Will D&D make strength matter again?

[Dausuul]

If you're going to try and address the (moderate) imbalance between Strength and Dex, start by looking at where it lies. It is not a problem in melee combat; Str is slightly superior to Dex as far as melee attack stats go, because it allows you to use heavy armor which offers slightly better AC. And that's not even getting into what you can do with feats.

Where Dex grants an advantage:

• Initiative. This is the big one. Increasing your chance of getting to go first means potentially a free round of attacks.
• Saving throws. Str is a minor save, Dex is a major one.
• Ranged attacks. The ranged weapons available to a Dex fighter are far superior to those available to a Str fighter. They have greater range and better damage, and your DM is less likely to kick up a fuss about how you're carrying your ammo. (A quiver of 20 arrows won't raise an eyebrow, a bundle of 20 javelins... will.)
• Skills. This is very minor, and rather campaign-dependent; but Dex supports two skills where Str supports only one. If we figure Stealth and Athletics are about equally useful, Dex gets the advantage because it also supports Acrobatics.

For initiative, I'd consider house-ruling that your initiative bonus equals your proficiency bonus. Then allow the rogue (who depends heavily on high initiative, particularly the assassin) to add Dex to initiative as a class feature.

For saving throws... have to think about that one. I don't see an easy way to rebalance saving throws. Unless you want to do what 4E did and let you choose the better of two stats for each save (Str/Con, Dex/Int, and Wis/Cha).

The ranged attack problem is relatively easy to house-rule. Javelin damage could be increased to be on par or even superior to bow damage; the Str fighter would then be deadlier to nearby foes, but wouldn't have the Dex fighter's ability to strike from a great distance.

Skills is too minor to worry about IMO.

 

[BookBarbarian]

Meh, other than the Rogue, DEX-melee is pretty weak. DEX-melee can't rock feats like Shield Master, Polearm Master, Great Weapon Master, etc. DEX-melee can't grapple and/or shove you prone, either. STR is still easily the superior melee stat.

While I do find Dex covers a little too much, these are enough reasons for me to always make a Strength based character.

 

[Lidgar]

Whenever I see threads about STR being a dump stat, I always have the same response:

Track Equipment Weight. Use the Encumbrance Rules.

The ForgedAnvil character sheet (alas, now pulled) did a great job auto calculating encumbrance. I think many would find it surprising how little equipment/armor one can carry with a low STR score without it impacting their movement speed pretty quickly.

 

[Jacob Lewis]

Crom!

Now ask me what is best in life.

 

[ccs]

I suggest you get -2 to hit any monster with AC 16 or more using a rapier to simply model how vulnerable that weapon is against metal armor, which should nicely temper your players' enthusiasm for the weapon! ☺

Assuming the targets wearing metal armor.
But how about +5 Dex & say leather armor/natural hide, high dex + mage armor, supernatural sources of high AC, etc etc etc
Much easier I think to just not have rapiers in your game at all than come up with non-sense mechanics and rationals.

 

[Bradley Hindman]

. . .
Much easier I think to just not have rapiers in your game at all than come up with non-sense mechanics and rationals.

For those that like the aesthetic of a rapier, I keep rapiers as an option. When consulting the weapon table in the PHB, I call that option the shortsword.

 

[CleverNickName]

I also hate it when players over-optimize their characters. My eye twitches every time I hear one of them say "don't worry about it, I've read the rules and trust me, you'll never use Intelligence." And they say it a lot. So I'm with you.

If you want Strength to matter more in the game, but you don't want to tinker with the rules, you can:
- Use and enforce the rules for Encumbrance
- Remove rapiers from the game
- add more Strength-related skill challenges, like climbing and swimming, to your game

If you want Strength to matter more, AND you don't mind tweaking the rules a bit, you can also:
- require a minimum Strength score for all armor (Light armors need Str 11, Medium armors and shields need Str 13)
- lower the base damage of all Finesse weapons by one die (d8 becomes d6, d6 becomes d4, etc.)
- lower the base damage of all ranged weapons by one die
- use Strength modifiers for all melee damage rolls
- use Strength modifiers for thrown weapon damage

And if you want to make Dex less of a "god-stat," as you put it:
- use Intelligence for initiative checks

Whatever you decide to do, make sure your players are well aware of your intent before they roll up their characters, and explain why you are making the changes. You should expect plenty of push-back from your players, too. Nearly every character-building "strategy" guide on Reddit depends on being able to ignore the consequences of low Intelligence or Strength, and these changes will wreck a lot of builds.

 

[CubicsRube]

Whenever I see threads about STR being a dump stat, I always have the same response:

Track Equipment Weight. Use the Encumbrance Rules.

The ForgedAnvil character sheet (alas, now pulled) did a great job auto calculating encumbrance. I think many would find it surprising how little equipment/armor one can carry with a low STR score without it impacting their movement speed pretty quickly.

I use a simple encumbrance rule:
You can have the same amount of items as your strength score.
Clothes count as one item
Armor is 2 items (in addition to clothes)
Shileds weappns or carried object 1 item
Travel pack is 2 items
Arcane/divine focus or spell component puch is 1 item
1 day of food and water is 1 item
(Basically anything beyond armor and travel is one item. I generally dont track coins unless its crazy)

Suddenly 8str really limits you.

An 8 str wizard with clothes, a travel pack, a staff and an arcane focus has a base encumbrance of 5. He can carry 3 days worth of food and water. But if he wants a scroll, wand or potion, he'll have to give something up.

And a 10 str rogue with a bow, arrows, armor, clothing, travel pack, short sword, thieves tools has 9 encumbrance already...

 

[Greenstone.Walker]

Optional encumbrance can be a messy way to make strength more relevant in your game.

Agreed. I had a game where I said I'd trust the players and not track encumbrance. Months later, I find every single PC has a strength of 8, even the ones wearing medium and heavy armour!

Other ways to re-emphasize Strength are:

Opportunities for shoving, for example ledges, narrow bridges, pits.

Blocked and jammed doors.

Arm-wrestling contests.

Allowing intimidation rolls to be based on Strength.

Enforcing the movement penalty for armour.

Making encumbrance affect overland travel speed and/or exhaustion. As a bonus,this also encourages players to buy mounts.

Using the encumbrance rules! Especially variant encumbrance.

Give bows a minimum Strength requirement. A weak character should not be able to even draw a longbow, let alone fire it. As an aside, this also re-emphasizes crossbows (as they are cocked with levers or cranks, they don't have a minimum Strength requirement).

 

[Rod Staffwand]

I use a simple encumbrance rule:
You can have the same amount of items as your strength score.
Clothes count as one item
Armor is 2 items (in addition to clothes)
Shileds weappns or carried object 1 item
Travel pack is 2 items
Arcane/divine focus or spell component puch is 1 item
1 day of food and water is 1 item
(Basically anything beyond armor and travel is one item. I generally dont track coins unless its crazy)

My players: "Do I have to wear clothes?"