Maximum for Attributes

[Eriendir]

My PCs have caught onto that advancing attributes, while expensive, raises so many skills. I have read in the core book that no character may START with an attribute over 14. But is there a limit after gameplay has begun?

How do other narrators deal with this?

Thanks

[Tar-Palantir]

I believe it's in the errata - the maximum attribute one can have in the game is 12 + Racial adjustment. This keeps those 35 strength rangers in check!

[GandalfOfBorg]

Per the Legendary Attribute rules in The Two Towers SB, a favoured attribute can be raised +1 over 12+Racial mod. There are a lot of prerequisites and hoops to jump through to get it though.

[Eriendir]

Do you guys think it's a good idea to have an attribute cap? I can understand for an attribute like strength but what about others? I don't have the FOTR or TT sourcebook but what about characters like Gandalf and Galadriel?

The Balrog of Moria has Brg 26 (+10) and Wits 16 (+5). Do you think it's reasonable that the Balrog has higher Brg than Olorin, Mithrandir, the Aid of the Valar?

What about Dragons?

[Lancer]

Originally posted by Eriendir
Do you guys think it's a good idea to have an attribute cap? I can understand for an attribute like strength but what about others? I don't have the FOTR or TT sourcebook but what about characters like Gandalf and Galadriel?

The Balrog of Moria has Brg 26 (+10) and Wits 16 (+5). Do you think it's reasonable that the Balrog has higher Brg than Olorin, Mithrandir, the Aid of the Valar?

What about Dragons?

First of all, I am looking at this more from the Trek POV, but as both games share the same basic rules I thought I'd just add my 0.02$.

Maybe some of the attributes for "monsters" may not be reasonable, but I strongly suspect that the game was first and foremost designed with "person vs. person" situations in mind, i.e. Boromir fighting against a hoard of Orcs, Rohirim vs. Dunlendings, etc. etc. and so I think that's what should be kept in mind when discussing attribute caps. When characters in the LotR novels are faced with a "monster", even the most powerful heroes can still become very frightened, because they realize they are way out off their league. That's something that should be reflected in the game (IMHO) - some people and creatures are just too powerfull to be compared with ordinary (or even "hero type") people. In some regards it might have been best if Balrogs and dragons had never been assigned attributes, but that's just how it is and to me assigning them attributes far beyond humans, elves, or dwarfs seems like the next best thing to do.

That said, there is one other strong argument for attribute caps. As you have pointed out, raising attributes might be expensive, but in many cases it's more effective than raising individual skills.
Now without some attribute cap skills would become less and less important, as everyone would only raise their attributes to get higher skill ratings. What you would end up with would be characters who only took just as many skills as they absolutely needed and then only raised attributes again and again and again.
Not only would this be quiete unrealistic, even in the "realism" of a fantasy world, but it would lead to characters who should, by virtue of their order be quite different, yet would be very similar due to their maxed-out attributes.

OTOH, this could all just be me.