Question: Power-gaming?

[wangxiuming]

Actually, I think if your character is trying to RP intimidating someone and rolled a die, it'd be nice to get some sort of acknowledgment that you made an attempt. If we say it's okay for players to go around ignoring skill rolls, what's the point of even having the dmfi?

Even the strongest-willed, most stubborn, and bravest people can still fear, regardless of whether they choose to or not. Skill rolls are a convenient way to give your character that chance to explore that aspect of his personality. Intimidated players should of course get to choose their exact reaction, the degree of intimidation etc.

Still, I think if a huge half-orc warrior puts 20 points into Intimidate and all he gets from an Intimidate check is a "// sorry, my character chooses to not be intimidated by yours" - there seems like there's something wrong with that.

[GodBeastX]

(like lift a car to rescue a child, even though they are a 120 lb women, or suddenly or the genius suddenly forgetting how to chemically bond two isotopes, because he's got swaety palms over a cute girl?)

I think that's not an example of dice rolls. 1, how strong is the 120lbs woman? 120lbs with all muscle can be alot. I remember listening to actresses talk about their workouts getting ready for movie rolls. One was Jaeda Pinkett (Sp?) who was 114lbs after heavy workouts. Then lifting a car or budging it enough to get a kid out? Stories tend to exaggerate things.

And godbeast, you'd be surprised how many times that D8 Int moron can come up with the simplest, yet workale idea, if he's at the top of his game. he may have some high ranks in int skills, even with the -1 hinderance.

Once again, his stats forced him into a simple minded solution. Just because it works doesn't mean he is suddenly "Smarter". If an ogre chooses to bash a dragon on the head with a hammer and kills it, does that mean his plan was smart?

Sure, there's good and bad days, but like Satoshi said, it's not scaled for rolling. Int of 10 is only 2points more than 8, 8 being a complete idiot. However, if you apply it to dice rolls, +1 to rolls is nothing. In other words, the dice rolls do not correctly represent the growth in intelligence.

I'm not saying everyone with 20 int is always going to behave genius (Like when he's distracted by a cute girl ) and I'm not going to say 8 int damns you to being a retard all the time. However, I will say the % chance that you will not be one of the other is very slim and dice rolls don't take that into account.

Not to mention the examples of people you gave are like, 0.01% of population. Go take a bunch of women you think equate about 8 STR, put them in front of cars, and tell them to lift. If that doesn't convince you, I don't know what will Also, I think a cute girl in front of you is more of a concentration check than an int deal.

[Myrddin]

Sure, there's good and bad days, but like Satoshi said, it's not scaled for rolling. Int of 10 is only 2points more than 8, 8 being a complete idiot. However, if you apply it to dice rolls, +1 to rolls is nothing. In other words, the dice rolls do not correctly represent the growth in intelligence.

I would tend to equate someone with an INt of 8 to say Forest Gump, and not a complete idiot. Still this sound like it is splitting hairs, and that is not my intention here.

Then general idea is how do you play a character with a BELOW average ability? And, regardless of my hare splitting call on 8 vs 6 or less, it comes down to what GBX and Satoshi have said earlier.

Like some others here, I, personally, never create a character with an ability score below 10, but that's just me and my choice. I will put more in a score that is key to the character's class, but then I try to make sure everything else is balanced for role-play reasons.

As for the other question creeping into this topic, perhaps it is time to open a new thread to discuss dice rolling interactions and level this one for power-gaming and character construction.

[Vuzantar]

Actually, out of all the characters I've RPed with so far... Valen has been awesome. I met him with a character when I first got into here (Magnaran) and now I seriously want to develop a RP relationship with my main character now. However, I just don't see it happening atm...

So, dragoncleric. Keep it up... I think you've got the right mix going on even if others (IC or not) don't understand him.

[GodBeastX]

Don't get me wrong, I like Valen, and I like the dice rolling to determine what you're going to do. I'm certain that helps your RP alot. I'm mostly thinking from a rolling for DM sake. Like, events where players are 8 in a stat and roll high and tell me they succeeded something that I wasn't even looking for rolls on "I rolled a 19!!!!! I should be able to carry this boulder on my back" Riiiiiiight.

[Vuzantar]

Haha! Yeah, but your the DM!!!

"//I rolled high... so I win right?"
"DM:Wrong... you high roll was noticed by the gods and you are hit with lightning... muhuhuh!"

[Raksha]

I'd disagree on the 8s thing, actually. 10 is what an "ordinary person" has. 8 is simply considerably less. Not crippled, just deficient in some ways, including some large ways. However, I'd say that to equate 8 to crippled is wrong, even though it's the lowest that you can go in NWN2's point-buy. My opinion only, though.

I'd also note that if you have a low number in one mental stat but higher in the other two, especially when it comes to the Int/Wis tradeoff, your character can "get by" by relying on better powers of reasoning when the intution isn't there, or vice versa. People do this all the time without considering it. However, there are just some things that won't come easily, and some things that won't come at all.

[GodBeastX]

Well, I don't look at it as a matter of opinion. If you have int of 8 you are as dumb as your average gnoll. That's a fact I'm pretty sure that cripples you. 9, I can see not being a "Cripple" so much as a hinderance. 9 to me is the people the blonde jokes are about But 8 is severe. We're just used to looking at things from hero standpoint instead of realism standpoint. Hero standpoint is, it's just 2 points, which is nothing when you're trying to get 18's, but 18s are uber incredible from the reality stand point.

Just keep telling yourself. "8 int = dumb as an average gnoll" and you'll get what we mean by RP your stats.

[GodBeastX]

I guess to get back on topic, I think if you're RP'ing your selections then you're not power gaming. If you want to make a character whose whole purpose in life is to kill things effectively, is that really powergaming to make stats match that? No, that's roleplaying a killer. Now, if you're making a character whose built to kill everything effectively, but expect to be some dictator or leader for a kingdom with 8 cha and 8 int and such, then I think you're powergaming