Okay, after putting the stat blocks through a bit of a mathematical analysis of my own devising,

Basically I min-maxed a superpower character with an initial pool of 50 points as well as creating a character with a reasonable bell-curve method of stat placement with the same pool.

Then I did the same for a mundane character (pool = 15 points.)

After seeing how close the deltas (read differences in scores) were for the derived stats and the initial skill scores, I began to see a pattern emerge. And I didn’t like where it was headed.

• CON is indeed the stat of choice. It affects a bunch of stuff.
• STR is a joke as a stat.
• DEX isn’t much better.

And without making any changes, the pattern gets worse as the pool increases.

So… I’ve made some modifications to how the derived stats are generated. The Changes…

• Dodge is now (DEX+CON+INT)/3
  I can live with this, since the addition of INT gives the feeling that a character might be smart enough to sense or anticipate the motives of someone acting against them
• Discover (previously identified as search/spot) is now (DEX+WIS+PRE)/3
  This works too since now the stat of search/spot is changed to Discover – and should now also cover things that are tactile in nature.
• Power is now (STR+CON+PRE)/3
  This makes sense too as overall prowess could easily be tied to overall physical strength.

Before the changes, DEX and STR were little more than Dump Stats (if that even.)

Now, while they still rank as 5th and 6th in overall effect on derived stats and maximum initial skill scores, they’re still better in terms of importance.

Up to 1d6-1 Related posts:

1. Hey munchkin! What’s the dump stat??
2. Common Skills and Freebies
3. Awesome… but optional: Pushing your Luck
4. Awesome… but optional: Blaze of Glory
5. Improvement mechanics (long post warning)

Tags: Game Design, KORE rpg, rpg, Skills, statistics, system