Ability Score Prerequisites for Feats - Even or Odd?

[HappyDaze]

Until recently, I had thought that all ability score requirements for feats were intended to be odd values. I've now been seeing a few feats that have even values for their prerequisites, and I'm wondering if this is a shift in thinking or if these are anomalies that should be altered to follow the "rule" of odd values. It's just a minor thing, but for some reason it strikes me as being off.

[DarkWhite]

Are you able to cite examples? Have these been Paizo product or those released by third-parties? I just flipped through Paizo's most recent big release of feats, Ultimate Combat, and they're all odd values, as one would expect.

[Frankthedm]

Bonuses increase at even, requirements are set to odd. It is done that way so odd number scores have some value when point buying rather than being purely a stepping stone.

[HappyDaze]

Most recent one I saw was Civilized Ghoulishness from Classic Horrors Revisited. It requires Cha 18.

[Are]

In that particular case, it seems likely that the reason behind the CHA-requirement of 18 is that Ghouls normally have CHA 14, and would at best have 18 with the elite array adjustments.

For both 3.5 and Pathfinder, WotC and Paizo designers have tended to keep to the design philosophy (whether intentional or not) of ability score requirements being odd numbers.

[HappyDaze]

Are wrote:

In that particular case, it seems likely that the reason behind the CHA-requirement of 18 is that Ghouls normally have CHA 14, and would at best have 18 with the elite array adjustments.

For both 3.5 and Pathfinder, WotC and Paizo designers have tended to keep to the design philosophy (whether intentional or not) of ability score requirements being odd numbers.

Should this be the case, then I think that I'll simply adjust Civilized Ghoulishness to require Charisma 19 since the stock ghoul is just as likely to have Cha 15 as Cha 14 (the base stats of 3 x 10s and 3 x 11s can easily be readjusted - a ghoul with Str 12, Dex 15, Con -, Int 12, Wis 15, Cha 15 is really no different from the one in the book). This solves the even/odd issue for this feat easily enough.

Now on to a few others...

Cypher Magic (Int 14)
Cypher Script (Int 12)
Possess Creature (Cha 20)
Possess Location (Cha 16)
Possess Object (Cha 18)

I'm thinking of just upping the ability score requirements of all of them by +1 so that they require the odd number with the same bonus. Why? Just because I'm a bit obsessed with the pieces fitting correctly into the *rule* of "Ability score prerequisites should have odd values."

[HappyDaze]

Oddly enough, while the database showed the prerequisites given above for Cypher Magic and Cypher Script, these don't show up in the actual write-ups of the feats. I also can't seem to find full write-ups of the three Possess X, Y, Z set listed above...

Perhaps Civilized Ghoulishness is a unique case.