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WhosDaDungeonMaster
Guest
My point is that, presumably, the motivation to remove ability score increases from races is so that you're not always picking races purely for their synergy with the class you're going to play. That being the case, wouldn't you also not want people to choose a specific background purely for class-synergy reasons?
Oh, I know. Synergy is always an issue, especially with power-gamers. But, people do tend to drift to their strengths. True some people like to challenge themselves by drifting towards their weakness in order to improve themselves but IME this is much less common.
I've had a couple games where I insisted players roll up their ability scores in order and had to roll so it was random. I then let them exchange only one point from each ability score to another (three swaps max, but you could put up to three in one, e.g. take one point from Str, Dex, and Con, for +3 Int). They also rolled randomly for race as well, modifying scores for race. The only choice was in their class.
The idea was when you are born you have no control over what your strengths and weaknesses will be (i.e. ability scores) or to whom you are born (race). The ability score single point swaps were because, as you are growing up and even when you are older, you can influence those strengths and weaknesses to a point. Finally, you can choose your profession so class was the choice.
Anyway, I digress. I don't think the OP was to remove picking races because of synergy, but rather to move some of it to class-based and background-based ASIs due to choosing your class and background will likely make your primary abilities better.
Regardless, if you have a choice of race, background, or class, any linked ASI will be chosen more often to play to the strengths you want for your character. So, to your point, if that was their goal, it would only be shifting the problem as you suggest, not removing it.