WAR OF THE ABILITY SCORES

It is widely believed that Strength, Dexterity and Constitution, the physical abilities, are the three most important of all six ability scores. They control melee attack and damage modifiers, Armor Class and Reflex saving throws, and hit points and Fortitude saving throws. Wizards of the Coast stresses this relationship by making bonuses to any of these three scores more valuable than the others, in terms of estimating effective character level adjustments, and how valuable certain feats and skills are, based on what ability score they are derived from.

However, you may note that not a single Player's Handbook race has a bonus to any of the mental ability scores, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma. Now, why would that be? If the answer would be, "because it would make spellcasters of that race overpowering," then don't we there have definitive proof that mental ability scores are more powerful and/or important than physical ability scores?

Is there really anything to debate beyond this point?

ABILITY SCORES IN DEEP SEKH

One of the grandest goals in the DEEP SEKH Setting is to make use of every single ability and every single skill, every single feat, every race and every legitimate rules item, and to find for it a positive use, even a combat-related use.

This goal led to the separation of the whole of DEEP SEKH characters into four factions, where different methods of strategy might be addressed, and a broader spectrum of abilities and approaches might be implemented.

Traditionally non-combat skills and abilities like Craft, Disable Device, Gather Information, Perform, Search, Survival, stonecunning and trapfinding are being implemented in different ways that directly or indirectly influence the battle.

Gather Information, Knowledge (various) and bardic knowledge can all be used to acquire bonus Victory Points for a team before the match even begins. Perform (weapon drill) can be used to garner crowd support for you team, bettering their ability to hit and inflict damage on the other side. In future updates, every skill from Craft to Swim and every ability from trapfinding to poison use will have a purpose or function in a DEEP SEKH Tournament.

Strength in DEEP SEKH

Characters with high Strength scores will flourish in DEEP SEKH. They have increased physical prowess--Strength modifies melee attack and damage, as well as certain skills based on physical movement or manipulation of objects or the environment.

Climb, Jump and Swim, grapple, bull rush, disarm, overrun, sunder and trip checks are all modified by Strength. That's quite a lot of dice rolls modified by a single ability. Considering that pinning an opponent in a grapple, bull rushing them at least 10 feet, disarming them, overrunning them, sundering their weapon or successfully tripping them all result in winning the crowd to your team's favor, you can easily see why many warriors take the route of most resistance.

Half-orcs, bugbears, gnolls, full orcs, ibixians, thorns, lolth-touched, half-giants, sharakim and bariaurs all have racial bonuses to Strength.

Gnomes, halflings, goblins, kobolds and many over Small-sized races have racial penalties to Strength, though a handful of Medium-sized races have penalties as well.

The Chaotic Evil faction is where most of the strongest characters are drawn.

Dexterity in DEEP SEKH

The Chaotic Good faction is where most of the dexterous characters are drawn.

Constitution in DEEP SEKH

All four factions have equal numbers of sturdy, healthy characters.

Intelligence in DEEP SEKH

Intelligence is of course used to determine skill points and bonus languages, though it serves another vitally important purpose in DEEP SEKH. Smarter characters are better prepared. This translates directly to the ring, where two otherwise identical characters, one with an INT 8 and one with and INT 15, the character with the lower Intelligence is likely to have a half-dozen cure light wounds potions, whereas the character with the higher Intelligence is likely to have potions of mage armor, magic weapon, remove fear and shield of faith +2. Smarter characters probably have a secondary attack (one melee, one ranged) or more combat options. Smarter characters usually tend to have better defensive abilities, and more of them.

The Lawful Good faction and the Lawful Evil faction are where most of the brightest, creative characters are drawn, though they can be found in all factions to a certain extent.

Wisdom in DEEP SEKH

Wisdom modifies Listen and Spot, which are considered valuable skills to have, and increases a character's Will saving throw; it is not currently granted any special powers beyond the norm like the other two mental ability scores.

The Lawful Good faction and the Lawful Evil faction are where most of the clever, strong-willed characters are drawn, though they can be found in all factions to a certain extent.

Charisma in DEEP SEKH

"Charisma is the ability score of the gods."

Charisma is often a cooperative- or teamwork-dependent ability score. This causes many to consider it the poorest ability score. It has the least direct impact on combat, though there are certainly a few things that DEEP SEKH uses Charisma for during competitive matches in the ring.

Charisma modifies a character's Perform (weapon drill) skill. Other modifiers include: one half a character's Base Attack Bonus (rounded down), a +2 bonus for 5 or more ranks in Intimidate (synergy), a +4 bonus for wielding an exotic weapon (or more accurately, for taking Exotic Weapon Proficiency), a +4 wielding a weapon in two hands (does not stack with bonus from wielding an exotic weapon), and of course, the coveted +4 "Crowd Favorite" bonus.

Note: Perform (weapon drill) may not be used for bardic music abilities.

The Lawful Good faction and the Lawful Evil faction are where most of the attractive, charismatic characters are drawn, though they can be found in all factions to a certain extent.