[dataweaver]

A radical revision to the characteristics that I've toyed with in the past, and that I personally wouldn't mind seeing in IN2e (emphasis on "radical"; I fully expect it to be too drastic of a change for many people):

Characters get six Characteristics and three Aptitudes. Characteristics are determined by your Forces as they always have been: you get 4 Characteristic Points per Realm Force to divide between two Characteristics in that Realm. The difference is what those Characteristics are: the Corporeal Characteristics are Strength and Body; the Ethereal Characteristics are Intelligence and Mind; and the Celestial Characteristics are Will and Soul.

Agility, Precision, and Perception become Aptitudes. Aptitudes are determined by dividing a pool of 18 points between the three Realms: Agility is the Corporeal Aptitude, Precision is the Ethereal Aptitude, and Perception is the Celestial Aptitude. Note: I said "18 points", not "2 x Forces": Aptitude ratings would be largely independent of Forces. I could see varying the total, but not directly proportional to your Forces; and in particular, your Aptitude in a given Realm should be unrelated to the number of Forces assigned to that Realm. Maybe it's tied to the Force caps: Celestials can have up to six Forces in each Realm, so they get 6+6+6=18 Aptitude points; humans can have up to five Forces in each Realm, so they get 5+5+5=15 Aptitude points. And an immature or decrepit character (in human terms, old or young) might not get his full allotment of Aptitude points.

• Strength, Intelligence, and Will no longer determine how likely you are to succeed in combat; they "only" determine how much damage you do if you do hit. They're also used to determine how much of a presence you have in the respective Realm: Strength lets you move large masses, Intelligence lets you process and recall a lot of information, and Will gives you a "force of personality" that's very useful when trying to intimidate or inspire people.
• Body, Mind, and Soul are used to determine their respective Realms' Hits, and are also used any time that a "resistance save" would be called for: Body is your physical stamina and constitution, Mind is your mental stability (low-Mind characters are prone to mental breakdowns), and Soul is your spiritual integrity.
• Agility, Precision, and Perception take over for both attack and defense in all combat; they also act as the basis for all skills and for "avoidance saves".

Each Aptitude deals primarily with the Realm in question, but not exclusively so: Perception is primarily about seeing into a person's soul, but it can also be used to spot hidden objects (Corporeal) and/or single out significant facts (Ethereal); Precision is primarily about disciplined thought (i.e., "reason"), but it's also used for manual dexterity (Corporeal) and for manipulating peoples' reactions (Celestial); and Agility is primarily about physically adjusting quickly to changing circumstances, but can also be used in a similar way in cerebral (Ethereal) and emotional (Celestial) situations. Use these guidelines when assigning Aptitudes to Skills: if the skill is about revealing secrets, it's Perception-based; if it's about carefully manipulating something, it's Precision-based; if it's about adapting to rapidly changing circumstances, it's Agility-based. Skills might even be decoupled from Aptitudes, with the Aptitude/Skill pair being decided on a task-by-task basis.