Posted by Stahlhagen on October 25, 1999 at 11:19:14:
In Reply to: Excellent idea, but... posted by Stahlhagen on October 25, 1999 at 11:06:36:
Changing the "cap" on skills, based on int. The game mechanic used would be to limit maximum ability in a skill/spell/power based on intelligence (or possibly the much under-used wisdom). An elf who has spent much of his life studying the finer points of magic should be able to master the finer points of (for example) the invisibility spell to a greater extent than a fire giant A-P. Under the current system, they can both learn it with equal ability, except that the elf gets there faster. One would think that a fire giant, being not the sharpest stick in the bunch, would occasionally botch this spell once in a while. This mechanic should only have a small effect. In a worst-case scenario (fire giant), maximum skill should still be ~95%, to reflect the ability to learn something well by lots of practice. To be fair, this should only effect skills/spells/powers that are primarily mental in nature- giants should still be able to bash with the best of 'em. Where this would really come into its own is in combination with my above idea. Replace "intelligence" with "statistic of merit" from my previous post. Now, giants get capped a few percent short on that invis spell, but gnomes get capped on bash, and elves get hit on fast healing. All in all, the different races now reflect their strengths and weaknesses a bit better. And it wouldn't be terrible to code- coming up with appropriate statistics of merit would be the hard part, and from there the tweaks just have to be in the skill-improvement formulas, and hard-coding the "caps" on learning. What do you think?