D&D 5E Do you miss attribute minimums/maximums?

[Pauln6]

Once you strip out the gender divide it becomes very simple. Default cap is 19. Lower cap is 17. Upper cap is 20. These caps are thematic but make almost no difference to any but the most metagamey builds and those types of players would not want to use optional cap rules in any event. Then you just have to decide which race to pitch where. Halflings, despite their dex bonus, would cap at 18 str, 19 dex, 20 con, and 18 wis. If you want to be really ruthless, you could drop str and wis to 17 I guess. Either way, it's unlikely to affect many builds.

 

[Maxperson]

Well, the media is actually getting better about making strong warrior females who don't behave like men. Buffy, for example and Wonder Woman in the newest movie.

They objectified the actress who played Wonder Woman every chance they got.

 

[Arilyn]

They objectified the actress who played Wonder Woman every chance they got.

No more than any other male super, and sure I'd like to see older females in action roles, or less attractive ones, but at least Wonder Woman got her own movie that was fun, and is doing well. I said the media was getting better, they still have a ways to go. Gotta celebrate our small victories!

 

[Maxperson]

No more than any other male super, and sure I'd like to see older females in action roles, or less attractive ones, but at least Wonder Woman got her own movie that was fun, and is doing well. I said the media was getting better, they still have a ways to go. Gotta celebrate our small victories!

No. Not even close to the male ones. Every time she was introduced to someone, they went out of their way to say how pretty she was or act stunned at her beauty. The entire move seemed to be about how pretty she was while hunting Ares. She got slow motion walked to and from far more fights than male heroes, and at times where it made no sense to have a slow motion scene. Male heroes most of the time don't have a love scene, but as a woman lead, she got the obligatory objectified one, even if it wasn't graphically done.

 

[Sadras]

Halflings, despite their dex bonus, would cap at 18 str, 19 dex, 20 con, and 18 wis. If you want to be really ruthless, you could drop str and wis to 17 I guess. Either way, it's unlikely to affect many builds.

TBH, if I were going to include STR racial caps for halflings it would be much lower than 17. These creatures are 3 feet tall, thats under a metre. The difference between the brute STR of Humans and Halflings or even Half-Orcs and Halflings should be massive.

Below is a rough draft of what I'm thinking.

I would rewrite the abilities and proficiency (skill) bonus increasing the table to +7 or +8 and make the ability bonus flatter ranging from +1 to +3

So
12-15 +1 ability bonus
16-18 +2 ability bonus
19-20 +3 ability bonus

Cap Halfling STR at around 12, Humans at 18, and Half-Orcs at 20.

Give Half-Orcs an additional Quality
Brute Strength - Carrying Capacity of Half-Orcs is STR score multiplied by 20 (as opposed to 15), while their Push,Drag & Lift capacity increases 40 x STR score (as opposed to 30). Furthermore damage from STR score is doubled. i.e. 19 STR yields +6 damage.

Give Halflings additional Qualities
Athleticism - Halflings are agile, surefooted and athletic as such they gain a +1 bonus in climbing and jumping for every 3 points of STR.
Halfling Nimbleness - In addition to the trait on page 28 of the PHB, halflings gain an inherent +1 bonus to their Armour Class when in combat with creatures of Medium or greater size.
Natural Talent - Rock pitching is a universal sport of Halfling children and such Halflings gain a +1 racial bonus on attack rolls with thrown weapons and slings. Furthermore the potential for a critical is increased by 1 from such attacks. i.e. A dagger thrown or a stone slung by a halfling may cause a critical on a natural 19-20.

Ofcourse the racial ability caps may be increased or even undone through narrative means - such as my example upthread (post 403).

 

[Obryn]

Ohhhhhh, I didn't realize that penalties are only sexist if they are given to human females. My bad for not realizing that you can freely penalize female elves, hobbits, duergar, orcs, dragonborn, gnomes, etc., without it being sexist. Thanks for clearing that up.

I know you're being sarcastic here, but my sense is that the further away from human you get, the less of an issue it becomes.

 

[Arilyn]

No. Not even close to the male ones. Every time she was introduced to someone, they went out of their way to say how pretty she was or act stunned at her beauty. The entire move seemed to be about how pretty she was while hunting Ares. She got slow motion walked to and from far more fights than male heroes, and at times where it made no sense to have a slow motion scene. Male heroes most of the time don't have a love scene, but as a woman lead, she got the obligatory objectified one, even if it wasn't graphically done.

Steve Trevor is part of the lore. Would have been strange to leave him out. Diana is a goddess, and supposed to have that Greek Goddess vibe going. We see an awful lot of shirtless male heroes strutting their stuff and looking impossibly good looking with perfectly honed muscles. It's comic books, Hollywood, and us, or these movies wouldn't be doing so well. As I said before we have a ways to go, but at least the females are not ALWAYS just sitting around waiting to be rescued.

 

[Maxperson]

I know you're being sarcastic here, but my sense is that the further away from human you get, the less of an issue it becomes.

They are figments of imagination and sexist, racist or any other "ist" just don't apply to them.

 

[Obryn]

They're are figments of imagination and sexist, racist or any other "ist" just don't apply to them.

This entire conversation is rules about pretend elf games.

 

[Maxperson]

Steve Trevor is part of the lore. Would have been strange to leave him out. Diana is a goddess, and supposed to have that Greek Goddess vibe going.

There was enough of the relationship that we didn't need to see her objectified by a love scene. It was typical hollywood objectification.

We see an awful lot of shirtless male heroes strutting their stuff and looking impossibly good looking with perfectly honed muscles. It's comic books, Hollywood, and us, or these movies wouldn't be doing so well. As I said before we have a ways to go, but at least the females are not ALWAYS just sitting around waiting to be rescued.

This is a Strawman. I didn't say that the make heroes didn't look good. I said that they aren't objectified based on those looks at every turn the way Wonder Woman was.