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Old 02-27-2018, 11:13 AM   #72
vitruvian
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Default Re: The Fourth Attribute...

Quote:
Originally Posted by JLV View Post
Actually, I agree completely with you on exactly that point. Unfortunately, I was jumped on hard here in the various forum threads when I said exactly the same thing you just did.

I think talents should be purchased separately from attributes points and not tied to IQ by number of talents a person can have. Certainly IQ should dictate which talents the character can learn (don't have IQ10? can't learn IQ10 (or above) talents).

To my mind attributes clearly have their own specific advantages, and talents clearly have theirs; if a character chooses to spend his XP developing new skills instead of increasing his basic attributes, then I think he or she ought to be allowed to do precisely that. There isn't any need to hobble either of them by tying them together. Plus it solves attribute bloat/Conan the Wizard quite nicely.
Actually, that solution could kill two or more birds with one stone....

1) Allow purchase of additional Talents post-character creation at some appropriate amount of XP per IQ/Talent point required at creation. However, this is *not* a new attribute raising the XP costs for further improvements, to be clear. The correct XP cost per 'point' of new Talents would have to be extensively playtested.

2) For any other additional attributes we may find ourselves tempted by... additional energy for spellcasting, additional 'fST' usable only for handling fatigue from physical fatigue, luck, etc.... make up new Talents! E.g., 'Extra Mana' might be a leveled Talent with 1 extra energy per level; or 'Will-based Mana' might be a 3 'pt' Talent moving the base for your spell energy to IQ. And so on.

So, my answer to the OP question, technically, would be 'None'. I would not add a fourth attribute, but instead allow purchase of new Talents with XP rather than raised IQ and expand the Talent pool to accommodate anything else.

The idea brought up of basing certain talents on ST or DX even in character creation could also be useful, but would have to be carefully weighted not to bloat starting characters' 'skill' lists too much

Last edited by vitruvian; 02-27-2018 at 11:17 AM.
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