increasing attributes after character creation

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

After all, "most people" don't get stronger or faster after maturity, either. But that's not because they _can't_, by physical law. They're just doing other things.

"Other things" usually being "what puts money in the bank."

In the real world, unless I plan to be a competitive weightlifter, it isn't that profitable to raise ST. A level or two of ST to qualify for a job with a high "minimum ST" – e.g., piano mover or blacksmith – is worthwhile, sure, but the excess doesn't earn me a cent. Theoretically, I could move more pianos faster, or use a bigger hammer, but that ignores the existence of weaker coworkers and the need for precision rather than power for many important tasks.

Similarly, raising IQ is great . . . for an adventurer. For an ordinary person, the 20 points needed to do that could buy five levels of the IQ-based skill they need to do their job. If you're hiring a lawyer to keep you out of jail, an investment counselor to manage your millions, or a surgeon to save your life, who are you going to choose: the person with IQ 11 and skill 17, or the one with IQ 12 and skill 13? And given that, who do you really think is going to earn more money?

The list goes on.

The only attribute that really, truly always benefits everybody all the time is HT. I doubt that anybody reading this would turn down +1 HT, possibly even if they could instead get Comfortable Wealth, or +2 or +3 to some skill. It's too tempting to have lower odds of dying of all the stuff that kills people, from cancer through cardiovascular disease to viruses, not to mention "old age." Bonus: It raises your default (or learned) Sex Appeal, making you that much more popular and "cute"! For adventurers, high HT also skews combat. Given all that, I could see a GM insisting that HT can't be raised more than a level or two, and/or charging double to raise it.

I don't see a similar problem for other attributes. It might be realistic to say that, for non-cinematic characters, once you can strip a level from all your DX- or IQ-based skills (not just some, but all . . . so you have to keep raising them above the one-point level to keep raising attributes) and get 20+ points (any excess points being lost), you can spend 20 points to raise the attribute. So somebody with [1], [2], [2], [4], [4], [4], [8], [8], [8] couldn't do this (they can find 20 points, but they have a 1-point skill); somebody with [2], [2], [2], [4], [4], [4], [8], [8], [8] could, but would drop 1 point (they have 21 points, but they lose the excess when doing this trick).

For ST, just hit the gym. I have seen people double their lift in a couple of years, which corresponds to something like +2 ST/year from working out. Yes, there's probably a point of diminishing returns, but in real life this is largely a question of not wanting to live at a gym, eat tons of protein, and avoid all that fun things in life. Require monthly Will rolls as "job rolls," perhaps.