So not sure where this belongs as a thread but i have an idea i'm going with but first i need to figure out which stat could best represent Determination, confidence and fighting spirit.
Like ignore the numbers for a moment that wisdom adds to will saves
in flavor of fluff like if a race is more confident and determined i picture charisma not Wisdom. for wisdom i picture old kung fu master or yoda.
Wisdom
None of the six stats we have is really appropriate for this.
In the old Ultimas it went like this: Courage = Valor + Sacrifice + Honor
So maybe you can use the average of STR, WIS and CHA? Not sure where this is going, as Mr. Pitt said, so this is a stab in the dark.
Wisdom and I wonder if Level has a place here too.
Charisma is very badly defined, but it's arguably more about showing confidence and determination than actually having it...
Constitution. It isn't only your physical ability to take hits, ward of diseases, fight poisons, and such things. Few things show "fighting spirit" like a guy who tackles a monster off of a mountain and keeps punching at the bottom. Or the guy whose response to getting knocked into a pit of boiling acid is to take a quick bath and then beat the crumbcake outa his attacker (while dripping with acid). Or the guy who, after finding poisoned ale chugs a keg like its a gallon of milk and walks it off. Its the honey badger stat.
CHA
Intimidate checks, CHA checks for Calling etc, Opposed CHA checks for mental/magical control, CHA as HP/Will for Undead ("measure of their un-natural "lifeforce", i.e. strength of personality/ determination to live beyond death), etc.
Mythic Path: Marshal: Inspiration and courage make the marshal the greatest leader, capable of leading troops to victory over any challenge. The powers of the marshal allow her to inspire others, which grants bonuses and additional opportunities to all of her comrades. Characters with a high Charisma score and an above-average Intelligence score will gain a variety of useful abilities by becoming marshals.
"Charisma measures a character's personality", i.e. strength of personality.
Wisdom to Will Saves kind of represents "defensive"/reactive aspect to this, vs. "active" usage of CHA, but since you said you were throwing that out of consideration, it seems to pretty clearly fall to CHA. If you wanted to take into account both, then do so, averaging them if you want a single combined score.
If you fill up too much on determination you're gonna have a bad time.
i'm with Mr. Pitt. it would help a lot to know why you're asking. what do you want to do with this? but as a stab in the dark i'm going to go with wisdom because it's basically a willpower thing and apparently wisdom governs that.
I feel that determination is quite different from confidence and fighting spirit.
Determination IS your resolve and ability to survive and fight through pain and difficulties, which I feel would be most adequately represented with either Wis or Con; maybe even an average of both.
Confidence and Fighting Spirit are all about your personality and behavior during conflict so I think they would fit perfectly into Cha, no question.
Charisma representing your sense of self. Think of the ideal Paladin.
What i'm going to do with this doesn't really matter all that much, and apologies for if the framing made things biased in a different way. i was trying to get across that on occasions the numbers and crunch can cloud the game.
That said it is for making something but not a character a race so crunch doesn't really apply yet. As a side note for you undertale fans, this has nothing at all to do with it so try and limit the references
That said i feel i've been bagging on the numbers and such a bit hard so i should start by saying i do like them, just not right now when i'm doing world building type things.
i've always thought that wisdom more represents good decision making, common sense, and understanding, it's always been kind of confusing to me why it represents will saves.
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You can have as much determination as you want regardless of your stats, but Constitution is the ability to back that check up. It's getting back up off the ground when you're hit and carrying on when you're tired.
If you want to go with mental stats, Charisma and Wisdom simply represent different types of determination and fighting spirit. Charisma is good for loud, showy, and self-driven fighting spirit, while Wisdom will be more collected and driven by necessity (for instance, determination on behalf of others). So if somebody is trying to win a competition or defeat the BBEG, I'd probably go with Charisma, but if they are focused on winning with somebody's livelihood or life at stake, or on trying to stop the BBEG from carrying out their goal, then I'd go with Wisdom.
Even once you bring in mechanics, pretty much any "determination" will saves can be made with Charisma just by taking one trait, so there's not much difference between the two stats.
The more that I think of it, the less that I think there can be a good answer.
The way the character is played best represents...
Ditto character build in total.
From a cheesy source, "There is more than one path towards Heroism."
i've always thought that wisdom more represents good decision making, common sense, and understanding, it's always been kind of confusing to me why it represents will saves.
Becuase Wisdom is the mental "resistance" while Cha is the mental "power", you can see that all the abilities tied to wisdom are "defensive" (e.g. Sense Motive) while the charisma ones are proactive (e.g. Diplomacy and Intimidate).
Determination, confidence, & fighting spirit. I'd say wisdom for determination, constitution for confidence, and charisma for fighting spirit. If someone is testing your determination I'd think a willpower save would be in order. If you've HP to spare you have no problem being front and center, confident to take on challenges. If you were to display your fighting spirit I guess something like giving an inspiring diplomacy speech would perhaps be a use, which is based on charisma. Besides that, most bards inspire offensive tactics (plus bonuses vs fear) and are charisma based.
Although you asked for ability scores, since you're making features for a race, perhaps giving it monster traits would be more important than specific stats. Though you could do both. Abilities like ferocity, or a +2 vs mind-affecting effects. Heck, if it has the hit dice maybe the feat equivalents Diehard & Iron Will.