Post/Author/DateTime	Post
mearrin69 11-04-07, 10:51 AM	Hi all, I have a player that wants to alter his stats slightly using the PHBII retrain/rebuild rules. He has a high (16) Cha and a lower (11) Int but relies on cha for some of his skills and abilities. They've just leveled to 6th after a few gruelling battles and 'completing' a major story arc in the campaign. He'd like to lower his Cha by 1 point and raise his Int by 2. Now, the player's no dummy and builds more optimized characters that the rest of the group. I can only assume that he'd like to qualify for some PrC or other later on. The change does fit with the story - he took a couple of pretty good hits that could cause a bit of disfigurement and he has been playing up the not-as-bright-as-the-wizards aspect of his character, but trying hard to figure out what's going on. So, do I make him go on a 'rebuild quest' as the book suggests or just let him make the change with the level 6 update for 'time served'? A side quest wouldn't really fit in with the game at this point but I don't want to hand this out for free if I shouldn't - and I certainly don't want the players doing this every level for free. That said, would it be bad to call this one a 'freebie' and offer a one-time, story-related stat change to the other players as well - but any future rebuilds of this sort are going to cost them a quest to accomplish? Sorry if this is a duh question :) First time dealing with rebuilds. M
Krusk 11-04-07, 12:39 PM	Actually sending the players on a rebuild quest is often times a pain. If you skip it, there really is no harm in just letting them just adjust as they want. But i would suggest you limit it to "you get to make changes one time per character. " The rebuild ratios are supposed to be balanced, dropping cha from 16 to 15 should be equivilent to raising int from 11 to 13 for example. So you really dont need to worry about it, so long as it isn't happening constantly.
Axiomatic_vampire 11-07-07, 11:26 PM	I'm a bit of a hypocrite when it comes to rebuilds. Feats, yes. Skills, yes. Ability scores, no. Levels, never ever. In the case of Ability scores, I don't care what the PHII says, trading one for two is not balanced, it's optimization. If you're feeling generous, or want to reward him for something, sure. Reward him with a tome that can give him a +2 inherent to his intelligence. Reward him with a potion that permanently reduces cha by one and raises int by two. But if you don't want players to constantly request to drop an ability to get two more back, don't set that precedent.
Merestil Haye 11-08-07, 08:03 AM	If you are happy to allow the rules for rebuilding in your game, and are happy to agree that the PCs achievement are worth a Rebuild award, then by all means let the trade happen. But allow all participating PCs that chance. If you don't want to use the Rebuild rules, say so now. Axiomatic Vampire : Rebuilds are significant things. You can change race, template, some class levels, convert to the worship of another deity or modify ability scores. It's a ground-up reworking of the character, essentially. Changing feats, switching skill points around, changing class feature A to class feature B, or even replacing regular class level with substitution level, all can be managed by the retraining rules, which are far less costly. It sounds like you are OK with retraining rules but not rebuilds. No hypocrisy needed there then. :)