Hotrod wrote:MyDumpStatIsMA wrote:Hotrod wrote:It might be interesting to compare the stats of published un-augmented human N.P.C.s to the kinds of outcomes we get out of dice rolls in the rules as written.
First book I thought of for easy comparisons: Rifts Mercenaries.
Janet Braddock, Human Headhunter: IQ 17; MA 20; ME 18; PS 17; PP 19; PE 15; PB 19; Spd 17. HP 43; SDC 30.
SUM TOTAL: 142
Incidentally, with 7 out of her 8 stats being exceptional (the lone exception being just one point shy), Janet Braddock would be a contender for Biggest Cheater in the Megaverse (TM), a Rules Lawyer contest I proposed a while back where the object would be to find the most egregious cases of a writer ignoring the rules of the game whilst creating an NPC.
While 142 is borderline ridiculous for a non-augmented human, none of those bonuses are going to be really game breaking. The highest bonus, MA, is purely social.
What I'm getting at, is this: a character with all 10s in attributes except for a PP of, say, 26, is ultimately going to be more overpowered in regular combat (or 'social combat' if a mental attribute). I feel like one stat that gives a +6 or whatever is more ruinous to balance than multiple stats that confer a +1 and +2. A really high PE makes you almost immune to magic (especially if you're using an OCC that gives resistance to magic above and beyond attribute bonuses), just as a high ME plus the right OCC will make you all but invincible to most psionics.
Anyway, I reviewed my finished character sheets (not necessarily played yet, but these are all characters I'd like to play, at least), and took the following sample. All characters are human unless specified:
102 Spetsnaz Mage; 123 Robot Pilot; 124 Dewtani Mystic; 114 Elf Lord Magus; 106 Psi-Druid; 119 Barmaid; 145 Mystic Warrior; 147 Crazy; 131 Mask Shaman; 124 Elf Mystic.
All the above have multiple (minimum 3) physical skills, except for the Spetsnaz Mage and the Lord Magus. In all cases the elves are simple Palladium SDC elves, not Asgardian or whatever.
I'm including the Crazy because that was done with legitimate one-roll-per-attribute rolls. I somehow severely botched all speed-related rolls, which is how a Spirit West Mystic Warrior can approximate a Crazy. Also, Spirit West OCCs get animal totems which buff attributes.
The Robot Pilot was just the opposite of the Crazy in terms of speed rolls; I legitimately one-rolled 14 and 6 extra speed from Running and Athletics.
In the case of the Mask Shaman, I re-rolled PE until it was 19 or 20, at which point I took 4 physical skills that boosted PE; this was all necessary to reach a point where I can create masks that hold 8 spells each.
I also re-rolled the Dewtani's PP until I could get it to 16, as I wanted a bonus for those few thrown spells that benefit from targeting and PP.
The Barmaid, laughable as that OCC sounds, is geared towards being an assassin. I mean, I gave her Assassin HtoH and would play her as the Barmaid bit being more a cover than reality. I mainly picked the OCC for the +2 initiative bonus, which is on par with a lot of high-end combat OCCs (edit: my Barmaid can actually outdraw my Crazy, which I find both hilarious and rather sad).
