D&D 5E What if no stat increases; only feats?

[Paraxis]

any item that grants a 19 or higher strength are legendary items; not common things that you find at Magic shoppe

In your games that is true, in generic D&D 19 ability granting items are classified as uncommon and seem to show up in very low level adventures. The starter set adventure has one, at least one of the organized play adventures has another, both of those are for levels 1-4 or so.

Just saying "legendary" is a bit of an overstatement, it seems pretty well expected to find some kind of stat increasing item by level 5.

 

[Wrathamon]

I didnt post about regular 5e, since we are in a post talking about house rules ... I will make sure to put #HR on any posts that might suggest it.

I was speaking for my game. I think stats over 19 are silly and why I also would probably not allow majority of stat boosts. 16 should be awesome. 18 unheard of and 19+ legendary almost godlike.

Which is why any item that grants it would be legendary not uncommon.

I would change the math (or its just harder) when I decide to run a long term game.

 

[treebear]

It be more than just harder. It would favor some classes over others, with the most obvious being those who depend on stats for AC would be penalized while the armor wearing would not. It would also weaken saves all around leading to the PC being more afflicted and frustrated. Like wise the monsters would be strengthened compared to the PC's as encounters are currently designed, leading to the 15 minute adventuring day every other day, with needing two extended rests to regain all HD.

 

[Quartz]

Feat-flood will NOT give you that old-school feel.

That isn't the intent here.

 

[Kalshane]

The PHB gives feats as an option instead of ASIs. Has anyone done any work on replacing ASIs entirely with feats? Not only during levelling but also at character generation?

Instead of the starting stat bonuses, humans might get 2 free feats; elves might be able to choose one from a restricted set like Alert, Observant, and Sharpshooter; dwarves one from Tough, Durable, and Dungeon Dweller; halflings from Lucky or Sharpshooter; half orcs one from Tough, Tavern Brawler, and Savage Attacker; etc.

ISTM this would make for a lower-power, older-school, game. There would no longer be the rush to get the magic 20 in a stat. If players still want stat increases you can always make them earn it by putting them through the Temple of Tharizdun or similar. And it would make items like the Gauntlet of Ogre Power the wonders they once were.

Unfortunately I wasn't a playtester and do not currently game, so I have no practical experience of my suggestion. Have you?

I was toying with the same idea myself. I think Feats are a lot more interesting than static boosts, and Point-buy combined with Stat boosts seems to result in every character of a specific class looking identical, followed by the mentioned "rush for 20" in the prime stat.

The way I was planning on doing it was as follows:

Ability Score Generation: Pool of 24d6, assign among the 6 attributes. Minimum of 3d6 per stat. You can swap two scores when you're done. (So if you want to play a wizard, but the 3d6 you assigned to Strength comes up 16 while the 5d6 you assigned to Intelligence nets you an 11, you don't have to just give up and make a fighter instead.)

All races except humans get a feat at 1st level in addition to their normal bonuses. Humans get the free feat (but only the one) plus +2 to one score of their choice, +1 to one other score of choice, proficiency in 1 save of their choice and 2 bonus skills. (I realize this will make characters more powerful off the bat, but I'm okay with giving first level characters a little more oomph, and like the idea of concepts that require a feat being available at 1st level for all races)

Ability score increases can only be spent on feats (though the +1 to one stat feats are still available) except at 12th and 19th level, where they can be spent to increase scores or take a feat, as normal.

Haven't played with it yet, but I had 4 of my players give it a try for character generation over the weekend and it invoked some of that old school feel of "Hey, my wizard is really Charismatic" and "Well, I was thinking of playing a Bard, but with these rolls, I could make an awesome paladin." and "My cleric is dumber than a box of rocks, but he's built like an ox and full of folksy wisdom."

 

[Wrathamon]

I was toying with the same idea myself. I think Feats are a lot more interesting than static boosts, and Point-buy combined with Stat boosts seems to result in every character of a specific class looking identical, followed by the mentioned "rush for 20" in the prime stat.

I have the same feeling with the rush to 20.

I think feats do make it more interesting, but right now they dont have enough for interesting choices for all character concepts, and with all the +1 to a stat feats you sorta still have a rush to 20 but its postponed a bit. I think they need more feats that have interesting choices for the character (and not just combat).

 

[brehobit]

It be more than just harder. It would favor some classes over others, with the most obvious being those who depend on stats for AC would be penalized while the armor wearing would not. It would also weaken saves all around leading to the PC being more afflicted and frustrated. Like wise the monsters would be strengthened compared to the PC's as encounters are currently designed, leading to the 15 minute adventuring day every other day, with needing two extended rests to regain all HD.

This is a really good point. If starting stats can be high enough to start, I think it gets dealt with. Might be fun to give a starting array of 17, 16, 15, 13, 10, 8 or some such. Give the racial stat bonuses and be done (humans with +1 to all start to look much better, though +2 to anything looks great). Feats that give +1 stat are still fine and would see a lot of takers. If you are going to 8th level or higher, you'd probably want more feats though. The higher stats would make the characters more powerful at low levels, and removing the stat bonus option would start to weaken that as they leveled up.

Should work and address treebear's concern.

I'd be tempted to let the fighter and rogue's extra stat bonuses be used for +1/+1 if desired, partly to keep the feat count reasonable, but partly to give them a bit more of something special...

 

[Fion]

To keep things simple. I might house rule so that after character creation (standard array + racial bonuses), the 4/8/12/16/19 ASI's are replaced with feats. Fighters and Rogues still get their bonus ASI. Since most feats grant a stat bonus and there are 'uncommon' magical items that boost an Attribute to 19, this seems the way to go. This ups the interest in those non-combat feats like Keen Mind and Inspiring leader and there are still plenty of paths to get that primary attribute into the upper teens.

 

[Ruzak]

A lot of feats include a smaller stat bump as one of their features, so you're slowing down stat-boosting, not eliminating it.
...

My thought is you would take two of these "half feats" and not include the ability increase.

 

[Nellisir]

My thought is you would take two of these "half feats" and not include the ability increase.

That's probably doable, it's just another order of complexity higher, particularly if you start getting picky about which half-feats work with which other half-feats ("You can take Magical Mushroom Man and Dingleberry Specialist, but not Magical Mushroom Man and Steam Tinkler because that doesn't make sense in my world.")