D&D 5E Ability cap of 20?

Picablo · Aug 30, 2014

Is 20 the hard cap for abilities?

With the ability score increase that comes at every 4th lvl won't that lead to some kind of generic characters at higher levels? Won't I just increasing modifiers for skills that I had no need for?

I wonder if this incentivizes the use of feats?

Thoughts?

CapnZapp · Aug 30, 2014

Picablo said:
Is 20 the hard cap for abilities?

With the ability score increase that comes at every 4th lvl won't that lead to some kind of generic characters at higher levels? Won't I just increasing modifiers for skills that I had no need for?

I wonder if this incentivizes the use of feats?

Thoughts?

Yes.

No. If you want to.

Perhaps.

That the hard cap is probably the most crucial rule of 5E and that you should not contemplate removing it until you have played a lot, so you fully understand the ramifications of removing it.

BigVanVader · Aug 30, 2014

If you remove the cap, you'll either have a ton of fun, or you'll screw something crucial up and have to roll another character, or start a new campaign, or maybe just remake your character with the cap back in place. I say go ahead and pop it off if you wanna play as Hercules or whatever, and see what happens and see what works for you or your game(Obviously talk to your DM about it, unless you are the DM.)

Live or die, man. Live or die.

Quartz · Aug 30, 2014

Picablo said:
Is 20 the hard cap for abilities?

Barbarians can take Str and Con to 24

With the ability score increase that comes at every 4th lvl won't that lead to some kind of generic characters at higher levels?

I don't think so. Not unless you start with ubermensch anyway. Remember that you only get 5 ASIs. That's only 10 points. For someone on the standard array, with 2 16s at the start after racial mods, that means that 2 scores of 20 will eat up 8 of those 10 points.

doghead · Aug 30, 2014

Picablo said:
Won't I just increasing modifiers for skills that I had no need for?

Thoughts?

You can always just choose to not take the increases if you have no need for them.

thotd

Picablo · Sep 1, 2014

Parsing wording...

I will be DM'ing our group we all finally sit down to play but the reason why I ask is that in the PHB there's a phrase that states, "... as usual you cannot raise your score over 20 by this method." or something very similar to this. So I wasn't sure if there was a way that you could or if this is just a case of stating the obvious.

asorel · Nov 27, 2014

With the exception of the Barbarian feat, yes, 20 is the hard cap., and removing it would undermine the idea of bounded accuracy. Even if you had high stats all around at level one, characters would not be generic, due to the presence of feats. If you're running a campaign powerful enough to necessitate that cap being removed, I would cautiously agree, but I would also encourage the exploration of other solutions, such as gestalt characters.

AmpsterMan · Dec 8, 2014

So does this mean I can have items boosting me past that? I.E. Gloves of Hercules boosting my Strength by 1+ above my "natural" 20?

Gilwen · Dec 9, 2014

magic items would be the only way to get a stat over 20 (at this point or without a house rule). In general they would set your ability at a certain score like the Potion of Giant Strength or Belt of Giant Strength does now. Highest option for those items is a 29 Strength.

delroland · Dec 12, 2014

The stat books in the DMG (all of which are Legendary items) each raise a stat by 2 and the stat maximum by 2. Theoretically, this means infinite stats. However, I'd recommend as a house rule a hard cap of 30 for stats even with the aid of magic. This puts the character on par with the strongest and most powerful monsters in the game.

Maybe one could make stats above 30 the realm of divine beings.

D&D 5E Ability cap of 20?

Picablo

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