XP Bonuses/Penalties for Intelligence Scores
Heinrich
Member Posts: 188
I mentioned this in another thread but I feel I should give this one a shot...
As far as we know, INT is just a dumpstat for non-mages. All it's used for is learning spells and lore bonus which is pretty useless for the most part, especially for non-mages. Would is be possible to give the INT score more influence by adding XP bonuses/penalties depending on the character's score?
For example:
3-4 = -50% XP
5-6 = -30% XP
7-8 = -10% XP
9-12 = 0% XP
13-14 = +5% XP
15-16 = +10% XP
17-18 = +15% XP
On the character screen, INTELLIGENCE is the character's memory, reasoning and learning ability so wouldn't it make more sense to have a character with a high INT to learn faster than your average character while the mentally deficient ones learn slower? Characters with genius intellect would certainly thrive better with experiencing battles, thievery and questing than those who are not-so-mentally-capable.
It's a guilty pleasure of mine to have a character with Genius-Leveled intellect and this feature would make the INT score much more desirable for all classes. If it's possible, then I would love to have this feature. If not, then we can see what the modding community can do. The only downside to this that I can see is that it could potentially imbalance the game if done a certain way.
What do you guys think?
As far as we know, INT is just a dumpstat for non-mages. All it's used for is learning spells and lore bonus which is pretty useless for the most part, especially for non-mages. Would is be possible to give the INT score more influence by adding XP bonuses/penalties depending on the character's score?
For example:
3-4 = -50% XP
5-6 = -30% XP
7-8 = -10% XP
9-12 = 0% XP
13-14 = +5% XP
15-16 = +10% XP
17-18 = +15% XP
On the character screen, INTELLIGENCE is the character's memory, reasoning and learning ability so wouldn't it make more sense to have a character with a high INT to learn faster than your average character while the mentally deficient ones learn slower? Characters with genius intellect would certainly thrive better with experiencing battles, thievery and questing than those who are not-so-mentally-capable.
It's a guilty pleasure of mine to have a character with Genius-Leveled intellect and this feature would make the INT score much more desirable for all classes. If it's possible, then I would love to have this feature. If not, then we can see what the modding community can do. The only downside to this that I can see is that it could potentially imbalance the game if done a certain way.
What do you guys think?
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Comments
But definitely the negative experience gain for low INT is a reason not to dump the stat.
Also, If I remember correctly, a higher Wisdom score brought better Save VS Spell chances and the lower the stat, the higher chance of spell failure. I read these in the manuals but I also heard that they were either bugged or never implemented. Perhaps if this stat was actually fixed then it would be more desirable.
Charisma, especially in BG1, Influenced NPC reaction rolls and thus gave you better rewards if invested in. It really did become a dump stat in BG2 due to few dialogue options and the fact that there's a ring early in the game that gave you a 18 Charisma score when worn.
I'd rather see that system return than have something as arbitrary as your Int squash your fighting development. When fighting depends more on muscle memory and your body remembering what to do next without you thinking about it.
Lastly, it stinks of arbitrary munchkin-ism to me, particularly the penalty to XP gains at low values. It's the same sort of thought process and/or reasoning that WotC used to give almost every race (monster or otherwise), who had a bonus of to their strength a minus to their Intelligence.
Also, Monsters with a low INT are just simple brawlers compared to those with a sense of tactics and insight. You can't rely purely on brawn and brute force. A professional swordsman cannot be a pro without learning and applying new ideas to gain the upper hand in future battles. He'd just be predictable.
I have noticed that this forum is really uptight when it comes to games being perfectly balanced in every single way and I'm sure there could be a workaround system. All I am trying to do is make a stat less useless. I know that the developers can come up with better ideas than I can and I'm hoping they come up with a more useful ability score system.
While you do have some valid points, I still think it's a feature to at least try out.
As far as balancing the bonus to XP is concerned, I always got the impression that it was less balancing and more of a measure of guaging how much more easily a character with so much natural talent/aptitude for the class found learning AND being able to put to use what he learned was. You can have all the knowledge in the world, and if you can't put it to use, it's worthless.
Part of the problem, is that the things that would make the Int stat less useless, the language barriers and non-weapon proficiencies, were not implemented in the game. They were directly affected by one's Int and make a large enough impact in the hands of o good GM, that the loss of them can be felt. Adding an all encompassing bonus or penalty to earned XPs to try and replace it is a cheap and crappy solution IMO.
Yeah, as far as the whole 'Monsters who lack Int' argument is concerned, that's not what I was saying. I also believe I lack the eloquency to get my real point across without talking to you in person. Anyways, I'm getting off track, I'm sure that WotC thought something similar, and like you they overdid it. Breaking things that they shouldn'tave in order to make something 'useful.'
The thing to keep in mind, is that to really make the Int Stat useful in the way it ought to be, they'd have to go through all the conversation options in the game and add Int requirements to any 'character epiphany' as the character needs to be able to solve the riddle and puzzles. Not the player playing him.
Lastly, I'm not so much concerned with things being balanced (they never will be IMO), I just want to play by the rules of the game. Are there situations where I can understand the designer's intent and understand why they made a change? Yes. This change isn't one of those. At all.
Trent and the team are the artists so hopefully they have something planned. If it's nothing what either of us hoped for then we'll just turn to mods to suit our differing gaming styles.
Also something to think about: ADnD rules say a character with 16+ or thereabouts in their primary stats get a 10% XP bonus anyway. Was this implemented in ToB? Kinda, because you always got 10% more than the reported XP, but that was across the board and not affected by any stat.
And as a couple others have mentioned, maybe the XP bonuses are too high (thought I only put them down as examples) and maybe a 10% tops would be more balancing.
Just saying.
I could go further but this doesn't really have much to so with the op. If you want to talk more about it I started a thread about it a while ago.
However, in Planescape Torment intelligence already had influence on dialogue so I think they made wisdom to influence experiance gain in order to balance out the necessities of each attribute.
An option is that Int and Wis ability scores could be used in the DLC as granting additional dialog options which may answer puzzles or quest, rather than just using combat.