Speaking of Character Stats

[Prolix]

Split off magic thread rapidly going off topic.

As far as I am concerned the main component of charisma is self-confidence. Personal appearance is only secondary as pretty people do have an edge. It is the nature of our society to be superficial and to 'judge a book by its cover.' This means pretty people have fewer challenges and are able to gain the self-confidence needed to be truly charismatic. That is not to say pretty people cannot be beaten down or that less attractive people cannot gain the necessary confidence.

On another note it would appear to me that the current system where every person has the same capacity for stat training (subject to unimplemented racial limits) is flawed and unrealistic. It would be far better if the character creation process generated personal stat maximums which could only be exceeded by magical intervention -- temporarily by potion or other item or permanently by arduous quest from a potent NPC. That way all maxed characters will not be alike.

As I said previously the stat maximums should be reduced and training more difficult. The ranges for a given modifier can be changed to match. I do not know what the final maximums are slated to be but I think anything above 100, more or less, is excessive. If you need more detail than you can get from 1-100 you can always include fractional amounts. For example if I want to train my strength from 50 - 51 it could take 100 practice sessions from 50.00 - 51.00 each adding .01. Modifiers to skills could depend on either integer values or some arbitrary fractional range.

Of course I am not issuing any ultimatums, these are just my suggestions.

[Duraza]

On another note it would appear to me that the current system where every person has the same capacity for stat training (subject to unimplemented racial limits) is flawed and unrealistic. It would be far better if the character creation process generated personal stat maximums which could only be exceeded by magical intervention -- temporarily by potion or other item or permanently by arduous quest from a potent NPC. That way all maxed characters will not be alike.

I brought up an idea like that once in the wish list 
Basically limitations to your characters stats, something pretty much frowned upon. Players like to feel as if they "beat the game." Its like a classic thing when it comes to any game that has leveling. Sure, I think its better for rp if we did have set stats, however at the same time it should be possible for one to learn. Its unrealistic to think that you can't get any better at something just as unrealistic it is to believe you can be the master of everything. So what is going to be choosen at the end? Most likely master of everything.

Imagine if we did have stat limitations. Not only would we have everyone trying to come up with the best character in character creation (ultimately making a lot of characters that are the same) but people will make a character for everything. Best mage, best warrior, best thief, etc. We won't get anywhere because everyone can still be the best at everything....

Now if we still have training but you can only master certain things I do like, however its not going to happen. Its just going to lead to each person still trying to have the best warrior, best mage, etc. For ideas like this I'd say its best to just play a table top rp where there are strict guidelines. Else you just have to get used to all the maxed out characters. If not we will just have a massive flooding of the amount of characters around.

[Prolix]

Well I actually gave this some more thought at work. It struck me that you should not be able to train your stats at all but that they would gradually grow due to the skills you train. For example, a skill might gain a modifier from three stats that are deemed significant to the skill -- one major, one minor and one other. If the two part system mentioned above were to be adopted then instead of the 100 practice sessions .1 of a stat level could be awarded upon ranking the skill, split up amongst the stats the skill relies upon such that .05 would go to the major stat, .03 to the minor stat and .02 to the other stat. Of course the numbers are arbitrary at this point to show the idea. Whenever you accumulate enough parts to make a whole your stat would increment. Since it is really two separate counters, the stat level and the stat accumulator both could be unsigned ints and the values above could be 10, 5, 3 and 2 respectively.

When your character has reached its maximum stat level it could perform the aforesaid arduous quest to gain more. Upon completion of the quest it could gain another level at twice the cost, i.e. need to accumulate 200 parts. The quest could be repeatable or there could be multiple quests and each subsequent completion would allow further advancement at higher cost than the previous one.

[Zan]

Well I actually gave this some more thought at work. It struck me that you should not be able to train your stats at all but that they would gradually grow due to the skills you train. For example, a skill might gain a modifier from three stats that are deemed significant to the skill -- one major, one minor and one other. If the two part system mentioned above were to be adopted then instead of the 100 practice sessions .1 of a stat level could be awarded upon ranking the skill, split up amongst the stats the skill relies upon such that .05 would go to the major stat, .03 to the minor stat and .02 to the other stat. Of course the numbers are arbitrary at this point to show the idea. Whenever you accumulate enough parts to make a whole your stat would increment. Since it is really two separate counters, the stat level and the stat accumulator both could be unsigned ints and the values above could be 10, 5, 3 and 2 respectively.

When your character has reached its maximum stat level it could perform the aforesaid arduous quest to gain more. Upon completion of the quest it could gain another level at twice the cost, i.e. need to accumulate 200 parts. The quest could be repeatable or there could be multiple quests and each subsequent completion would allow further advancement at higher cost than the previous one.

I brought up an idea like that several times in the wish list

[Duraza]

I personally like the idea of training being actual training (also mentioned in the wish list I believe). Want to get stronger? Deliver loads of gold back and forth to Harnquist or Trasok. Want to have higher endurance? Practice running a lot. Want to learn the sword? Fight masters or monsters and slowly practice. Sure there are certain things that might require an NPC to learn, like mastering  sword and such. However getting higher endurance shouldn't be about killing a lot of monsters and then taking pp and money to a trainer to suddenly get a boost. It shouldn't even be just killing monsters and leveling up like in other games. It should be like real life.

[Jonerian]

Well, my idea would be that everybody can get a moster of everything theoretically, but can do it fast in some stats and really slow in other stats, while playing another race it can be the other way around. You can still max everything if you are bored, but even as a power leveler you get pushed to do the stats first you are supposed to be good at, because it is much more "efficient".

Yes, you can learn nearly everything and get better in everything in RL, but it is also easier for some people and harder for others.