So... I've been thinking about the attribute system for Fallout 4 (SPECIAL) and for Elder Scrolls games quite a bit for the past few games and am curious if you like any of them? Or possibly any other attribute systems from other games even... As well as what you may want to see!
For myself, I honestly never really liked most attribute systems as, most of the time, developers gets them WRONG. The best attribute system I've seen so far is from Fallout 3 and New Vegas (and they still have some simple, and easy to fix, issues with them). The problem with almost every attribute system is that the developers usually think it's a good idea to have the player increase them every time they level up, and to me... This is a bad choice and a stupid idea. I love how in Fallout 3 and New Vegas, attributes are between 1 through 10 and you choose how you want them to be for your character and they don't naturally increase as you level up (you can with a perk but I never touch said perk. Should get a mod to remove that perk honestly). In my opinion, attributes should very rarely change and should affect how your character process through the game (from leveling skills to increasing basic stats). Attributes shouldn't be the primary base of your character! Skills and basic stats should be the primary base of a character, and should be the ones that can increase over time and be effected by outside means (such as spells or curses).
When should an attribute change? Well for example... If we have this system in Skyrim, your strength (and endurance) may increase by 2 or 3 while in werewolf form and by 1 in human form. So if you had 6 strength before, then you will have 7 in human and up to 9 in werewolf. However, your intelligence and willpower will be decreased in human form by 1 - 2 (depending on how strong you are as werewolf). Same thing with vampires but more opposite stats. You could also gain or lose an attribute point based on quests you do, perks, abilities, etc, though still very rarely.
Now, due to this being Bethesda's forums. I'll share my own system I've came up with for an Elder Scrolls game. (My Fallout idea is still being worked on, due to Fallout having some differences)...
Secondly, your characters will all start with the same basic stats -BUT- adding, or subtracting, numbers depending on your choice of attributes. However, Health, Magicka, and Stamina will always be 100 at the start for every character. More about basic stats later...
There are 8 attributes in my system. 3 Major, 4 Minor, and then Luck itself. The major ones are Strength, Endurance, and Intelligence. The minor ones are Willpower, Agility, Perception, and Personality. Then you have Luck!
Now as for the attributes themselves and how they affect your character?
Strength - Simply put, Strength affects your carry weight, base melee damage, stamina increase per level, and ability to wield weapons.
~ Your base carry weight is 100 + 20xSTR. Meaning, you will always have at least 120 carry weight and at max, 300.
~ Your base melee damage is at 100% with 5 Strength. 200% with 10 Strength. 50% with 1 Strength. Note your base melee damage is your damage with your fist (even with 10 strength, this isn't as deadly as you may think). HOWEVER, hand-to-hand base weaponry is completely based on your base melee damage, being multiplied by it. So having higher strength can make werewolf and hand-to-hand warriors much more deadlier. Otherwise, the base damage is added on to your weapon's damage.
~ Your stamina increases every time automatically by your Strength. Meaning, with 6 strength... Your stamina increases by 6 every time you level-up. (Check level-up note below for more).
~ Weapons have Strength requirement. If you aren't strong enough, you will be less effective with that weapon.
Endurance - Affects your health increase per level, base damage resistance, poison resistance, and regeneration.
~ Your health increases every level-up by your Endurance. 4 Endurance means 4 health every level-up.
~ You have a small base damage resistance which is 100% at 5 Endurance. 200% at 10 and 50% at 1. This is basically a small little armor rating your will always have, however, certain spells will multiply your base resistance (such as Iron Skin spells) and other other aspects, like your werewolf hide, is multiplied by your base damage resistance. Note: This ONLY effects physical resistances.
~ You will have a small poison resistance based on your Endurance. 5% at 1 Endurance. 10% at 5 and 20% at 10. Mind you though, poison resistance is rare to find in my books, so having that extra resistance could be helpful.
~ Your regeneration rate for stamina and magicka (as well as health when out-of-combat) is based on your Endurance. 100% at 5. 200% at 10. 50% at 1.
Intelligence - Affects your magicka increase per level, learning time, benefits from books, and spellbook size.
~ Your Magicka increases every level-up by your Intelligence. 8 Intelligence means 8 magicka every level-up.
~ How fast, or slow, you learn your skills is based on your intelligence. From 50% to 200% of the normal speed.
~ Certain books can benefit you by training your skills. Intelligence effects how much experience for a skill you get from a skillbook. 50% at level 1 intelligence (meaning you gain 50% of the bar to the next level of that skill). 100% at 5, which means you get a complete level up. And then 200% at 10, which means you level up twice in that skill. This also effects spellbooks. At 1 intelligence, new spells you learn will be 50% as good as the book says. 5 means you get that spell exactly and 10 intelligence means your new spell will be twice as effective as said in the book.
~ Your personal "spellbook" can only fit so much magic inside of it. Intelligence effects how many spells (discounting powers and abilities, mind you) can fit in it. From 10 to 100. Also, note that you should be able to delete/remove unwanted spells just fine as well to make room.
Willpower - Affects your base magic resistance and spellpower.
~ Your base magic resistance is from 5%(1) up to 25%(10).
~ Your spellpower is your strength in magic. It'll affect how good you are at casting spells and lowers, or raises, the requirements for spells as well as the magicka requirement for spells. Meaning with 1 Willpower, you will have trouble casting the basic Novice spells while they consume your magicka like crazy yet with 10 willpower, you will be able to cast a large variety of spells, despite your skills, while not using as much magicka. Please note though that with 10 willpower, it only brings the requirement down by 25 (Meaning, you can cast Master at Expert) BUT with 1 Willpower, it'll increase all but Notice spells by 25 so you will never be able to cast Master spells. The magicka requirement is from 200%(1) to 50%(10).
Agility - Affects your base chances of being knocked down and staying quiet.
~ The base chance of you being knocked down or staggered by certain attacks is from 90%(1) to 10%(10).
~ The noise you make while sneaking is based how well you move from 200%(1) to 50%(10) of the noise you make.
Perception - Affects your ability to aim with range weapons and ability to see the world around you
~ Your base aiming accuracy is based on your perception from 200%(1) to 50%(10). Aiming accuracy is basically how close the arrow hits compared to the cross-air. So better your perception, the more precise you are, which makes sense.
~ You can spot traps and enemies much better based on your perception. The chance of spotting them as well as your spotting distance increases, or decreases, on your perception.
Personality - Affects your ability to bargain and relationship increase/decrease rates.
~ You can bargain prices base on your personality from 150%(1) to 50%(10) of the base SHOP PRICE. This is backwards when selling. You may also have increased success rate of talking enemies into a bargain, rather than having fights to the death all the time.
~ Your relationship increase/decrease rates changes based around your personality. Increase rate is 50%(1) to 150%(10) while decrease rate is backwards.
Luck - How lucky or unlucky you are.
~ Luck does what it always will do.
Note on leveling up:
In my book, when you level up. You can add 10 extra points to Health, Stamina, or Magicka (like in Skyrim). This means, not only does this three base stats increase naturally but you can add an extra 10 to any of them every level. You also, like in Skyrim, will gain a perk point to be use. However, unlike in Skyrim, you will also have 8 Attribute trees. These are basically extra perks which you can get based around how high your attributes are (like in Fallout how certain perks requires certain attributes). All of these perks are attribute-based only and will not require certain skills. Mind you though, perk points are used for both attributes and skills so you need to make a choice of what type of perk you want every level-up.
Any questions about my own idea?
Anyways, now I'm done with my own thoughts. What about you guys? Are there any systems out there you like and enjoy? You have your own ideas?