Kein: Vandal Hearts did everything through items iirc. We did talk about that option for a while, but a lot of us decided that we are no fans of that... I think it may be easier to balance out, but you may quickly leave item generation out that way, and then you're throwing item fever out the door.
J747L: one stat point per level up came from the idea that there will not be as many encounters as in a hack and slash game, so level up should feel very important, and the impact of one stat point will be bigger than for instance in DivDiv where you had five stat points every time. With this stat system we tried to build specific "roles" and succeeded well, even if after ten levels for instance you want to add another role to your character. Also, items with stat boosts will enable you to make a more balanced allrounder if you want and you'll probably be able to respec (though we don't yet know how :))
theNILE: Speed and DEX are different because to me, DEX is about how handy you are. For instance, a magician is dexterous but that doesn't make him fast (or even have good aim, but that's another discussion that I shouldn't have with RPG players :)).
I'm gonna introduce the idea of having willpower as an extra stat though.. I think it makes sense. We have willpower as a secondary stat and use it, but it's not really clear what it depends on atm. Let's hope programmers don't kill me
(And the producer. Oh wait that's me. I should be smarter than this. Let's see what impact this has on the game/data/....)
Alrik: you're quite right about the uses of perception
And don't forget we have reputation as a "party stat" and that every NPC has an attitude towards every character.
