A couple comments I wanted to through in:
1. Obsidian COULD rework the stats. Rework, then add an NPC in Gilded Vale that let's you respend. People who want can go there and redesign their mains (and custom NPCs.) No big deal, I think (Itemisation would be the biggest issue, and you could allow respending talents too if need be.)
2. There is a downside to "every stat is equally important." It actually REMOVES meaningful choice if you CAN'T make a sub-optimal choice. Having said that, there may be another way.
This isn't too far from what Obsidian wants, either, and what people in this thread are espousing:
If every stat is going to have both an offensive and defensive slant (let's say - not a bad idea on the face of it) it's vitally important that they work in DIFFERENT ways. For example:
STAT: Offense + Defense
MIG: +% damage and healing (raw increase in numbers) + Fortitude (poison & disease defenses)
CON: reduce armor speed penalties (increases effective dps) + %HP/Endurace
DEX: Increases ability speed (increases effective dps) + Reflex (AoE defenses)
PER: Increases Crit (spikey DPS increase) + Deflection (Physical Defenses)
INT: Increases interrupt, AoE, & Duration (DPS through 'alternate' means) + Will (debuff defenses)
RES: DR penetration + Increases concentration & DR
There could be some tweaks there, of course - for example I'd be wary of combining both Crit and Deflection together. That seems very strong - but you could spread the deflection and reflex over DEX and PER to make it a really tough choice between focusing on DEX, PER, or both. Also you could consider spreading the defenses out a bit (the design of defenses atm has them in 2 stats, whereas my design here has them only attached to one) but I don't really see a need for spreading them out necessarily.
Also, it would depend very much on numbers - it's important that each point in INT gives *about* the same amount of DPS as MIG over the long wrong. The devil is in the details: There will be fights where a character that focuses on INT won't be effective, and other fights where they will pwn. Ditto for defense - it's important that things like poison are as important as straight physical damage. It might be less common, perhaps, but very nasty when you come across it. I won't go into it any further, but I find it hard to balance tanks ... how do you balance the need to defend against everything without making a be-all-end-all stat? Change the definition of "tank" ? (e.g. The fighter is my front-line dude in straight sword&arrow fights, but if there's a bunch of AoE, then it'll be my archer who has the high defense attributes.)
Anyway, those suggestions are actually not too far from what we have now, and it's offered just as an idea because I like talking game theory
