So, how would you feel about playing in a campaign where at character creation, you are disallowed to spend any exp on Characteristics? Meaning the only Characteristic bumps you’d get would be through Dedication and Cybernetics.
How do you think this would affect the game, its balance and longevity? What would be the benefits? What would be the drawbacks? Would it stifle creativity?
I think that seriously nerfs the PCs as The Stars of The Show.
It would hugely depend if you start with base XP or on a higher level of experience.
If it would base XP it would pretty tough, I mean at base level there are much missed hard or daunting skill checks due to low skills. If additionally you have no high stats, why care to try?
At a higher level it would be manageble due to higher rate of training ranks.
Nevertheless, I would never do it.
I would seriously stifle creativity and nerf the PCs to a ridiculous degree. It also makes species like Chadra-Fan or Shistavanen extremely attractive for the bonus characteristic raises and makes species like Human unattractive because they don’t get any Characteristic raises.
If you’ve got 2 in the Characteristic, to “get gud” and have a decent chance of succeeding, you’ll need either a Dedication or 3 ranks in the skill, both quite a ways off. You’ll also be lower level than many minions, just from a skill perspective.
@ExpandingUniverse @Dreenan @P-47Thunderbolt
I think I agree. Wanted to just bounce that thought off a few people. What about if Characteristics were only allowed to be raised to a max of 4?
And cap Characteristics to 5, with the exception of Cybernetics to 6, like Genesys.
While a hard-cap of 4 is not as inversely bad, a player who over-invests to 5 often doesn’t have much XP to spend elsewhere; maybe a talent or skill or something cheap. Taking a 3 to a 5 is 90 XP, and most species range 90-100. Even really good characteristics, like Agility, will only take a character so far, unless the GM is only throwing combat and vehicle encounters at the party.
I would consider a cap of no more than species +2, but I would not make a flat cap of 4. Sometimes a character goes to 5 because they want to min-max, other times they do it for a story reason. For example, an Elom that goes straight to 5 Brawn because that’s literally the only thing he’s good at, and he’s mostly comic relief with a side of head-smashing.
I like the thought of this but would make some changes. If I was doing this they could use their starting stats, but then increase 1 other ability by 1 point. This will let some people play races that are not ideally suited for the style they want. I would give them extra experience, probably 100 extra experience so they can increase their skills or buy talents so they are not as weak to start the game. I would remove dedication from the talent tree and work with the players to make a great new ability to replace it on their tree. Then I would Gift the players Dedication once they pass a certain amount of earned experience. Maybe 100 or 150, then every time they earn that much more or maybe slow increase the amount needed, then gift them another dedication rank.
Just my though on it.