I am working on a game that is largely (read: almost entirely) a non-combat game. In this game, the basic mechanic is 1 Attribute Trait bonus. The 1 is there because as players take actions and choose various Attributes, they lose the ability to use dice in that Attribute until they can replenish them, so I wanted them to at least have 1 die and maybe use a Trait to give some minor bonus if they still have one to use.

What I am trying to work on, though, is a way in which characters don't always gain back up to a max or a cap in their Attributes. Rather, I am looking to create a system where players can choose which Attributes they want to put their efforts back into when they rest.

For example, Clout and Honor are two Attributes. A player has used most of their Clout to perform some actions and a little of their Honor. They know that they're going to have to go do something a little risky with regards to their Honor in the future, so when they rest, they decide to put more of their time into studying the foundations of their Honor code in order to have a bigger pool of Honor when they go out -- meaning, though, that they have lower Clout if something comes up that requires that.

One of the restrictions I've thought of for the system is that characters have a total number of dice they are capped at to be distributed among their Attributes, and part of their advancement is gaining more dice over time to increase this total amount.

This game is very much going to be about making decisions on which aspects of oneself they are willing to risk at various times during their adventures and balancing some of this dynamic placement out -- or relying on their adventuring partners in order to get things done. It is a game of social maneuvering, politicking, and movement within a vast hierarchy, so an element of "gambling" is always present.

A few questions or feedback moments:

1. Are there systems that do something like this?
2. How would you feel as a player if your Attributes changed on a regular basis like this?
3. What are some other restrictions you can think of to at least mitigate some of the min-maxing that always happens?
4. What are some draw backs to such a system?

Thanks as always for the insights.