Actually, I found out something recently in my AD&D game. That high stats can be as detrimental to a game as weak stats. I have been running my group through the Night Below campaign. This is in fact the second time I've done so; the first time the campaign fell apart (because of conflicting personalities between the GM (me) and one of the players (who no longer games with us). With the first campaign, I allowed everyone to roll up real high stats. And even at low level, the group just tore through everything. I ended up doing my old "dramatic death" routine, ignoring the amount of damage these juggernauts would do, and instead having the critters die in 3 blows. (And yes, they were doing enough damage on average to drop their foe in two hits.) The second time around, I was less lenient with stats. But I still was using a hybrid rule of roll 4d6, reroll 1s, and then drop the lowest d6. We still had ubercharacters. One of the worse, fortunately, decided to play a Wizard, and thus was not quite as sickening as he could be. (Kinda amusing, seeing a wizard with 17s in Str, Dex & Con... and yes, he rolled them up legitimately (well, under the varient rolling rule.) Part of the reason was the rather odd stat distribution, in which some stats are worthless for bonuses until you have a 16 in them. Fortunately, D&D 3rd ed. has modified that, by having all Stats be equal (the bonuses for Str. are the same as for Dex. and for Cha.), and at low levels too (a stat of 12 now gives a +1 if I remember correctly). However, I'm sure that the high-stat ubercharacter still holds true, even in other game settings. Of course, combat isn't everything. :) And the semi-ubercharacters (which include a warrior with a single-track mind and who only recently started finding fights an actual threat when creatures are finally able to hit her back, and the wizard who tried for the longest time to continue using his sword even though he *sucks* at it!) are as much into RP as into killing things. (The above mix of the Warrior and the Wizard have an odd relationship. Think of the Warrior as Willow from the first season of Buffy: TVS, and the Wizard as Xander (same show and season). The girl is intent on being with (and eventually marrying) the guy, who thinks of her as a friend and has no other interest in her. That doesn't stop the fact, however, that the ubercharacters can still be difficult at times. The Warrior, for instance, has rarely encountered a foe that was a threat. The only real weaknesses she had was in resisting magick (and if she ever was Dominated... heeheehee!). With good Roleplayers, you can avoid a hack & slash campaign with high-statted characters. But even then it is difficult. With more average stats, things remain more interesting (in my opinion). The reason is: Characters with super-high stats tend to become threats much more rapidly than weaker characters. Thus that 1st level character is dealing out the damage that a 4th level specialized character might do. Or dodging stuff that someone who has invested money in expensive armor might be able to dodge. And so forth. Thus you are less likely with inexperienced RPers to have them grow into the roles. Why bluff your way through an encounter when you can just blast your way through instead? Talk is cheap when you can kill whatever you want and avoid its attacks in return. There is less incentive to think (and thus roleplay) when you know that you will probably win any fight you get into. Of course, with the second semi-uber group, they don't always fight. I remember how I sent them running after an encounter with a well prepared group of dark elves, who sent in orcs first to reveal spellcasters and tactics of the group, and then as the combat was winding down launched their own ambush... the judicious use of a Disintegrate spell on the group's NPC Priest (killing him) also hinted that this would be a tough fight. Instead of facing them, they killed a half dozen dark elves and broke off combat, fleeing. I was most surprised. :) But it did teach them an important lesson: Sometimes, no matter how strong you are, there is someone better prepared and tougher than you. And even if they aren't tougher... tactics can work against you. :) (In fact, that's something I always use with a homebred monster of mine, the Goblinkin - sort of a semi-insectial race that is said in the legends to be made of stone, that have a semi-hive mind and always, *always* fight using tactics and attacking flanks and all that. Every time my groups, no matter how powerful, have encountered Goblinkin, they freak out and are sure they are going to die. The legends I've built around the Goblinkin might also have something to do with this... but the Goblinkin are the *only* race with which the group regularly bribes to go away instead of fighting to the death... ;) Funny, that...) Well, my point is, I think that high-statted characters tend to detract from RP with inexperienced players, who see the extra power of the character compared to more average characters, and thus feel they can fight when the situation might suggest a more neutral stance. And to me, high stats aren't just one 16 or higher. But if you have three 17s and such... then things start getting a tad munchkinesque. :) Robert A. Howard ---------------------------------------------------------------- GMAST Home Page: http://www.phoenyx.net/gmast/
