Bold approach to stats in JADE

[pblack]

Here I am. Reading some posts on magic using for JADE and i thought of something that could improve realism and at the same time render some of the "artificial" limits crated inside the game mechanics, unnecessary.

The main idea is very very simple. Normally, in almost every RPG you and I have ever played, we had a given set of stats from wich the skills were derived. What I propose is some kind of dependance between those stats. You see posts all over the forum about trying to cap a magicians capacity to melee or a fighters ability to cast magic by "artificial" means like imposing DV penalties for wearing armor or limiting the learning ability of fighter classes like you currently have in adom.

My idea is simply to make everything "character" related depend heavily on the PC stats.

For example: Someone that uses a bradsword and a tower shield all the time will be bound to have high strength naturally... it trains that attribute. And much like in the real world, if you dont train something, it attrofies, so if that PC dont study often, it will loose learning att over time, as well as mana or anything else that he/she doesen't train. that apporoach in its extreme, should lead to a compeletely class-free system, being that "you are what you do". Now, that shouldn't necessarily be that extreme, we could maintain the normal class system with the change of there being no att increasing pots in the game, and an increased value of att training gain.

On the opposite site, the loss of atts by not using them:

A sorcerer with high CHA that never uses whips, daggers, rarely has to evade traps and so on... that guy could seriously end up with shit for dexterity by the end game because he never used it. And so this kind of thing doesen't happen we should see that simply walking around, while it shouldn't be enough for bumbing up you DX to the 20's it should be enough to maintain it at a low-nonheroic state like 8...10...or even 12... (that low limit could be class related, assassins would get 12 dx just from walking around, while barbarians would get 8. And the latter could get higher st from carrying little weight around, while the former couldnt)

The second aspect of my idea is the actual "bold" one. Now, with that previous approach, a fighter is only a real good fighter if he persists on being that. But theres NO artificial limit to what he can become during the game... he might begin with the stats of a fighter but he might choose to become a mage ANYTIME! he just has to read a book to train his learning stat and cast spells for his mana (also this would require that every character find equal amount of loot of all kinds throuout the game). This would require NO artificial capping for anything for any class and it would improve multiclassing possibilities without the artificialism of D&D multiclassing (in my opinion).

With all that in mind, being that a char is relying heavily on his stats the whole engine of JADE should revolve around the stats. It shouldn't be easy to get to 30+ st with any character (remember, no att increasing pots), but if you do get there... you can expect to have and awesome str-based char. Str related skills should improve accordingly so that the whole "package" is very reliable by the end game. You focused on strenght, and you reap the rewards...you focused on mana...and you do the same. And the middle ground is also available. A battlemage or a paladin don't have to be strict classes but just a flavor of some other, much more rudimentary, class, like a fighter turned mage or a priest turned fighter (there could be some kind of guild system to earn the actual "paladin" title and related skills).

Just not to say that this approach would have zero limitations...

For a caster to learn wish, he would have to be a fucking great caster. And that means playing a pure caster throuout 95% of the game, wich is by itself a limitation since a player that starts with a fighter class and skillset would have a shiload of trouble to accomplish.

Another observation. Most skills, even class specific ones, should be available in-game for anyone with the right stats and competences. thats what i mean when i say that everything should be linked to the stats during the game. You have to work on THOSE STATS to become whatever you want... the key is just to find the right balance for stat increasing to allow differente characters to have different stats even thou they followed the same path.