stats

Stats.

I don't know where to begin. I tend to be hateful of them because this is where the power gaming begins for most players. We use these numbers to define our characters and it wasn't long before some gamer somewhere started figuring out which combinations of numbers would best serve their characters. I hate the idea of the throw away stat, but it's a term I've used before.

I'm especially critical of mental and social stats. I've seen too many characters with 6 chr, who try to speak as eloquently as possible. Guys with college educations who make fighters with 7 int. I've seen the opposite as well. I've seen idiots with 18 int wizards and the like.

So, what is the purpose of stats?
Stats should inform us of who the character, but they should not dominate. That's the trick of it and one that I have not yet figured out.

The first thing to do is to make the stats more equal. Strength and Dexterity are the worst of all the offenders. In D20 Strength is both to hit for melee combat and damage bonus. Dexterity is even worse. It covers AC, ranged combat, the reflext save, and initiative. With the right feats it will even control melee to hit. To me, that makes it too powerful.

What I've developed is a system where each stat covers as few bases as possible. That makes them more balanced.
In my game:
Str will determine lifting/carrying ability and melee damage.
Dex will determine defense and reflex saves
Con will determine the amount of damage that can be taken and fortitude saves.

I've gotten rid of the tradition mental and social stats and introduced 3 new ones.
Grit. This is a measure of mental endurance and ability to do harm. I subscribe to the philosophy that not everyone is capable of bringing violence on those around them and that ability is measured by grit. Grit determines melee to hit and will saves.
Perception. This measures sensory ability and accuity so it tracks spot, listen, search, it also will determine ranged attack.
Power: This is just a stat used to determine how powerful a character's magic can be.

I dream of a game where instead of numbers stats and characters are described with adjectives. Instead of having a strength of one, a hero's strength might be 'average' or 'strong'. However, since quantitative and qualitative data are linked, it's hard to get away from assigning hard values to those adjectives.

Also: Like most games I'm moving away from having a number that gives a modifier the way that DnD does. If an 18 give you +4 then your stat is essentially a 4.

I'm also a big fan of the idea that stats should be paid for separately in point based character creation, or that at the minimum: limits should be set on how high stats can be and how many high stats a character can have. Especially in systems where flaws can be taken to gain extra points that can be spent on stats.