Are there any rules for upper limits to abilities for normal (non-monster, non-immortal, etc.) characters?
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Nope. No upper limit for abilities. In fact, some monsters have abilities above 100, such as the giant with 140 STR or the dragon with 150 STR. The only thing that matters is that a party of characters have a chance to defeat the monster.
I'd say that any limits to Ability scores are entirely between the GM and Players-Ascent is correct about no upper limits BTB.
Yup, exactly right!
And FWIW, I think it is critical that abilities are not limited. I am working to find a power balance against a set of PCs that are at skill level 6 in their primaries, and really the only things that can stand up to them at this point have very high BPs, which in turn means 2x as high STRs...
In that case, Harrison, you are in prime position to benefit from my size system:
http://dwdstudios.com/node/3138
One of the quickest ways to bring high level PC's low, who did not raise STR or DEX or whatever, and just raised their Primary, is to use multiple opponents. Four characters against 4 orcs is not much of a challenge. Put the same characters against 40 orcs and they can only Lightning bolt and Fireball so many times before they get swarmed. Remember, physical resist rolls are at a disadvantage against bad odds. Same thing goes for "moderately" dangerous creatures. 4 players versus 4 ettins, mildly dangerous at best. The same 4 players against 10 or 12... things get far more interesting.
http://dwdstudios.com/node/3138
That's interesting, and I appreciate the amount of thought that you put into it. That said, I think the result is a little too crunchy for the campaign I'm running.
This is a good point. In essence: challenge the PCs with overwhelming numbers. And also, thank you for reminding me of the Disadvantage rule! I'll mix things up a little during our next session and see how it goes.
Also keep in mind, arrows suck and they hurt. Disadvantage against range to resist. Spellcasters have automatic reduction by 10% per level to the resist roll. One of the nastiest things our GM did to us was have about 6 or 8 orcs rush us. It was a kill fest, we took lots of actions and totally smoked them in one round... then the invisible priestess dropped a fireball in the middle of us. Man, were we cursing and slapping out flames all in one breath. We lived, but we learned a valuable lesson about pride and taking too many actions.