If you need skills, up to a +8 bonus to Int isn't anything to scoff at. :P Or a +8 bonus to Charisma or Dex for Diplomacy, Bluff, Stealth, ect.<br/><br/>Or mundane items.<br/><br/>There is one thing that I want to encourage; Players filling a niche that others cannot. A lot of magic items allow you to fill a variety of shoes, which would be helpful if we didn't already have 8 party members. :P<br/><br/>Also, a bonus to diplomacy would be helpful when you're say, trying to keep two party members from slitting eachother's throats. Just for example, the NPC Grant Sanctus is an inquisitor who has devoted his life to rooting out demon infiltrators. Do you imagine he's very much pleased to travel with 3 tieflings? :P<br/><br/>To me, combat and sex have the same place in a story. They can be a great supplement to it, even if 80% of the RP is combat... if it strengthens the story without supplanting then it's gold. So why have I set up the rules and chargen the way they are?<br/><br/>Well... combat in this RP will be tough and hopefully not always beneficial. You might win a battle, but it might come at a cost that overall made it just not worth it. Alternatively, you might accomplish some amazing feat against all odds against a powerful enemy (However beefed the PCs are, encounters WILL be tougher)<br/><br/>In essence, even if 90% of this RP is combat... the fact that it is hard and it is challenging and you are doing it with literally a fragment of the power you could be wielding in 'ideal' circumstances... that all strengthens some of the atmosphere I'm trying to build here.<br/><br/>Of course, I have no intention to make 90% of this RP combat. :P<br/><br/>Also, yes.. you will find magic items throughout the game. That's also part of the story; they just aren't available outside of ancient untouched places. :P