Post your stats

Which one?

I use the military press because that represents load carrying and the deltoids are what gets tired when I use my sword. (Biceps and forearms, too.)

The average guy can do a 50 - 60 lb military press, which would be a 5 or 6, not a 10.5. I regularly do a 135 lb press. Which would be a 13.5, which I think is too high. World class power lifters usually top out at around 400 lbs.

I think the world record is 565 lbs. If this were 18, the average guy would be a 2. I honestly don't know how this should be handled.

I'm on much more solid ground when dealing with intelligence. An IQ of 100 is average. Int = 10(.5). Only 2% of the population has an IQ above 130 (SD = 15). Int = 16. Less than .5% of the population has an IQ above 140. Int = 17+. Almost everyone who claims an IQ of 180 is simply lying.

D&D players are unusually smart. (thus the 4.0 edition rules) I didn't say sane or emotionally stable, I said smart.

I think there should be objective criteria by which everyone could measure themselves.

But, let's say we are all average, and what I recommend inflates everyone's scores. That means we get playable charecters that we can still identify with. Not the the Wizzers of the Coast boxed D&D Basic game characters that do mothing but "Swing, Miss, Die".

I'm not trying to piss anyone off here. I'm quite willing to drop this.

But, I'm more interested in ways to improve this.

 

I disagree with your method for determining what strength score should be. Remember that these power lifters have spent time leveling as power lifters and probley spent their bonus attribute points into strength while most likely having a high score initially so therefore a world record powerlifter would be expected to have a score of 24 or higher.

and on a side note, I think that anyone who can do advanced chemisty with no more than a few mouse droppings, a feather, 2 green glass beads and a glass of lemonade to make it snow inside must be pretty intelligent.

 

Genuine question: Other than guessing, what method should be used? Alternatives.

Figuring it out from scratch would be intelligence. Intelligence is innate or developed.

Already knowing how to do it would be wisdom. Wisdom is cummulative.

 

And who would that person be, hmmm? :gotmyatte

 

Richard Dean Anderson of course.

 

LOL!! How silly, how could I forget.

 

Class: Cleric most likely.

Alignment: Lawful neutral. I try to stay even keel on things but i'm very loyal

here come the stats.

Str: 12. I worked on cars for about 7 years so you get pretty strong doing that. Plus, i'm always the guy that gets called when heavy things need to be moved.

Dex: 8. I got good reflexes but i weigh 270 lbs so don't get around too quick.

Con: 12. I get sick once and year and if i didn't have tonsils it'd probably be higher. I have a good pain tolerance but i smoke.

Int: 14. I tested a 147 IQ about 2 years ago. Haven't checked it recently. Good with chemistry but never really got passed college Algebra. For higher math i'm still convinced calc is bullshit because imaginary numbers are IMAGINARY lol.

Wis: 14. Very insightful about things and have a lot of common sense. Like that one guy said i'm usually the guy saying "what did you think was going to happen?"

Cha: 12. I am a huge flirt (leo). Never gets terribly far though but i'm rarely single due to persistence.

So at best I would be a crappy mystic theurge lol. Bring it kobolds!

Edit:
Gaear: This if for fun! I mean i understand your point in trying to make this realistic but I think it would make it truly difficult to bog it down to one infallible system.

 

Imaginary numbers are arithmetic, not calculus. Just as a real number has two square roots, it must also have three cube roots, only one of which is strictly real. "Imaginary" numbers are necessary to describe the components of the other two that exist outside our frame of reference, the real numbers. They exist, just not in our frame of reference. They DO have effects in our frame of reference.

ToEE is imaginary, but it DOES exist.

Calculus is concerned with the mathamatics of things that change. It's easier than algebra.

 

Yeah you see? Not great with math i couldn't even get the correct area that imaginary numbers are covered lol.

 

Most people don't know those things. Even among people who have college degrees, few advance to calculus.

Your point about it being difficult to tie together reality and D&D is very true. And you're right, there's no way to make such a system infallible. For example, willpower and experience (wisdom) would dominate the performance of many of the tasks associated with these traits. I think the experience aspect is nicely handled by "skills", though.

My point is you don't have to "guess" your traits. There's some aspect that is easily quantified and translated into a stat. The point IS to play the "real" you.

I completely agree that there are issues about what personal charecteristic could be said to validly represent which stat. On top of that, how do you address how a particular range of a measure of a personal charecteristic should be teanslated into which numbers. (I'm beginning to confuse and stupify myself! :twitch

I simply say that you can't just "guess".

 

Now c'mon GA82. If I was to play the 'real' me right now, I would probably not get out of the shop.

 

Math or whatever you want to term it, has always been interesting to me. Problem is, I can't keep it in my head. Unless I can 'see' it, I can't even add or subtract in my head. And anything I learn about math leaves quickly. As I walk out of the room, even. In
college, I got a 'B' in algebra. But I had to do twice the homework to do it. And as soon as the last final exams were over...it was gone.

Zero, though. Zero is fascinating. The more you think about it, the weirder it gets.