History Main / OneStatToRuleThemAll

** Hit is also extremely important. However, theres not much you can do outside of Strike/Focus spirit and Hit increasing parts. In games with the pilot point system on the other hand you can ramp up your pilot's Hit and Evade to make them much more powerful. (Or if you're talking about a tanking mecha, Defense)

** As far as hard stats go, the one to rule them all is Speed. While you could build Strength, Magic Power, Hit Points or even resistance against instant death attacks with various level up bonuses, items and spells do all of the above so much better and leave you free to increase Speed, which could get your team about one turn every two seconds instead of every six if you're serious about it.

* ''FinalFantasyX'' inverts this, however: There are HP, MP, strength, defense, magic, magic defense, speed, accuracy, and evasion. Note that I didn't say "luck". Why? Because luck never comes up in the game!

* Dexterity is king in Cinematic Unisystem, the core engine of the BuffyTheVampireSlayer, {{Angel}}, and ArmyOfDarkness RPGs. It's used for several useful skills, initiative, attack rolls and defence rolls, as usual, but the real GameBreaker is that it sets ''the number of combat actions you get per round''.

* Several RPGs, usually light or humorous ones, ''literally'' have a single stat for everything your character does. These include Strength in [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TWERPS TWERPS]], Number in [[http://adept-press.com/role-playing-games/trollbabe/ TrollBabe]], and Power in [[http://www.1km1kt.net/rpg/stickguy-the-role-playing-game StickGuy]].

** In VampireTheMasquerade and WerewolfTheApocalypse, many of your character's supernatural abilities work as follows: your Disciplines or Gifts determine whether you can do something, and some entirely different stat determines how well you can do it. The different stat (usually a "mundane" stat) depends on the power: Subterfuge for disguise effects, Medicine for magical healing, and so on. In MageTheAscension, very nearly ''all'' the supernatural stuff your character can do works this way--and the stat that determines how well you do is ''always'' Arete.

** But not averted for the other stat combination, Speed vs. Sneak. Maxing out Speed (on some characters) lets you zoom around the map like the Roadrunner, avoiding monsters by simply going around them, and very rarely having to try to Sneak past anything. The expansions that add additional boards just make speed more important for getting from place to place.

* ''PlanescapeTorment'' 's Wisdom and Intelligence stats are pretty much god, due to it providing the most dialogue along with experience boosts. Amusing considering that your default class is Fighter.

** Dexterity give bonuses to initiative, armor class, ranged attack bonus, melee attack bonus (with a feat), spell effectiveness (with a feat), many useful skills and reflexes. Building a character around Dex is almost always a good idea.

* In Tactical [=RPG=]s that rely on clockticks rather than alternating between teams (''FinalFantasyTactics'' in the former, ''FireEmblem'' in the latter), speed is the most important stat in the game, because more speed = more turns. The most abusable version of this is in the (shock of shocks!) NipponIchi game ''PhantomBrave'', where combined with [[LevelGrinding Standard Nippon Ichi Tactics]], you can complete any map without the enemy even getting a turn. (And if your speed is too low, the enemy will wipe you out before ''you'' get a turn.)

*** It is worth noting that in ''Phantom Brave'', Speed ''is'' a damage stat, although only for a limited number of relatively unusual abilities, which mostly revolve around the "wand" and "weed" (the plant, not the drug) weapons. The same goes for every stat: INT and ATK (which are only for attack) certainly have the most attacks that use them, but ''every stat'' has some attacks whose damage is based on it. Including HP, which can be slightly problematic without the right skills on the character.

* Similarly to the above, the [[TheMatrix Matrix]] RPG [[http://www.scribd.com/doc/14108115/MatrixRPG]] There Is No Spoon has a Matrix stat which is rolled pretty much constantly, and trumps mundane skill. There are other things to spend character points on, but the game admits flat-out that Matrix is the god stat.

* Except in 4th Edition, you have Agility. To make it clear, Agility is the base skill for EVERY combat stat, with one exception (Dodge, which, to be fair, is pretty important). What this means is that having a high Agility makes you equally capable with melee weapons, guns, grenades, heavy weapons, vehicle-mounted weapons, your fists... You get the idea. Since it's much easier to increase your skill ratings than to increase your attributes, a combat character can just start with a high Agility (Augmented by one of the exceedingly cheap Agility-boosting implants) and spend a few skills points and - voila! Instant combat master.

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** This Troper begs to disagree, and suggests it's your group(s) rather than the game. Quickness is good, but it's not the Best at all. Intelligence can give you huge numbers of skills, Body is absolutely vital for taking damage, Int and Willpower do a good many of the same things as Quickness and more, and Charisma can be far more useful than any combat skill in this game. Quickness is vital for some character types - but nowhere's near all. It is indeed, however, the kind of stat which appeals to many min/maxers.

**** Taken to ridiculous extremes in Super Robot Wars K, where stat bonuses to a pilot were fixed. Focus everything on one pilot and his/her mecha, and you will be ''yawning'' your way through the fianl boss because, at best on even a ''critical'' hit, he'll only do [[NighInvulnerable 10 points of damage]] to your mech (which always has at least a few thousand hit points to chew through). How does this troper know? He did it before.
*** Hit is also extremely important. However, theres not much you can do outside of Strike/Focus spirit and Hit increaseing parts. In games with the pilot point system on the other hand you can ramp up your pilot's Hit and Evade to make them much more powerful. (Or if you're talking about a tanking mecha, Defense)

** This troper also built a hilariously effective wizard build, using a half-orc with almost everything pumped into getting more mana. The reason was that the cheap, cheazy little tiny-damage necromancy spell activated almost instantly. In real-time mode, you could then chain-cast almost anything to death. This made the normally difficult-to-play real-time combat into an amusingly easy romp.

** This appplies to absolutely all White Wolf games, except for nWoD. Dexterity improves your attack, defense, ability to do damage, and, usually, initiative, all at once. Other physical attributes can't do even half of that in standard situations. Moreover, Dexterity is commonly used in combination with a lot of useful skills, from Stealth to Drive. Strength and Stamina... aren't. This disparity reaches ridiculous proportions in ''Scion'', as Epic Attributes provide much greater benefits that normal ones.