I’m noodling away at the AFD ruleset, picking at problems. One potential problems is this distribution:

• Strength affects all classes encumbrance
• Dexterity affects all classes for surprise and for ranged weapons
• Constitution affects all classes initial HP
• Wisdom affects priests and Psionicists at first level, and morale at all levels
• Charisma and intelligence have no effects at any level for any class

Another potential problem is that these don’t all match up with the definitions for Ability Scores:

• Strength is power and endurance.
• Dexterity is agility and reflexes.
• Constitution is health and resilience.
• Intelligence is guile and education.
• Wisdom is discernment and intuition.
• Charisma is persuasiveness and leadership

I’m going to experiment with asking you a few questions! If I didn’t give you an answer, answer in the comments!

Answer the question first, please, before reading my thoughts, I don’t want to poison you: First consideration: While surprise and dexterity match (“agility and reflexes”, tick!), I’m not convinced despite convention that ranges weapons do (crossbows and longbows and throwing knives are not dexterous weapons at all). Do I scrap that convention, and instead add an equipment tag that is “finesse” that provides a Dexterity bonus, or allow certain classes (Monk, Thief and Bard come to mind) to use Dexterity instead of Strength? This feels like a better solution than just stick with the current rule.

These are interesting, challenging questions. I’m facing problems with this noodling, where I’m finding flaws in the design, but I don’t want to resolve them based on my preferences, but rather based on the implied preferences of the designers of AD&D 2e. This can be really challenging in cases like this!

To be very clear, is the inconsistency consistent with the design of AD&D 2e? Yes, totally. The skills associated with Ability Scores are all over the place. Strength is related to hit, damage, encumbrance, opening doors and bending bars. Dexterity is for surprise, missile attack, and defence. Constitution is for poison, hit points, system shock and resurrection survival. Intelligence is for languages, max spell level, and chance to learn spell. Wisdom is for magical defense, and the same stuff as Intelligence but for priestly spells. Charisma is related to Henchmen number, loyalty bonus and reaction rolls. None of it is directly related to one class, and there are classes with no clear connection, specifically Bards and Thieves (they get references to their dexterity in their class descriptions, though)

Now, with regards to definitions. The Dexterity definition (which I’ve simplified above), clearly doesn’t justify why accuracy with ranged weapons is part of the remit, and that’s the word it uses: Accuracy. I feel like that better fits with Wisdom, than with Dexterity, or else Strength for the capacity to do anything with enough power to harm someone.

Second consideration: Wisdom (“discernment and intuition”) doesn’t really vibe with either Priests (relating to their Piety) or Psionicists (relating to their Psionic Pool). Should starting Piety instead be linked to Charisma, to reflect the relationships they have with their flock or with their patron? Should starting Psi Pool instead be linked to Constitution to reflect their physical mastery, or to their Intelligence to reflect the long hours of study and focus required? I like the idea of sending Piety to Charisma, and sending Psi Pool to Intelligence, just because that leads to a more even distribution of mechanical connection to the ability scores.

Wisdom’s definition is complicated, because I hacked apart Wisdom to form the basis of Intelligence, which was a profoundly problematic construct in 2e (“memory, reasoning and learning ability” is such an icky framing). So I pulled parts out of Wisdom to make it more about training (“guile and education” with common sense remaining part of this, I think), leaving me needing to simplify Wisdom from “enlightenment, judgement, willpower, common-sense and intuition”. I came down to “Discernment and intuition” (discernment covering judgement and enlightenment, I think), but willpower as a concept remained unassigned. This wasn’t a problem at all, until I built the Psionicist, for whom willpower is a primary matter. My gut feeling is that Willpower should be associated with Intelligence, because Intelligence as a construct here is to do with learning and study, rather than as an intrinsic aspect of who you are, and willpower is a learned skill.

I hope some of you answer these polls, so I can get a sense for what your thoughts are as well, otherwise I’ll have to charge on as a bull in a china shop.

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