[crossfire] Attributes/Stats

[Mark Wedel]

On 05/12/10 03:58 PM, Brendan Lally wrote:
> On Wed, 12 May 2010 19:11:14 +0200
> Nicolas Weeger<nicolas.weeger at laposte.net>  wrote:
>
>>>    Never saw any response, but had some other musings.  Changing
>>> subject to use attributes, since that is a bit less general than
>>> statistics, which can mean almost anything.
>>
>> Related, Brendan started a page at
>> http://wiki.metalforge.net/doku.php/user:cavesomething:possible_stat_values
>> listing ideas for combat rewriting.
>>
>>>    If one looks at these descriptions, one can see that spellcasters
>>> have a tougher time on stats than fighters - for fighters, pretty
>>> simple - Str, Con, Dex, Cha, Wis, Int, Pow, and the last 4 could be
>>> 1 and it wouldn't hurt the fighter much.
>>
>> What about rebalancing by making Wis or Int more useful for fighters?
>> Something like 'your armor will communicate to you if you're
>> intelligent enough, to help you more'.
>> Or some way to make fighters "pay" if they have too low Wis or Int or
>> Pow. Use Pow to resist some attacktypes?
>
> Under the kind of idea I was describing there, then stats like Pow, Wis
> and Int could give bonuses to different resist points (including
> negative resistances).
>
> I've described that in more detail at:
> http://wiki.metalforge.net/doku.php/user:cavesomething:resistances
> (this page is linked to from the one Nicolas referenced above)
>
> Hopefully a fighter character would think twice about putting 1
> in INT or WIS if it guaranteed double or triple damage on almost every
> magic attack used against them.

  The one issue I sort of see with that is a lot of times fire/electricity/cold 
are not magical in nature.  So use int/pow/wis for a resistance on them seems a 
bit misplaced.

  If I step into a lava pool, it is not magic.  Now pow itself being used for 
magic makes sense (it is in a sense how in tune you are with the magic, so if 
you're really in tune, should take less damage).  And lots of attacktypes are 
magic + something, so in those cases, taking the magic or fire (and maybe 
averaging them) could make sense.

  However, problem in that case is that if say fire is Dex, and magic is Pow, if 
I have a 20 dex and 1 pow, that is the same damage as if I have a 11 dex and 10 
Pow.  If I'm a fighter type, in that case, I'd probably still like the high 
dex/low pow - result is the same, but high dex would help me out more the rest 
of the time.

  However, that table is interesting, unfortunately it does no represent all the 
stats very well.  Cha still has no role.

  One could quickly define different stats like:
Strength: raw physical strength.
Dex: Quickness/cat sense
Con: Physical fitness/health/life force
Int: Ability to think/reason - smarts
Wis: Amount in touch with ones god, believe
Pow: In touch with magic.
Cha: ego, willpower, force of personality.

  With that, I would make some general changes:
Magic: Pow
Fire/Cold/Electricity: Dex (on idea nimbleness avoids damage).  I don't really 
see how being smart (int) would make one take less damage
Drain, Turn Undead, Fear, Death, Life Stealing: Cha - you resist the effect from 
happening.
Acid: Probbly dex for same reason as fire.
Poison: Con - healthy body less resistant.

  Note that some of the changes here are to give more importance to some other 
stats, like dex and cha.