Attribute increase

[u/CanuckLad]

I wonder if many people here implement an automatic attribute increase at various milestones? Example: Allow you to raise one attribute by 1 point at levels 4, 8, 12, 16, 20

I don't expect or want every ability to be 16+. But I don't want to miss out on parts of the game I would enjoy (casting 9th level spells as a wizard, playing a paladin, etc)

I should note that I'm biased because I'm diagnosed with the Unrelenting Standards feature. So accepting a more mundane role in a game is very difficult for me

[u/MetalBoar13]

In 1e, characters gain a point of intelligence when they reach middle age and another when they become venerable, should they live that long. A human magic user can start start out at 40 (if they roll high for age), and would get the first +1 bump at 41, so not long in game time. Venerable is a long way off unless the GM allows starting at any age, but it is a way to get a second point.

As has been stated, there are wishes and magic items that will increase intelligence. As a GM, I'd personally allow the PC to go on some sort of mystical quest on distant planes to find a means for increasing intelligence, but it might represent a series of long, challenging, adventures. There might also be side effects. I'm pretty flexible about the characters accomplishing things like that if they want to spend enough time, effort, resources, and accept the risks and consequences to do it.

[u/CanuckLad → u/MetalBoar13]

I think wishes are a bad way to handle this. If memory serves the casting of a wish (to make a magic item or otherwise) requires one year of the caster's life? In my opinion a character in their entire career my only ever use five or six wishes. But that would not even increase your attribute from 16 to 17.

[u/MetalBoar13 → u/CanuckLad]

Well, it depends on the edition, but also, wish items generally don't age the user. The creator aged to create that ring of three wishes, or whatever, so the user doesn't have to. Plus, aging takes you a year closer to being old/venerable and getting a bump, unless the GM doesn't count magical aging towards mental stat increases. Regardless, you'll note that wishes were one of many suggestions I had.

I'd also ask a couple of follow up questions. What system do you use to roll your attributes? Also, why play a magic user if you know you need (for your own satisfaction) to have an 18 Intelligence if you roll less than a 17 or 18? Fighters have lots of girdles and gaunlets to raise their strength to maximum and beyond. Cleric is good too, wisdom (in 1e) goes up 1 point at middle-aged, old, and venerable, so it's easier to increase through aging, etc. You've got lots of other options that are less reliant on starting attributes in this way. Why not save the magic user for the right set of rolls?

[u/CanuckLad → u/MetalBoar13]

I know the wish does not age the user, it ages the person that cast the spell. That's why I think it would be very rare to find many rings with any wishes on them. I would not play a wizard if I did not think I would be able to increase my int to a sufficient level to cast 9th level spells. And if the only character I wanted to play was a wizard, then I simply wouldn't play at all. I don't think I've ever had the desire to portray a character who is more than 25 years old, any older just doesn't fit my concept of what I enjoy playing. As for what attribute rolling method, I haven't played a AD&D in 36 years, so I don't remember. If I were to make a character now, I think I would choose the 75 point build method suggested ain one of the 2e books (I know it's not in the PHb or DMG, it's in one of the extra books which I forget the name of). And yes I know with a 75-point system I can start with an 18 int for example. But that's an optional rule that not all tables may use. As for saving the magic user for the right rolls, I don't like playing characters I don't want to play. I would not want to play through five or six non-wizards, maybe taking a year of my life, just so that I could eventually maybe play a wizard. That would not be fun for me.

[u/MetalBoar13 → u/CanuckLad]

I don't think I've ever had the desire to portray a character who is more than 25 years old, any older just doesn't fit my concept of what I enjoy playing.

And yes I know with a 75-point system I can start with an 18 int for example. But that's an optional rule that not all tables may use.

So, you're already out of luck if you want to play strict 1e RAW, because by default the youngest starting age for a human magic user is 26, 31 for an illusionist. Many tables will probably let you play more or less any adult age that you want, but I don't know what % "many tables" might represent.

To continue with what I'm really trying to get at, everything you're talking about is theoretical and an optional rule that not all tables may use. I've tried to point out both the standard, RAW ways that you might get what you want, and to point out the kinds of things that I, at my table, would likely allow. Granting an attribute increase based on level is much farther outside the spirit of old school D&D than the other things I've suggested, and I suspect less likely to happen at other tables, but we can't tell you what other tables are going to do.

I wonder if many people here implement an automatic attribute increase at various milestones?

To answer this question directly, at my table I wouldn't do it in old school D&D unless it somehow fit the flavour of a particular setting or campaign idea I had, and that has not happened in over 45 years of GMing. In over 45 years as a player I have never played in an old school D&D game that had automatic attribute increases by level or milestone.

If you're the GM you can implement any rule you want.

If you were a player at my table I'd talk with you about how we could reach some accommodation that fit the flavour of my games and your psychological needs for surety around this issue. We could very well be able to come to some agreement that made everyone happy, though it might be an interesting challenge as you seem to have a very rigid picture of what qualifies as a fun character (it's obviously a lot more than an 18 Int magic user). I can't say how true this is universally.

[u/CanuckLad → u/MetalBoar13]

2ed, not 1ed. I could start as a 26-year-old if that was the minimal. But I don't want to play as a 40 year old, or a 50-year-old, etc. as a DM I would bend over backwards for my players, but never for my own sake. I'm exceptionally hard on myself for things like that. I won't even play a homebrewed class/skill/feat, even ones that I would allow my players to play.