This thread as also spawned alot of discussion of stats and their uses, thought i would add my thoughts
Strength - affects mellee and some types of ranged damage, minimun strength levels may be needed to equip some special armors, weapons, and mounts
Dexterity - affects physical defense, accuracy of weapon attacks, chance of critical strike
Con - affects hitpoints, resistance to poison, disease, and some types of magic resistance
Int- affects spell power and maximum mana
Wisdom- affects non con based magic resisitance, mana regeneration per turn, and maximum mana spent per turn/casting speed
Charisma - affects diplomacy, morale of troops in command, rate that troops gain experience, number and level of henchmen, prices to buy/sell equipment, and ability to gather rumors, higher levels make available some quests.
Hitpoints-I would add a base number of hitpoints per level + a modifier for con. A high level character with no points invested in con should still have high hitpoints.
Essense- I dont fully understand essense. The only thing I know you do with it is imbue champions with magical power so they case spells. I have heard it has at times during the Beta it has been linked to your mana. I dont like it tied to your mana pool directly. I like the idea of it as resource that has various things to spend it on throughout the game. Examples of things to spend Essense on:
- Imbue a champion
- create a magical artifact (stronger than a basic magical item)
- create a magical construct such as a gollem, a living fort, etc
- cast some world changing spells such as Fertilty, Acid Rain, Raging Seas, Darkness, Plagues that cant be cast at all without spending essence.
- Resurrect a Dead Champion
- Use as emergency reserves of hitpoints or mana (you cant kill an enemy soveign that has essence still, either have the soveign regenrate in that battle if this is their last city or respawn at home with less essence
I would give your soverign an essence every level. you could also possible gain essence through some quests.
How off am I?