Sometimes I thought about how to create an universal d20 for all genres and the most of 3PPs wanted to used, and easy to adapt other systems. After a idea storm I have chosen to add two new abilities scores: acuity and spirit.
- Acuity(Acu) would be perception and astuteness, very important in stories where the PCs have to investigate misteries to discover the truth. It is a creativity and fast mind, for example to improvise an excuse. With Wisdom you can notice what is the right or wrong choose but with astuteness you are better in social manipulations. Acuity would be very useful for investigators characters, not only to discover the clues but to interpret the signals correctly.
- Spirit(Spi) would be karma/luck/fate/faith-piety/divine grace-blessing and courage (this is important in horror games). With Wisdom the PCs make self-control to stop himself before a wrong or risky action, and courage it self-control check to dare to take a step, for example to attack the undead. Wisdom would be more linked with the good sense, serenity, sanity and within peace.
I have thought about Dex divided into Agility (fast reactions, for example to dodge enemies, steal the ball for a sport game) and Technique (precision, and pre-learnt actions as disarm traps, crafting, playing music, dance, maneuvers of martial arts, ranged attacks). But I am afraid most of players would say it's an unnecessary complication. Then I thought about sub-atributes, what would work as cumulative bonus feats. Some could add other traits, for example body-mass (this would work as "size" in the Call of Chulthu).
I know other players would rather a lower level of abilities, but I would like to can add to allow more flexibility for the adaptations with other systems.
To explain better the differencie between the mental abilities:
Intelligence: logic, memory, learning (for example new languages), reasoning, complex calculations, strategy.
Wisdom: emotional intelligence, knowing himself, psychological maturity, noticing about what is the right choice, good sense, mental health-sanity-resistance against madness (or mind-affecting effects, but those linked with fear or horror), concentration, serenity, inner peace, lore, cultural level-education, self-control to avoid wrong actions.
Spirit: Faith in himself, self-control to dare to the next future step, resolve, courage-resistance against the fear, hope, morality by the troops, but also it may be "luck/fate/karma/divine grace".
Acuity: Social manipulation and guile, wits, subterfuge, fast improvisation, finding clues and the right interpretation, awareness, creativity, intuition. Useful for investigation. The fusion of astuteness and perception. Evil clerics would use acuity instead of Wisdom.
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Agility and Dexterity would be different. Agility for speed and right coordination for instant reactions but Dex for precision of movement and pre-learnt actions what need more time (artistic talent, acrobacy, playing music, handicraft, disarm traps, ranged attacks, repairing machines). Most of maneuvers of martial arts would need Agility, but some special chokeholds also Dex because they are too complicated movements. Somes you need a Agility+Dexterity check (choose the lowest). Agility would be also for equilibrium.
What you're describing isn't really homebrew so much as an entirely new game system. You are right when you say that it's unnecessary complication, but these things are already covered in the game. It's added layers of complexity, making the game harder to learn, and the nuance of these new statistics is too tight for them to be useful. It's like dividing Dexterity into Hand Skills and Body Skills - one stat is enough for both.
Spirit is covered by Wisdom. I don't see any reason you'd want to split it further.
Acuity is covered by Charisma, and again, is an unnecessary split.
I think Acuity and Spirit would run into problems that already exist with Investigation - namely, that things like deduction, self-control, and improvisation are concepts that bump up against many people's idea of a player's role in the game.
People don't put puzzles in dungeons so that characters can figure them out with INT checks - they want the players to figure it out in their own brains. "Rolling for creativity" feels like a similar cop-out in a game where improvisation and creativity is a big part of the game.
And then there's player agency. A player decides to take a course of action and the DM says, "roll spirit." Player rolls high and the DM tells them that's a risky action. Would that make the game better? Making bad choices often leads to the most interesting consequences, and preventing them with dice seems like a fairly easily abused way for the DM to counteract the roleplaying choices of the player.
As for agility, it just kind of sounds like 80% of it is already covered with movement speed.
I'm not opposed to additional stats, but I think the first two would cause more problems than they solve and the third one just adds complexity without adding much depth.
I would not be opposed to new stats - I think there could be something to a fate/luck stat - but it would take a lot of justification for such a fundamental change.
My idea is add more abilities scores then other systems would easier to be adapted into this variant of d20.
Spirit would be mainly Courage/morality, save check against fear and horror, willpower.
Accuracy would be more astuteness, social manipulation, subterfuge, improvistation and thinking fastly. Have you read psychology about the different types of intelligence?
The Storytelling System used by White Wolf/Onyx Paths has nine abilities scores: Intelligence, Strength, Presence, Wits, Dexterity, Manipulation, Resolve, Stamina, and Composure
Fallout, the famous videogame saga, has got the S.P.E.C.I.A.L system: Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility and Luck
Call of Culhtu RPG has: Strength (STR), Constitution (CON), Dexterity (DEX), Size (SIZ)(body mass), Intelligence (INT), Power (POW), Appearance (APP) and Education (EDU)
7th Sea has: Brawn (physical might), Finesse (agility), Wits (intelligence and thinking on your feet), Panache (style and charisma), and Resolve (physical endurance).
Legend of the five Rings: Stamina, Willpower, Strength, Perception, Agility, Intelligence, Reflexes, and Awareness
The basics are already covered, adding more just makes it more complicated. So I would look only for things that I feel are overly simplified.
For me, the biggest thing missing is the over-simplificiation of what you can do in a round and exhaustion.
To my mind, the only new stat I would want would be Stamina, which you would use up when you do things. Because in real life the things we routinely do in game would tire us out tremendously. Haste and Slow spells could be simplified by affecting Stamina.
I would see your Stamina (3-18 base stat) granting 10x that many action points. So players would typically start with around 150.
Actions would cost 10, Moves 4, Bonus Action 2, Reaction 1. Doing a max of 17 points per round. Haste would let you do as much 20pts a round. Slow would cut it down to 10. Heavy armor could increase the cost of a Move by +2 (reduced to +1 with proficiency), Medium would cost +1 (reduced to +0 with proficiency), Light would not cost more.
Each round you would automatically restore 10 points a round. etc.
I see how this would be more complicated, but I see it as being a better way to deal with things. You can make spells that affect your action points, various whether conditions as well, swimming, climbing, etc.
Sometimes I thought about how to create an universal d20 for all genres and the most of 3PPs wanted to used, and easy to adapt other systems. After a idea storm I have chosen to add two new abilities scores: acuity and spirit.
- Acuity(Acu) would be perception and astuteness, very important in stories where the PCs have to investigate misteries to discover the truth. It is a creativity and fast mind, for example to improvise an excuse. With Wisdom you can notice what is the right or wrong choose but with astuteness you are better in social manipulations. Acuity would be very useful for investigators characters, not only to discover the clues but to interpret the signals correctly.
- Spirit(Spi) would be karma/luck/fate/faith-piety/divine grace-blessing and courage (this is important in horror games). With Wisdom the PCs make self-control to stop himself before a wrong or risky action, and courage it self-control check to dare to take a step, for example to attack the undead. Wisdom would be more linked with the good sense, serenity, sanity and within peace.
I have thought about Dex divided into Agility (fast reactions, for example to dodge enemies, steal the ball for a sport game) and Technique (precision, and pre-learnt actions as disarm traps, crafting, playing music, dance, maneuvers of martial arts, ranged attacks). But I am afraid most of players would say it's an unnecessary complication. Then I thought about sub-atributes, what would work as cumulative bonus feats. Some could add other traits, for example body-mass (this would work as "size" in the Call of Chulthu).
I know other players would rather a lower level of abilities, but I would like to can add to allow more flexibility for the adaptations with other systems.
To explain better the differencie between the mental abilities:
Intelligence: logic, memory, learning (for example new languages), reasoning, complex calculations, strategy.
Wisdom: emotional intelligence, knowing himself, psychological maturity, noticing about what is the right choice, good sense, mental health-sanity-resistance against madness (or mind-affecting effects, but those linked with fear or horror), concentration, serenity, inner peace, lore, cultural level-education, self-control to avoid wrong actions.
Spirit: Faith in himself, self-control to dare to the next future step, resolve, courage-resistance against the fear, hope, morality by the troops, but also it may be "luck/fate/karma/divine grace".
Acuity: Social manipulation and guile, wits, subterfuge, fast improvisation, finding clues and the right interpretation, awareness, creativity, intuition. Useful for investigation. The fusion of astuteness and perception. Evil clerics would use acuity instead of Wisdom.
---
Agility and Dexterity would be different. Agility for speed and right coordination for instant reactions but Dex for precision of movement and pre-learnt actions what need more time (artistic talent, acrobacy, playing music, handicraft, disarm traps, ranged attacks, repairing machines). Most of maneuvers of martial arts would need Agility, but some special chokeholds also Dex because they are too complicated movements. Somes you need a Agility+Dexterity check (choose the lowest). Agility would be also for equilibrium.
What you're describing isn't really homebrew so much as an entirely new game system. You are right when you say that it's unnecessary complication, but these things are already covered in the game. It's added layers of complexity, making the game harder to learn, and the nuance of these new statistics is too tight for them to be useful. It's like dividing Dexterity into Hand Skills and Body Skills - one stat is enough for both.
Spirit is covered by Wisdom. I don't see any reason you'd want to split it further.
Acuity is covered by Charisma, and again, is an unnecessary split.
I think Acuity and Spirit would run into problems that already exist with Investigation - namely, that things like deduction, self-control, and improvisation are concepts that bump up against many people's idea of a player's role in the game.
People don't put puzzles in dungeons so that characters can figure them out with INT checks - they want the players to figure it out in their own brains. "Rolling for creativity" feels like a similar cop-out in a game where improvisation and creativity is a big part of the game.
And then there's player agency. A player decides to take a course of action and the DM says, "roll spirit." Player rolls high and the DM tells them that's a risky action. Would that make the game better? Making bad choices often leads to the most interesting consequences, and preventing them with dice seems like a fairly easily abused way for the DM to counteract the roleplaying choices of the player.
As for agility, it just kind of sounds like 80% of it is already covered with movement speed.
I'm not opposed to additional stats, but I think the first two would cause more problems than they solve and the third one just adds complexity without adding much depth.
I would not be opposed to new stats - I think there could be something to a fate/luck stat - but it would take a lot of justification for such a fundamental change.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
My idea is add more abilities scores then other systems would easier to be adapted into this variant of d20.
Spirit would be mainly Courage/morality, save check against fear and horror, willpower.
Accuracy would be more astuteness, social manipulation, subterfuge, improvistation and thinking fastly. Have you read psychology about the different types of intelligence?
The Storytelling System used by White Wolf/Onyx Paths has nine abilities scores: Intelligence, Strength, Presence, Wits, Dexterity, Manipulation, Resolve, Stamina, and Composure
Fallout, the famous videogame saga, has got the S.P.E.C.I.A.L system: Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility and Luck
Call of Culhtu RPG has: Strength (STR), Constitution (CON), Dexterity (DEX), Size (SIZ)(body mass), Intelligence (INT), Power (POW), Appearance (APP) and Education (EDU)
7th Sea has: Brawn (physical might), Finesse (agility), Wits (intelligence and thinking on your feet), Panache (style and charisma), and Resolve (physical endurance).
Legend of the five Rings: Stamina, Willpower, Strength, Perception, Agility, Intelligence, Reflexes, and Awareness
Shadowrun: Body (BOD). Agility (AGI), Reaction (REA), Strength (STR), Willpower (WIL), Logic (LOG), Intuition (INT), Charisma (CHA), Edge (EDG), Essence (ESS) Initiative(INI) and Magic (MAG).
The basics are already covered, adding more just makes it more complicated. So I would look only for things that I feel are overly simplified.
For me, the biggest thing missing is the over-simplificiation of what you can do in a round and exhaustion.
To my mind, the only new stat I would want would be Stamina, which you would use up when you do things. Because in real life the things we routinely do in game would tire us out tremendously. Haste and Slow spells could be simplified by affecting Stamina.
I would see your Stamina (3-18 base stat) granting 10x that many action points. So players would typically start with around 150.
Actions would cost 10, Moves 4, Bonus Action 2, Reaction 1. Doing a max of 17 points per round. Haste would let you do as much 20pts a round. Slow would cut it down to 10. Heavy armor could increase the cost of a Move by +2 (reduced to +1 with proficiency), Medium would cost +1 (reduced to +0 with proficiency), Light would not cost more.
Each round you would automatically restore 10 points a round. etc.
I see how this would be more complicated, but I see it as being a better way to deal with things. You can make spells that affect your action points, various whether conditions as well, swimming, climbing, etc.