(Basic Set) Alternate Stats: Strength

[jacobmuller]

I'm looking for reasons to make ST cost [15]/level.
Based off ideas from Pyramid, I've reason to have DX, IQ and HT all @[15]/level.
I can excuse ST costing only [5]/level (again I blame Pyramid) but I think the PCs would all be ST15-18* and "that's a tad irksome, old chap."

I'd like to make it [15]/level just because, ie it's my House Rule, but I'd rather give that cost some benefits, eg

Influence mod from spd/rng chart = ST-10, eg reaction and intimidation mods.

ST Skills: Forced Entry, no-finesse Melee**, unarmed & armed; limited by Rule of 16 (amusingly, that means a beast with ST>26 will be able to target visor chinks @16; dragon swats hit half DR🤔).

Any suggestions for additional "excuses" to add value to ST greatly appreciated, or have I gone too far already?

Thank you
*I'm enforcing stat limits by charging Unusual Background (Race Limit) [8] for anything 50% over racial norm; UB(Heroic) [15] for 60-80% and UB(Superhero) [30] up, up, and beyond... (TQ Kromm)
**eg Brawling or Broadsword but not Boxing or Smallsword; thrown weapons but not missile weapons.

[lvalero]

Create some perks like this

[1] Brutal combat. Choose a 2H melee weapon. Use ST instead of DX to calculate your skill level.

Or, even more "brutal"!

[5] Brutal athlete. Choose up to 5 different HT/DX skills (under GM permission). Use ST instead of HT/DX to calculate your skill level

[Edges]

Could throw in a level of Tough Skin for each point of ST. (Though you can't have negative Tough Skin for people who buy it down.)

[Tyneras]

If you trim off the secondary stats and go all-in on shifting Skills to Speed and Per, you can et away with dropping all the base attributes to 10 points per level, which might be easier than torturing ST to get 5 more points out of it.

[the_matrix_walker]

I've been playing with 5-point ST off and on for years and years, and in my experience, it is still almost always the lowest stat on any character who is not specifically a bruiser.

See my post from back in the dark ages as to why:
http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.p...&postcount=181

Unless your setting is somewhere where muscle-powered weapons are the primary weapon of war (TL 5 and less), ST is overpriced at 10 points per level. You would have to add some significant advantages to buying ST to justify a 15 point price tag, IMHO

[Varyon]

As it currently stands, for much of the ST-Based Damage Table, every +1 to ST is +0.5 to thr and +1 to sw. Make this instead be +1 to thr and +2 to sw, and price Striking ST at [10]/level, and you're good to go (at least if you feel the RAW pricing for ST is appropriate).

[Anthony]

If you use KYoS, it's not hard to make ST be worth the same as other stats (just need to apply to damage as well as lift).