Talk:Useful Ability Scores (3.5e Variant Rule)

Ratings

	Ghostwheel likes this article and rated it 3 of 4.
	While I like where the article is trying to go, I think it could go farther. There's still little cause for a melee character to go much Int or Cha. However, I like the "optional" bit at the end (I think it should be part of the main article) as it gives more flexibility with which abilities you choose to have high.

Luigifan18 favors this article and rated it 4 of 4!

It's really cool that you're expanding the ability scores, and I agree with a lot of these. For instance, I always found it strange that Intimidate is tied solely to Charisma, and Strength is mostly irrelevant to it. I mean, seriously, consider being threatened by a jock versus being threatened by a nerd: most people would take the jock more seriously, even though the nerd could easily be just as dangerous (if not more dangerous, especially in modern times where everything is high-tech), simply because the jock would be more physically imposing, and thus a more immediate threat. Your assessments of the ability scores are also pretty good, though talking about that would require me to go really in-depth.

Comparing Game Stats: Pokémon & Dungeons & Dragons

It's no secret that I'm a big fan of Pokémon, and I've found that Pokémon's stats correspond pretty closely to D&D's stats, with just two major exceptions.

• Strength is obviously Attack, as it's clearly the primary stat governing physical offense. Accuracy and Attack are separate stats in Pokémon (in fact, accuracy in Pokémon is not a stat that grows based on level or varies between Pokémon, being largely based on the move being used, with Pokémon abilities and in-battle stat modifiers like Hone Claws or Sand-Attack influencing accuracy), and Pokémon don't have carrying capacities in-game (they can hold one item and that's it), but in terms of just "how much damage do I do", the equivalency is perfect.
• Dexterity is equivalent to Speed, reflecting reaction time and nimbleness. The match isn't perfect, as Evasion and Speed are separate stats in Pokémon (and Evasion is like Accuracy, except it really works more as anti-accuracy), and movement speed in D&D is totally independent of Dexterity unless one is made to influence the other, but the Speed stat in Pokémon is just used to determine who strikes first; it does exactly what an initiative check (which, I should mention, is Dexterity-based) does in D&D. (Considering that some Pokémon which are said to be able to move very, very fast have rather average or even mediocre base Speed stats (looking at you, Pidgeot), the Pokémon Speed stat may very well be more about a Pokémon's ability to react to enemy moves and accelerate to its top speed than it is about the top speed itself, which fits even more closely with the D&D Dexterity stat.)
• Constitution is one of the three D&D stats where the analogy breaks down. It's the D&D physical defense stat, as it influences Fortitude saves, but it also influences hit points. This means it actually equates to two stats in Pokémon – HP and Defense. Thing is, there aren't many Pokémon who have a high base stat for both. Many Pokémon with high HP have low Defense, and many Pokémon with high Defense have low HP. In either case, a super-high Constitution would be a little silly (I can't see a Blissey having a massive bonus to Fortitude saves, or a Steelix having a massive mountain of hit points). So, um, yeah. (And technically, Defense in Pokémon would actually correspond to damage reduction in D&D, but damage reduction is, like movement speed, independent of the ability scores.)
• Intelligence also breaks the analogy. Either it or Charisma would be the equivalent of Special Attack — probably Charisma. Both Intelligence and Charisma are used very frequently in D&D to influence save DCs of nonphysical attacks (and also occasionally other factors, like their damage); Charisma gets used slightly more often in that role. (It should also be noted that Charisma replaces Strength as the ability score for melee attacks when the attacker is incorporeal.)
• Wisdom, however, is pretty clearly Special Defense, as it governs Will saving throws. Again, in Pokémon, Special Defense actually lowers the damage you take from special attacks (which, in Pokémon, simply means a nonphysical attack), while in D&D, Will saves don't do that in quite as clear-cut a fashion. Something that would directly lower damage from nonphysical attacks, like energy resistance, would be more closely equivalent, but, again, energy resistance isn't connected to ability scores. This correlation works well enough, though.

I dunno how relevant this all is here, but it does influence how I view the roles of the stats. --Luigifan18 (talk) 01:44, 30 November 2015 (UTC)

Suggestions

Anyone has any suggestion on what I can add to Int and Cha for primary foighter, I was thinking something about flanking. --Leziad (talk) 07:07, 2 December 2015 (UTC)