D&D 5E Variable stat caps. Anyone ever used?

[FrogReaver]

Right now for every pc ever all stats are capped at 20. What if during character creation we rolled some dice to determine the max a stat could be?

Has anyone used such a method. Would you like this?

 

[Krachek]

Including a chance to cap below 20?

 

[FrogReaver]

Including a chance to cap below 20?

That was my vision of such a system

 

[Xeviat]

Right now for every pc ever all stats are capped at 20. What if during character creation we rolled some dice to determine the max a stat could be?

Has anyone used such a method. Would you like this?

I kind of like the idea of it being tied to race.

 

[generic]

Right now for every pc ever all stats are capped at 20. What if during character creation we rolled some dice to determine the max a stat could be?

Has anyone used such a method. Would you like this?

Could be interesting.

It seems a bit more simulationist than the current system, and I like that.

I'm never going to have (IRL) a Strength score of 20, I might have 14 now, and I could probably max out at 16, but I'm never going to be able to, physically, reach Strength 17+

Overall, I like the idea a lot. I might try it.

 

[DND_Reborn]

We've thought about adjusting stats so they are no longer all bonuses and if we did, caps would be 18 modified by race.

For instance, if we changed Elves to Dex +2, Con -2 (akin to earlier versions), then they would cap Dex at 20, and Con at 16.

We do cap halflings and gnomes at Str 18 instead of 20.

 

[FrogReaver]

I kind of like the idea of it being tied to race.

I can see race impacting this. Though I don’t think it should be the sole factor, just a bonus after the randomization has occurred.

 

[FrogReaver]

Could be interesting.

It seems a bit more simulationist than the current system, and I like that.

I'm never going to have (IRL) a Strength score of 20, I might have 14 now, and I could probably max out at 16, but I'm never going to be able to, physically, reach Strength 17+

Overall, I like the idea a lot. I might try it.

Strangely I’m pretty anti simulation. However, I like the idea that one fighter I make being optimized differently than the next. That’s the interesting part to me. Flat out rolling for stats allows this to some degree but by level 12 you are just about guaranteed to be very similar to the other fighter or wizard.

This is is a nice middle ground imo that you can use with any stat generation and Has the effect of less samey characters.

 

[Jer]

What are you hoping to get out of this kind of change?

Is the goal to make character creation more random and force people to make more decisions between playing "optimal" characters in classes they don't want to play vs. "suboptimal" characters in classes they do want to play? Like a player that rolls a Str cap of 24 and a Cha cap of 16 is now faced with the choice of the sorcerer they wanted to play not being as good long term vs. a fighter that might be amazing but isn't really what they wanted to play. Is that the goal?

Is this also going to be tied with random stat generation so that you're adding more randomization to the mix? Or are you thinking of a point buy or stat array assignment but with variable level caps to move the randomization to a more meta level?

 

[BookBarbarian]

I kind of like the idea of it being tied to race.

I'm the opposite. I already dislike how some Races are almost intrinsically linked to some classes just by Stat bonuses.