The importance of being a 20

TheLoneRanger1979 · Mar 15, 2016

I hear you!
Although i understand why they balanced the races the way they did (wanting a human dominated player character demographic), i do not actually agree with them. Even being a 1E fan that i am, i still (and always have) find the standard racial modifiers a bit .... constricting? If present, those modifiers should allow for good flavoring, but not at the expense of concept building. 5E somewhat show a progression in the right direction by allowing both Str and Dex based fighting concepts to be viable in melee, but there is till much left to be desired. I would prefer if there were more viable options for each race.

Kithas · Mar 16, 2016

But letting each race have whatever modifiers you want you peel away any identity that race has. just being raised by humans isn't enough to give a +2 int for example, humans can't even get that usually. that would be closer to the scholar background, giving you learned skills not inborn traits. I realize its hard to conceptualize because there is only one sentient race on earth. It would be similar to expecting a terrier to be naturally smarter than a order collie because you like corridors and he is well trained. You can absolutely have a half orc with a high inn score, just don't expect being accused to help with that.
I find it much more interesting when characters do well in cases that they aren't suited for rather than hand wave the stats part of the race. This improves rp.

Azurewraith · Mar 17, 2016

Kithas said:
But letting each race have whatever modifiers you want you peel away any identity that race has. just being raised by humans isn't enough to give a +2 int for example, humans can't even get that usually. that would be closer to the scholar background, giving you learned skills not inborn traits. I realize its hard to conceptualize because there is only one sentient race on earth. It would be similar to expecting a terrier to be naturally smarter than a order collie because you like corridors and he is well trained. You can absolutely have a half orc with a high inn score, just don't expect being accused to help with that.
I find it much more interesting when characters do well in cases that they aren't suited for rather than hand wave the stats part of the race. This improves rp.

That's kind of like saying in humanity everyone is +1 +1 when I would say hawking is definitely a +2 intrested and Tyson is a +2 strength even in a single species there is diversity. Even more so if technology isn't common and plugging any weakness you have.

TheLoneRanger1979 · Mar 17, 2016

Diversity could be handled by the randomness of the dice roll (unfortunately many tables consider them illegal). However, when i said i wanted more options for each race, i didn't mean every race should get whatever ability modifier they wish. I meant more in the line of having at least two alternatives (say one martial and one mystical).

Azurewraith · Mar 17, 2016

TheLoneRanger1979 said:
Diversity could be handled by the randomness of the dice roll (unfortunately many tables consider them illegal). However, when i said i wanted more options for each race, i didn't mean every race should get whatever ability modifier they wish. I meant more in the line of having at least two alternatives (say one martial and one mystical).

Kinda like in 4e where you got +x then + y or z

TheLoneRanger1979 · Mar 17, 2016

Azurewraith said:
Kinda like in 4e where you got +x then + y or z

Yeah, something like that. Say dwarfs are all hardy, so they all get +1 ability bonus to Con, but you can play a fighting dwarf (+1 to Str) or a spiritual dwarf (+1 to Wis). The actual bonuses (numbers) would be made to balance the races of course. Humans would still be the most versatile race, by being able to chose which abilities they would raise (any).

Humans and dwarfs are easy though. Let me see you chose typical ability bonus increases for elves and halflings. Or gnomes and half elves (arguably half elves and variant humans are quite fine as they are). Half orcs are probably all strong (+1 Str), you can go for a hardy one (+1 Con), or for an insightful one (+1 Wis).

Kithas · Mar 17, 2016

Azurewraith said:
That's kind of like saying in humanity everyone is +1 +1 when I would say hawking is definitely a +2 intrested and Tyson is a +2 strength even in a single species there is diversity. Even more so if technology isn't common and plugging any weakness you have.

You're confusing diversity with individual outliers. Hawking used points or a good roll in his int, tyson is str. Racial modifiers are trying to describe an overall trend. Most elves are graceful, most arcs are strong. there will be some smart arcs and some clumsy elves but the general trend is true.

noface0711 · Mar 19, 2016

I tried Savage Attacker with modifications - you reroll all dice, and you must take the second roll. Sometimes you re-fail, sometimes you hit a kill shot. Its exciting doing it that way, the players liked it. The rogue that used it got good use out of it simply because its once per turn, so he could use twice per round sometimes. The PAM Paladin didn't get to use it as he rolled high enough that he didn't want to risk a bad reroll.

The importance of being a 20

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TheLoneRanger1979

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Azurewraith

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noface0711

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