For any of you who have checked out the Dragon Age RPG released by Green Ronin a couple years ago, you should be familiar with this. I far prefer a their stat system for it's simplicity. You have ten points to split among eight attributes, no assigning more than 3 or less than -2 to a single stat.
Well, I figured it would be nice to incorporate a system like this into my Pathfinder game, only instead of 10 points among 8 attributes, it would 8 points among 6 attributes.
Instead of adding and subtracting 2 to attributes because of race, you would only add or subtract 1.
Character still add a point to attributes every 4 levels. But to prevent characters from super-maxing an attribute, a single score can only be increased twice.
As an example of this, these are the stats for a Level 1 Bard (Sea-Singer) character I am looking forward to playing soon.
STR: +2 DEX: +2 CON: +1 INT: +1 WIS: -1 CHA: +3(+2)
Human: +1 Charisma
These scores, when looked at with the point-buy system, usually result in a 20-point system, which I think sounds perfect. As for feats that require an odd-numbered attribute in order to take (like 15 dexterity or 13 constitution), the new requirements would just be the equivilent modifier (so 15 is +2, 13 is +1, etc.)
Also, there is a seventh attribute that not a whole lot of people may have heard of called Appearence. This stat basically determines how physically attrictive your character is, whereas Charisma determines how pronounced your character's personality is. I like to include this stat sometimes for roleplaying value, and if I did, then this sytem would change to 9 points spread amongst 7 stats.
Anyway, there it is. Tell me what you think, if you see any problems, and share your own attribute systems if you've got any.
The first problem I see with it is that it would be very time consuming for the GM to rework every attribute of every monster that you fight. I mean not only would it require a ton of work outside of game you wouldn't really be able to do random encounters anymore without having to take out a significant amount of time to rework the monster.
Also for a caster it becomes a terrible idea unless you rework that system too since you need an ability score equal to the spell you want to cast and your extra spells per day is determined by your bonus to your needed ability score. In my opinion it wouldn't work well at all and you should probably just stick with the regular ability point system.
I see your points, but neither of those seem like huge issues to me. If you look at a monster and see it has a strength of 14 or 15, that should automatically register that he has a +2 strength modifier, and if you're actually making a monster, I would think this process would make creating it's attributes much quicker.
The same thing applies for spells. A +3 should quickly register as meaning your characters has either a 16 or 17 in whatever score, meaning a +3 would allow you to cast spells up to 7th level.
I suppose you could argue that this makes accessing high level spells too easy, but odds are by the time you are able to cast 8th level spells, you'd most likely have an intelligence of 18 anyway.
Probably the biggest issue I see with this system is that the way attribute damage works would need a rehaul, but this isn't something I have sat down and totally mapped out yet, just an idea that I think would work better.
And as a sidenote, I have always found that if you plan on doing random encounters for a session, unless you have an insane variety of outcomes, it's easier and faster to write down monster attributes and attacks on a sheet of paper ahead of time anyway. Again, random encounters don't seem that they would be that big a deal. I appreciate your input, though.
Green Ronin's True20 system simply does away with scores and uses stat bonuses, since, for basically everything, that's all you use even in Pathfinder. The True20 stat system is:
6 points divided among the six stats... no bonus higher than +5 and no penalty lower than -2 (suggested).
Bonus Spells: Bonus spells are not an issue since the chart for determining bonus spells coincides with the stat bonus.. there's never a change in bonus spells at an odd ability score.
Minimum Spellcasting Attributes: Basically nothing is added to the game by having the point-by-point requirement for spell levels. You can certainly keep that in, just have it be that the maximum spell level you can cast is double your modifier, or one plus double the modifier, as you see fit.
Converting Monsters: You don't have to do anything... the effect of their base stats is already applied to their stat blocks, and all you're doing is removing the stat number and using the stat bonus, which doesn't change.
Ability Damage: Halve it. Really, it's not going to change your game significantly.. if it's something that causes only 1 point ever, and you want to maintain its niggling effect, decrease the DC by 4 and make it 2... in all other situations, its just halved and life goes on.
Ability Increases: Half as often or just leave it as is and don't worry about it... in the grand scheme of things the +1 to a stat once you get past the early levels, is pretty minor.
One thing True20s system DOES do well, is help new players understand what numbers to use. As someone who has played alongside neophyte gamers, I can honestly say that the stat vs stat bonus thing is one of the major sources of confusion in players new to the d20 system.