volanin
Adventurer
Lately, I've been having two problems while DMing 5th edition:
1. Whenever I am DMing to players that come from other systems (usually Storyteller), they always get confused about the dual nature of the main Attributes vs. the Attribute modifiers. They don't understand why both are necessary if only the modifiers are ever used, and some get genuinely confused. And they are right indeed, since I believe the main Attributes (from 3-20) are only in the game in order to maintain the original D&D feeling.
2. Also, when I DM to new players, they quickly get the concept, but they no longer refer to they character as having Strength 18, or the classic "I want to make a Charisma 18 woman". They don't get confused as the Storyteller players, but they only look at the modifiers, losing this "time-proven classic D&D feeling". I admit to this problem being more nostalgic than functional, but I really miss it from my old games.
Anyway, I was really thinking about ditching the Attribute modifiers table and instead just writing the main Attributes on the character sheet. And then, calculate the "modifiers" by dividing the main Attribute by 2 when adding them to the D20. So instead of having modifiers going from -5 to +5, I would get modifiers going from 0 to 10. Mechanically, this would be the same range, and the game balance would be unchanged, with the benefit of bringing the main Attributes more into focus.
If I recall correctly, the only change I would have to do is to add 5 to every DC. The AC values and Spell Save DC would need no modifications at all (I would have to add 5 to the DEX limit of every armor as well, but that's it).
An extra bonus: if I want to deal with fractions, I could optionally rule that a player with Strength 13 could add 6.5 to the dice against another with Strength 12, which would add only 6 to the dice, giving the player with the "useless Odd Attribute" a small advantage in these challenges (during Grapple, for example, a tie in the D20 would rule in favor of the STR 13 player).
Am I missing something?
What do you think?
1. Whenever I am DMing to players that come from other systems (usually Storyteller), they always get confused about the dual nature of the main Attributes vs. the Attribute modifiers. They don't understand why both are necessary if only the modifiers are ever used, and some get genuinely confused. And they are right indeed, since I believe the main Attributes (from 3-20) are only in the game in order to maintain the original D&D feeling.
2. Also, when I DM to new players, they quickly get the concept, but they no longer refer to they character as having Strength 18, or the classic "I want to make a Charisma 18 woman". They don't get confused as the Storyteller players, but they only look at the modifiers, losing this "time-proven classic D&D feeling". I admit to this problem being more nostalgic than functional, but I really miss it from my old games.
Anyway, I was really thinking about ditching the Attribute modifiers table and instead just writing the main Attributes on the character sheet. And then, calculate the "modifiers" by dividing the main Attribute by 2 when adding them to the D20. So instead of having modifiers going from -5 to +5, I would get modifiers going from 0 to 10. Mechanically, this would be the same range, and the game balance would be unchanged, with the benefit of bringing the main Attributes more into focus.
If I recall correctly, the only change I would have to do is to add 5 to every DC. The AC values and Spell Save DC would need no modifications at all (I would have to add 5 to the DEX limit of every armor as well, but that's it).
An extra bonus: if I want to deal with fractions, I could optionally rule that a player with Strength 13 could add 6.5 to the dice against another with Strength 12, which would add only 6 to the dice, giving the player with the "useless Odd Attribute" a small advantage in these challenges (during Grapple, for example, a tie in the D20 would rule in favor of the STR 13 player).
Am I missing something?
What do you think?
