The TL;DR of the rule is:
The 6 classic ability scores are (allegedly) not well-balanced among themselves. So the attempt is to fix that by:
- Combine Strength and Constitution
- Split Dexterity into 2 (basically, Dexterity: the stuff with your hands; and Agility: the stuff with your feet and body)
- Charisma becomes the stat for Will saves, instead of Wisdom
In short, do you agree with the stated goal of the system? Whether or not you do, do you think these particular changes are a good way of addressing that goal?
Have you ever tried out this variant, how does it go in practice?
I really like the rule in theory, but I haven’t got the chance to actually try it. I blame FoundryVTT not having it as an option, but if I really wanted it I could contribute to the project 🤷
I feel that as a martial you really want STR and CON, but both are not a priority for a ranged character, so it makes sense to me to combine them. Also it always bothered me that CON doesn’t has any skill attached.
DEX is not the god stat that it is in other D&D systems, but is still pretty strong being both a defensive and offensive stat. I think the alternative rule also makes it so you add DEX to damage? So it’s both a nerf and a buff, DEX martials no longer care about STR… Except they do because it now gives HP.
Charisma being the stat for Will makes sense from a “narrative” perspective, since CHA is supposed to be your force of personality ans whatnot. It’s a nerf to WIS though, and I don’t feel that WIS is that strong… PF2e made Perception it’s own thing, which I think was a good change since everybody wanted Perception/Sense Motive anyway, and I always thought it was overcomplicated that there were two skills about detecting stuff (nevermind D&D5e adding Investigation too…). But I think most people value WIS because they value Initiative, and I feel like it’s pretty underwhelming. It feels pretty bad for that it basically only matters in the first round of combat, so it can give you what’s effectively an extra turn, but that still doesn’t feel like a lot to me. I would pair the Alternative Ability Score rule with another homerule that is “roll initiative again each round”. To be fair I haven’t tried that one either, the concern is that it could make combat a slog, but in my experience PF2e combat rounds can go pretty quickly once the party gets into “rhythm”. And in any case, making a macro for that should be pretty easy.
So yeah, I plan to use it whenever I start another campaign, along with basically all the other variant rules (Gradual Ability Scores, Proficiency Without Level, Automatic Bonus Progression, Free Archetype, and Ancestral Paragon. No Dual Class because, while I love it in theory, the campaign where I’ve tried it is pretty wack with the power level of some PCs).
Oh damn, so it does! I completely skimmed over that bit of it at first.
Its own thing that’s still based in your Wisdom score.
This, I think, is the most interesting bit. I’ll have to mull it over a bit more, but it’s got me now thinking along the lines of “this variant may not accomplish the main goal it set out to at all”. Martials go from needing all 3 physical stats to…needing all 3 (different) physical stats. Non-martials go from needing 2 of the physical stats (dex & con) to…needing a different 2 physical stats (str and agi). With more time spent thinking about it, it might not end up actually being that bad, but it’s not a great first thought.