ccs
41st lv DM
Every edition had attribute bonuses. Every single one. They also had attribute penalties which the current edition does not have. The current edition also has attribute caps which previous editions did not. That means it is both easier and more feasible to play against type than it has been in ANY previous edition of D&D.
Would you like me to quote my 1e PHB or will you just concede that you're wrong?
Probably the only race in the whole PHB that wasn't built in this way but unfortunately grants only bonuses towards playing a small handful of particular classes is the Half-Orc. Aside from that singular example, none of the races are built in a way that encourages a person towards any particular class--
Except for those Ability Score bonuses.
or 3rd edition smacking the player with an attribute penalty that ensured they would never remotely be feasible in a ton of classes. Especially since there was no attribute limit cap, so even if one gained attribute points, the race that started +4 points above the other was always going to be +4 points higher which meant a +2 on all abilities.
Oh please. Assuming you've not rolled poorly, there's enough ways to gain +s in 3x/PF to make any race decent at any of the classes.
I know because I've spent the last 12.5 years doing it.
And if a character is non-viable to you because you're missing another +2 to a die roll? Then I'm afraid that you're just not a very good player....
In fact, when it comes to Wizards, AD&D and 3rd edition both had bonus spells and maximum spell levels which made the Intelligence attribute so much more important to boost as high as possible. Such things do not exist within 5E.
Well, your casting stat does effect the Save DCs of your spells.
Though it'd be nice if it still gave bonus spells & affected max spell lvs.
And not just Wizards, because 3rd edition also had attribute limits on all of the feats which meant unless you already had super high attributes in your class's chosen attributes-- something that just could not happen if you started at a penalty-- you would be forbidden from taking the important feats making you far, FAR worse than the race that got a bonus there.
Ah, but there were so many feats you could surely find something useful. I know I did. Again, I've been doing it for these past 12.5 years.... And I've done it mostly with rolled stats. So sometimes I started golden, many times fair to middling, sometimes....well you end up with my special needs 1/2ling Garth.
See, there's billions (figure of speech) of ways to make a viable character. Every ______ I make doesn't need the same feat package. Or set of stat bonuses. If I end up forever +2 points behind some hypothetical paragon example of my class? "Eh, I'm fine. Nor am I at all concerned vs my fellow PCs.
No matter how you cut it, 5E allows for a far greater range of race/class combinations to be viable.
Eh, depends upon your definition of viable. But Ok.
Anyone who says otherwise has literally never picked up and looked through the books of any other edition.
Well I say otherwise & have played every edition save OD&D (though I do have a copy on the shelf - sadly no one I play with wants to go that retro)