DND_Reborn
The High Aldwin
Another thought is this, remove ASIs completely and ONLY have feats. This way a character might get a two point bump if they take feats that add to an ability score, but 3 would be a stretch and 4 almost unheard of. Since most characters already begin with 15 or higher in their primary stat, this would slow down the stat bumping process and by extension create an artificial cap sort of.
For a tangent, I dislike how much impact ability scores have on everything. I mean, your max bonus is +5, and max proficiency is just one better at +6. We house-ruled max proficiency up to +8 and limited ability mod to +4 (for simplicity sake we returned to +5). Honestly, I would rather see ability score mods capped at +3 for players normally and let proficiency bonus play a more important role in the game.
I might eventually make ability scores something like 9-11 = +0, 12-14 = +1, 15-17 = +2, and 18-20 = +3.
I am content with my character having +3 in her primary ability scores and can't see myself ever raising them higher as I would much rather pick a feat.
Anyway, back to the OP. If you want something random, you could roll a d4+2 for each stat and add it to your base after racial modifiers. If the result is less than 20, that is your maximum, 20 or higher is simply 20.
Ex. for a variant human monk
STR: 10
DEX: 14
CON : 12
INT: 11+1 = 12
WIS: 15+1 = 16
CHA: 10
Rolling d4+2 (in order) results in 6, 5, 3, 4, 4, 4; making the maximums:
STR: 16
DEX: 19
CON: 15
INT: 16
WIS: 20
CHA: 14
While this works, I have to really ask what is the point? Given normally five ASI, this character would have to use 4 to bump DEX to 18 and WIS to 20, leaving only one for a feat selection. It is unlikely he will use 2 ASI's to boost CHA from 10 to 14, and then have the player still want to go higher. The only way this become meaningful at all is if a low roll results in a sub-20 cap, like if I had rolled a 3 for WIS instead of a 4. So, fine, this monk is limited to a WIS 19 instead of 20.
But anyway, I like the idea of a feat only game and no pure ASIs.
For a tangent, I dislike how much impact ability scores have on everything. I mean, your max bonus is +5, and max proficiency is just one better at +6. We house-ruled max proficiency up to +8 and limited ability mod to +4 (for simplicity sake we returned to +5). Honestly, I would rather see ability score mods capped at +3 for players normally and let proficiency bonus play a more important role in the game.
I might eventually make ability scores something like 9-11 = +0, 12-14 = +1, 15-17 = +2, and 18-20 = +3.
I am content with my character having +3 in her primary ability scores and can't see myself ever raising them higher as I would much rather pick a feat.
Anyway, back to the OP. If you want something random, you could roll a d4+2 for each stat and add it to your base after racial modifiers. If the result is less than 20, that is your maximum, 20 or higher is simply 20.
Ex. for a variant human monk
STR: 10
DEX: 14
CON : 12
INT: 11+1 = 12
WIS: 15+1 = 16
CHA: 10
Rolling d4+2 (in order) results in 6, 5, 3, 4, 4, 4; making the maximums:
STR: 16
DEX: 19
CON: 15
INT: 16
WIS: 20
CHA: 14
While this works, I have to really ask what is the point? Given normally five ASI, this character would have to use 4 to bump DEX to 18 and WIS to 20, leaving only one for a feat selection. It is unlikely he will use 2 ASI's to boost CHA from 10 to 14, and then have the player still want to go higher. The only way this become meaningful at all is if a low roll results in a sub-20 cap, like if I had rolled a 3 for WIS instead of a 4. So, fine, this monk is limited to a WIS 19 instead of 20.
But anyway, I like the idea of a feat only game and no pure ASIs.