Fortitude.... is pretty dang useless

[ibanix]

Of the six attributes, Fortitude is clearly the least useful. It's actually kind of aggravating how not useful it is, because it's wasted opportunity to have more interesting character builds.

The problems with fortitude:

* Affects HP as follows: Hit Points = 120 OR [((Fortitude x 3.5) + (Strength x 2)) * 1.2] whichever is larger. 

By the formula, you need a minimum Fortitude of 22 with a base Strength of 14, to just meet that 120 HP. If you want more than 120 HP, you need both stats above 18. That's a lot to ask for a few extra HP. You're going to need to use at least C Attributes in your template, or you will start with a base of 8 and have to spend ALL your points just to get ABOVE than 120 starter point.

* Fortitude plays no role in the rewards for: Spying, Blockading, Patrolling, Exploring, Salvaging, or Black Market access.
* There are no talents that check Fortitude.
* To my knowledge there are no mission skill checks that use Fortitude.

In contrast, Wisdom helps with rewards for Spying, Exploring, Salvaging, mission skill checks, and several talents. Resilience helps with Spying, Blockading, mission skill checks, death saves, and at least one talent. Charisma helps with multiple mission saves, rewards for Blockading, Patrolling, Black Market access, and a whole pile of talents. Strength and Quickness have direct combat applications in addition to some mission saves and a few talents.

With the rare exception of some sort of captain build that needs massive HP - and I want to know what build that is, and why it's worthwhile - why have Fortitude suck so much?

Suggestions:

* Have it scale for HP much more than it does now. Start captains at base 100 and if you want more HP, you're going to need to invest in Fortitude.
* Include it in some talent checks. 
* Give it some mission uses.
- Need to get an operative out of the starport and into enemy territory? Crawl through sewer tunnels. Checks fortitude + stealth.
- Looking for someone on planet surface? Attempt to lead your crew through harsh terrain to the person. Checks fortitude + command. 
* Move death save to Fortitude, away from Resilience. Resilience should be *mental*, and not-dying is physical. Fortitude makes more sense here. Increases value particularly on Impossible.

[fallen]

Sorry to hear you are so down on the balance of Fortitude! We don't see that attitude playing out in the larger play base at all.

It also gives you constant soak % for any damage in crew combat.
It also determines how much health you come back with if you survive a Death Save. Moving Death Save away from Resilience is not something we will do.
It is used in checks during Spying, Blockading and Patrolling to avoid crew damage.
There are indeed some missions that use it for their tests - easy to miss as there are hundreds of mission types.

[ibanix]

Jun 27, 2021 11:26:59 GMT -5 fallen said:

Sorry to hear you are so down on the balance of Fortitude! We don't see that attitude playing out in the larger play base at all.

It also gives you constant soak % for any damage in crew combat.
It also determines how much health you come back with if you survive a Death Save. Moving Death Save away from Resilience is not something we will do.
It is used in checks during Spying, Blockading and Patrolling to avoid crew damage.
There are indeed some missions that use it for their tests - easy to miss as there are hundreds of mission types.

Which mission types? I haven't seen any of those to date.

The avoidance of crew damage is interesting, and I didn't know that. I'm not sure it balances other stuff, but it's something.