Anyone know why dwarves in the alpha test have a +2 bonus to their Wisdom score?
When i looked at this I originally wondered about Constitution but there was already a +2 bonus there so I thought why not remove the +2 to wisdom and give it to strength instead?
As for elves I can kind of understand why +2 to Intelligence but wondered if anyone thought about making it +2 to Charisma and changing the favoured class to sorceror once that class details are released?
I was also thinking of removing the -2 penalty to a half orcs Int and making it a penalty on charisma instead explaining why they are viewed so negatively from most backgrounds I've read.
Anyway at the moment this is from reading through the pdf and not playtesting yet so I'd like to hear your views on this.
Take care and all the best!
Anyone know why dwarves in the alpha test have a +2 bonus to their Wisdom score?
When i looked at this I originally wondered about Constitution but there was already a +2 bonus there so I thought why not remove the +2 to wisdom and give it to strength instead?
I think I see a pattern in the scores - it's always one physical and one mental score that gets boosted.
Plus, dwarves are bad enough (con is a huge boon, and cha is not a penalty at all for the average dwarf character concept) without giving them str, too.
No, dworgs are the only race where I approve of bonuses to both strength and constitution (dworgs are halfbreeds from the Midnight Campaign setting, where all half-breeds are completely non-human. Dworgs are a mix of dwarfs and orcs, invariably the result of rape, physically the most impressive race, and the most pitiable race, not to mention the only race that hates orcs more than dwarves)
As for elves I can kind of understand why +2 to Intelligence but wondered if anyone thought about making it +2 to Charisma and changing the favoured class to sorceror once that class details are released?
I don't mind the favoured class - I don't use them, anyway.
I can see Intelligence, and then again, I can see Charisma. Personally, I'd give them both - a penalty to con is nasty. (I'd also give dwarves -2 to dex in addition to everything else)
I was also thinking of removing the -2 penalty to a half orcs Int and making it a penalty on charisma instead explaining why they are viewed so negatively from most backgrounds I've read.
I absolutely agree on the charisma penalty. It would make perfect sense. Reading the half-orc entry, you read about shunned outcasts that are often "bred" by orcs for their higher intelligence, but the modifiers suggest that they're just as confident as a halfling or elf, no shunning is going on at all, and they're just as dumb as their full-blooded orc brethren.
Besides, half-orcs don't get that much (some weapons which are not that useful for the average half-orc character concept, darkvision and the ability to die one round later), so the strength bonus offset by cha should be alright.
Personally, I'm a big fan of the one mental, one physical, one penalty format. While I think a lot of the additional special abilities are a little much extra to keep track of, I'm a big fan of the new ability scores.
Personally, I have to agree about the half orc charisma penalty over int. I'd think they'd usually come from an uneducated background, rather than being outright stupid.
As for the dwarf, I like the bonus to wisdom. It felt very intuitive to me. I wouldn't understand a strength boost at all.
As for the elves, I'm inclined to agree on charisma over int.
(frankly, I think Gnomes need to be the smart ones)
Actually, I really like where the bonuses are (except that I might swap halflings and gnomes in regards to charisma and intelligence). I think that the realignment as reinforced that Charisma isn't how pretty you are, and I like the elven ability that underscores this.
Heck, in both the Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance, there are branches of elves that are so painfully arrogant that they probably garner a charisma penalty, no matter how "pretty" they are.
Regarding the half-orc, for a moment I thought that the charisma penalty might make sense, but then it occurred to me: Half-orcs in orc society often end up as leaders, and half-orcs in human society are disliked because of what they are, not because of their social skills. If races that are "unpopular" should have a charisma penalty, then creatures like Red Dragons or Beholders should have low charisma scores as well, but both of those monsters are likely to be "masterminds" and thus attract followers.
Edit: The halfling/gnome +2 int/cha switch isn't something I'm proposing for Golarion, but rather for my FR campaign. It seems fine for the niche that these races have in Golarion, where halflings kind of occupy the same niche that gnomes currently do in FR.