now, translate that into an ability score bonus, and then throw away the original number.&nbsp; From that point on, your &quot;ability score&quot; would be what we currently call your &quot;ability score bonus.&quot;An effect which currently gives -4 strength would then give -2 strength.&nbsp; The exact same thing would be accomplished mathematically as the current system accomplishes, except that we wouldn't have to always think, &quot;oh yeah, that was a penalty to the ability score, so the ability score bonus changed by half as much.&quot;It saves the trouble of one additional calculation each time a score changes.&nbsp; Which isn't a massive inconvenience, but its an absolutely pointless inconvenience.Except this cow is probably too sacred to slay.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Cadfan, post: 3968881, member: 40961"] Mathematically, having ability scores that immediately translate into another value adds nothing to the game. Its an extra calculation. But its probably one of the most sacred of all the sacred cows. What they SHOULD do, but almost definitely won't do, is this- The 3 to 18 distribution exists because 3d6 provides an ok little bell curve for people who roll for stats. Roll 3d6 just like we do now, translate that into an ability score bonus, and then throw away the original number. From that point on, your "ability score" would be what we currently call your "ability score bonus." An effect which currently gives -4 strength would then give -2 strength. The exact same thing would be accomplished mathematically as the current system accomplishes, except that we wouldn't have to always think, "oh yeah, that was a penalty to the ability [I]score[/I], so the ability score [I]bonus[/I] changed by half as much." It saves the trouble of one additional calculation each time a score changes. Which isn't a massive inconvenience, but its an absolutely pointless inconvenience. Except this cow is probably too sacred to slay. [/QUOTE]

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