Re-calibrating Attribute Costs

[mburr0003]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

I don't actually think IQ 18 is an optimal design for a guy who is great at gadgeteering, good at finance and nothing else.

"Great at gadgeteering" is probably somewhere around 12 or more skills, alone. Not to mention he's pretty good at socializing in a few different ways, and other skills depend heavily on if you're just watching the movies or what era of the comics you're reading...

But you do seem to understand what I aiming at, a PC who has 16+ in Armory (Battlesuits), Armory (Body Armor), Armory (Heavy Weapons), Armory (Small Arms), Chemistry, Computer Hacking, Computer Programming, Engineer (Artillery), Engineer (Electrical), Engineer (Electronics), Engineer (Materials), Engineer (Microtech), Engineer (Nanotech), Engineer (Robotics), Engineer (Small Arms), Engineer (Vehicles), Expert Skill (Computer Security), Explosives (Demolitions), Machinist, Metallurgy, and Smith (Black).

(Note, I'm allowing for Defaults to handle a lot of skills I'd still want to pile on such a Character, like Electronics Repair and Electronics, Expert Skill (AI), Cryptography, and I'm handwaving "builds a particle accelerator to invent an new element" under Chemistry, Metallurgy, and Engineer (Materials), instead of Mathematics (Applied) and Physics.)

Probably a 14 in Administration and Finance at least... I mean he runs an international weapons manufacturing company.

That's 23 skills... so once they hit, ahh, we're giving Gomer Pyle Iron Man an IQ of say 12, that plus social Disads should fit, so at Skill 13 those 21 "gadgeteering" skills are going to start costing 84 points per +1. So 252 points just to hit a 16. And you think IQ 17 or 18 isn't a "better" build? Sure, there's a Talent or two we can use to reduce the cost, but we're still talking 20 points per +1. Isn't your argument that at this point, "just buy up IQ" is the better build?

Now, Tony Stark? Yeah, if I were building Tony I'd want IQ 18 (16 minimum!) because there are IQ skills I haven't even listed that he's shown using, not to mention the four or so social skills... but if I want to play "redneck Iron Man" (and not some 'diesel-punk' version) it's stupidly expensive to make the PC using the current rules.

Originally Posted by johndallman

Would refiguring skills based on 5+(attribute/2) make sense to you? That considerably reduces the effect of high or low attributes on skill levels.

That, and rejiguring skill costs a bit, is basically Douglas Cole's "By Defualt" article. Basically.

So, yeah, that could work alongside a 'slight' (maybe doubling) of IQ. I'm not sure DX would need to be adjusted with By Default in play. I'm still thinking about DX, it still feels right to adjust it's cost as well, but maybe not as much as IQ.