Choosing Prime Attributes for Fighter / Melee Classes

[Vetterix]

I am wondering about choices for Prime Attributes for Fighters and other front-line melee classes (Rangers, etc) and thought those of you with some experience playing C&C would have interesting advice.

While it appears that Strength is perhaps a likely prime attribute (and required for Fighters and Rangers) to mitigate grappling / overbearing, what about other prime attributes ?

Dexterity might be good for avoiding traps, Constitution for Poison, Endurance ... what do you all have to say about which prime attributes are good choices, and why choose them, for melee classes ?

[Relaxo]

The obvious ones are the physical ones, STR, CON, DEX.

but if you make these high you get teh extra HP and DEX AC bonus, but with INT prime, a better strategist, perhaps, with WIS prime, better "Spot checks" and surprise rolls.

Winning surprize rolls will keep this fighter alive more than being good at Dex checks, IMO.

for dungeon crawl, bash down the door, kill everything gaming, I'd go all physical for a human Ftr, and STR and DEX for a Dwarf (since they get CON bonus saves for being a Dwarf) ((Dwarves in C&C totally rock!))

For a more Role-play oriented game, consider INT and CHR (CHR carries the Death Save, and allows your FTR to be intimidating with roleplay type intimidation... fun stuff.

It really depends on what you're looking for, which is sort of always true and maybe a cop out in my reply.
BTW: Welcome to the boards and to the Crusade!

[Kaiser_Kris]

Though sadly, the game didn't last long at all, I was inordinately fond of my STR, CON, INT Prime human fighter, Henrik. He was always coming up with new ideas for things, such as ...

1.) Tying a silver needle to an arrow to attempt to shoot a shadow creature. Sadly, it didn't work.

2.) Attempting to blow up a hidden door with black powder. Upon its failure, digging a little UNDERNEATH that door to better lay the powder. And blow stuff up again.

3.) Make an elaborate CSI-type analysis of an ancient ruin, and successfully teased out from the GM, with two successful INT rolls, that There Were Dragons.

Last I played of that game, Henrik was desperately trying to save a 10-pound barrel of black powder from being seized from him. I still don't know if he was going to wake up with it, or not. He also had a trained hawk, which allowed him to warn the camp he and the party were affiliated with about a goblin raid, allowing them to escape in time.

For the record, he was Str 16, Dex 13, Con 14, Int 15, Wis 11, Cha 12.

[Treebore]

The best attributes to have as Prime are DEX, WIS, and CHA, followed by CON, in terms of saves versus spells and poisons. STR is great for a lot of fighter type stuff, such as bending bars, lifting gates, moving huge boulders, knocking over pillars so the temple collapses, etc...

INT is good for saves versus Illusionist spells and being an investigator type, or business oriented type. Or researcher and all around "knows everything". Or as I like to call my wife, a "walking encyclopedia".
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[Omote]

What primes to give warriors types is Castles & Crusades is always a great topic for conversation. The Seige Engine makes characters (and fighter types) so much more interesting to the archtypical fantasy game! I love it.

As a point of reference in a current C&C game I am playing in, I am playing a fighter with STR, DEX, and WIS as primes.
~O
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[CharlieRock]

I would highly recommend CON as a prime for the bonus in carrying capacity it gives. Front line types usually end up in heavy armor and carrying off the treasure in that stuff is it's own challenge.
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[Lord Dynel]

I'd go for CON for a fighter, just to avoid poison and other environmental hazards. I agree with Relaxo - dwarves could possibly benefit from another prime, since they get bonuses from the racial ability. But all attributes have benefits when it comes to saves. It would seem to me to come down to preference. If I were to have a fighter, I'd probably go STR, CON, and CHA to avoid death attacks, fears, and (especially) charms.
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[Vetterix]

Great, thanks for the info.

It seems that campaign, playstyle, etc perhaps have a large contribution in choosing prime stats, although there is a little less freedom with a demi-human as only one non-class prime can be chosen and survivability for a melee type has high importance.

Seems like CON is the most recommended 2nd prime stat - I also noticed that a collection of pre-rolled fighters for a Gencon 2009 C&C tournament (http://johnwright281.tripod.com/sitebui ... genpcs.pdf) all had CON as a prime stat...

Indeed, the racial bonuses for Dwarves also seem pretty good as Relaxo has indicated, a bit more so than I had originally considered.
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[Treebore]

Vetterix wrote:
Seems like CON is the most recommended 2nd prime stat - I also noticed that a collection of pre-rolled fighters for a Gencon 2009 C&C tournament (http://johnwright281.tripod.com/sitebui ... genpcs.pdf) all had CON as a prime stat...

.

John went "Iconic" with the Prime choices, not for best.
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[serleran]

If there is one thing I do not want my big burlies doing, it is cowering in fear. Fear is a Charisma save in C&C, as I recall.... so, fighters get Charisma as Prime. It also helps with that whole "lead the mass of peasants to war" thing. Oh, and Charisma is your best friend against "save or die" effects that don't require an attack roll first, namely spells -- since AC is so easy to increase, relatively speaking, I find it better to beef out the lacking aspects.
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Serl's Corner

[anonymous]

A good point. The player's first thought it perhaps to go for all the physical ones, Str, Con, Dex; but although the attributes should be high to get bonuses making them all prime isn't necessarily the best idea. Dex as a prime is only good in a trap-heavy (or dragon-heavy!) setting.