D&D 5E Ability Scores Are Different Now?

[TrippyHippy]

Players with your outlook don't find themselves welcome in the games I run. In games I play in I handle it in character and my characters would never trust their life adventuring with gnome jesters and halfling commoners, one of us would leave the group.

D&D is a game about delving into the dark places of the world to fight against monsters, if your character can't contribute meaningfully to the fighting or delving then your character should not be in a D&D game. There are plenty of roleplaying games out there about espionage, social climbing, and basket weaving D&D is not one of them.

And with this outlook, I’m not sure you’d be welcome in mine. D&D is about anything you and your group want it to be. Anybody who comes into the game with preconceived ideas about how the game must run, and what player’s ‘jobs’ are is missing the point of having a shared hobby in the first place. Sure, there are lots of games - but we’ve chosen D&D and you have no right or authority to say otherwise.

 

[Paraxis]

My mistake. I always thought D&D was a fun way to spend time with your friends.

It is about spending time and having fun with your friends, while you play a game about characters delving into dark places and fighting monsters.

From the Basic rules page 2.
In the Dungeons & Dragons game, each player creates a character (also called a character) and teams up with other adventurers (played by friends).
Working together, the group might explore a dark dungeon, a ruined city, a haunted castle, a lost temple deep in a jungle, or a lava-filled cavern beneath a mysterious mountain. The adventurers can solve puzzles, talk with other characters, battle fantastic monsters, and discover fabulous magic items and other treasure.


D&D is not some catch all universal roleplaying game that supports narrative over gamist ideals, there are plenty of rpg's out there that do that FATE comes to mind right away. D&D is all about Dungeons (dark places) & Dragons (monsters), it is a game that supports and encourages what it says right on the cover and in the book itself. You play heroes that go to monster infested places, kill said monsters, and take their stuff.

I have ran and played many other systems, they all feel different you play them different. A game of Vampire or Robotech is a completely different experience than a game of D&D.

 

[ExploderWizard]

It is about spending time and having fun with your friends, while you play a game about characters delving into dark places and fighting monsters.

From the Basic rules page 2.
In the Dungeons & Dragons game, each player creates a character (also called a character) and teams up with other adventurers (played by friends).
Working together, the group might explore a dark dungeon, a ruined city, a haunted castle, a lost temple deep in a jungle, or a lava-filled cavern beneath a mysterious mountain. The adventurers can solve puzzles, talk with other characters, battle fantastic monsters, and discover fabulous magic items and other treasure.

Note the bolded underlined part of that basic rules quote. All of these are fairly common activities undertaken by characters in the game world.

That list is neither exhaustive nor exclusive however. It is also possible that, in a given game session, we might also explore an entertaining brothel, tell tall tales around the inn's fireplace, help rebuild a village after a severe storm, or attend the teddy bears' picnic. There is room in the game for so much wonder and unexpected adventure. There is so much more to being an adventurer than punching a clock to go battling & spelunking.

 

[Gradine]

I'd have assumed we'd been over this by now.

There is nothing wrong with group treating D&D as srs bznz. Or as wackycrazyfuntimes. Or as a social/political intrigue game. Or even as a narrativist storytelling game. Different groups will play the game in different ways. One group's kick-in-the-door game would be a poor fit for a gnome court jester, the same goofball would be right at home at another table. There is nothing wrong with either a DM nor an entire group laying down ground rules: this is what D&D is to us, this is what my campaign looks like. Not every table will cater to every playstyle. And that's just fine.

Now, are various editions of D&D better suited to certain playstyles over others? Most definitely. Does it mean D&D is the wrong game for certain playstyles? Not really. D&D is a broader game than a lot of people like to give it credit for.

I'd dare say that the only way to play D&D wrong ​is to insist that there's only one right way to play it.

 

[evileeyore]

It is about spending time and having fun with your friends, while you play a game about characters delving into dark places and fighting monsters.

I reject your definition and everything it stands for.


For years I played BECMI D&D and rarely explored "dungeons" or fought "monsters".

I raised armies and did battle with neighboring kingdoms, I investigated mysterious deaths, I sought out wise old sages, I partied with the Gods, I rescued damsels in distress from Barglesque villians, I crossed oceans, I engaged in diplomacy, I spied on foreign empires, I sailed the stars, I built castles, I razed villages, I burned down forests, I planted jungles, I played monsters and heroes and characters in need of rescue. I slaughtered families, I married and raised kids, I grew old and died, I was born.


Then I grew up. My game grew up with me and not once has it gone backwards to some stunted limited form.

 

[Paraxis]

I reject your definition and everything it stands for.


For years I played BECMI D&D and rarely explored "dungeons" or fought "monsters".

I raised armies and did battle with neighboring kingdoms, I investigated mysterious deaths, I sought out wise old sages, I partied with the Gods, I rescued damsels in distress from Barglesque villians, I crossed oceans, I engaged in diplomacy, I spied on foreign empires, I sailed the stars, I built castles, I razed villages, I burned down forests, I planted jungles, I played monsters and heroes and characters in need of rescue. I slaughtered families, I married and raised kids, I grew old and died, I was born.


Then I grew up. My game grew up with me and not once has it gone backwards to some stunted limited form.

You CAN do that sure, and have fun doing it. But that is not what the game is designed to do, it is like playing vampire the masquerade and doing nothing but going around trying to kill werewolves, can you? sure does the game encourage you to, no.

D&D is a certain type of role playing game, because many people have fit it's square peg into a round hole over the years doesn't mean it is a good fit.

The current game I ran this weekend the players did the following.

• Dealt with a bureaucrat
• Researched in two different libraries
• Got the favor of a noble woman
• Attended a party
• Participated in a chariot race
• Explored a lost temple
• Killed them some monsters

I would say most of the above would have been better handled under a different system, the research mechanics in the adventure were a kludge, the chariot race was interesting but a different take on it might have been better, the game shines in the last two areas, exploring a lost temple and killing monsters.

Ohh and we got sort of side treked here, the main point is yes to succeed in doing all these things you need good ability scores, in 5e they are more important than in some of the previous editions.

 

[Joe Liker]

Ohh and we got sort of side treked here, the main point is yes to succeed in doing all these things you need good ability scores, in 5e they are more important than in some of the previous editions.

I'm pretty sure the point of this thread is that in 5e you don't need to feel tied to your class's primary combat ability score; you have more freedom to be good at other things if you want to.

I wonder to what extent a DM's hardline preconceptions of what D&D is "designed to do" might color his willingness or ability to run non-combat situations in colorful and interesting ways. I'm guessing there's pretty stark self-fulfilling prophecy at work in such a case. It's unfortunate if that DM then blames the game for his own shortcomings.

 

[TrippyHippy]

You CAN do that sure, and have fun doing it. But that is not what the game is designed to do,

Yes, it is.

 

[Steely Dan]

It is about spending time and having fun with your friends, while you play a game about characters delving into dark places and fighting monsters.

If you want to limit the game for yourself in such a manner, fine, but many of us realised D&D could be more than that by the age of 13 or so.

 

[Paraxis]

If you want to limit the game for yourself in such a manner, fine, but many of us realised D&D could be more than that by the age of 13 or so.

Thats around the age I realised that there was more to gaming than D&D, I was running Ghost Buster, Traveler, Rifts, Robotech, TMNT, Warhammer Fantasy, and a few more that only got played once or twice.

It was when I was 16 and Vampire came out that me and my friends sat down our D&D books for a long period of time and got heavy into political social roleplaying, why because the game encourages and supports that style of play. We also dabbled with Amber a diceless roleplaying game and that was OK but not my cup of tea.

Every system out there has it's own feel, it does something better than the next system hopefully that thing is to encourage a certain playstyle.

I figured out you use the right tool for the right job a long time ago, it seems to me some of you want to hammer in your nails with a screwdriver.