Hussar
Legend
That sounds like yet another hole in the 5e rules.
Easy to fix, mind you; but come on - something like this should have been got right to begin with. Even in medieval times some people were robust or portly and still athletically fit.
All it needs is a bell curve for those who want to roll (say, 100 + 10d12*) and a range near the center of that bell curve within which you can just choose if you like (say, 140-180*). If the range of 110-220 still isn't wide enough you could always add a rider by afterwards rolling a d20 then flipping a coin whether to add or subtract this from your original roll (thus giving a range of 91-240, a bit wider).
* - this would be for human males; females do tend to be a bit lighter on average so maybe make all the constants 20 less for simplicity (thus 80 + 10d12 or a chooseable range of 120-160).
Maybe, but we can at least wave at it as it goes by.
Lan-"you can get much more complicated by throwing height, strength and constitution in as factors affecting weight - if you really want to"-efan
They do actually deal with height and weight on a curve. The modifiers are in the PHB. Thing is, sure, medieval times people might have been pretty big, but, come on, not THAT big. There's no way to get Schwarzenegger big without some serious changes in diet and medication.
But, it does miss the point that I was making though. The AVERAGE half orc and dragonborn is bigger by quite a lot than the largest humans. So, they get a +2 Str modifier. Ok, fair enough, that makes sense. Give someone 50 or so pounds on another person, and yup, they're most likely going to be a fair bit stronger. Presuming, of course, similar levels of fitness.
But, how much of a difference are we talking about between a female fighter (say) and a male fighter? 50 pounds again? Not really. It's not that unusual to see a woman tipping in around 160, 170 pounds. She's built like a Valkyrie, sure, but, fair enough. So, what's the point spread here? Should we be capping her strength? We don't cap his even though he's giving up 50 or 60 pounds on the next bigger guy.
Never minding the elf that tops in at about 100 pounds. Or the halfling that is pushing maybe 40. If female humans are being capped at 2 less than male humans, (for that actual effect on the Strength table), how much do we have to cap those guys? Do we really want a game where halflings are limited to a 10 Strength?
No thanks.
Like I said, the game simply isn't granular enough for sexual differences to make a difference stat wise.
It's not sexist unless it is specifically intended to target female players in a negative manner. An effort, even one that is poor, that is merely intended to model life, is not one that is intended to target female players negatively. Especially when it is one that affects both men and women and not women alone.
But, where do you stop? If we're going to cap female human PC's at, say, a 16 str, male humans at 18, what about all the smaller races? Elves, halflings, gnomes and the like? And, really, why stop there? Why are humans even remotely as intelligent as elves? Good grief, the average elf is 100 years old, but, I'm still a 1st level character? What the heck? Why am I starting at the same point as some 16 year old human? I've been a physical adult for 80 years (or so). What the heck have I been doing for the past TWO human generations.
Like I said, this is a very, very deep rabbit hole you are leaping down. There's a very, very good reason why D&D doesn't do this anymore. Because, just like any fantasy, once you start kicking the backgrounds a bit, you realize how unbelievably inconsistent the whole thing is.