D&D 5E Racial bonuses as a floating modifier to ability scores

[ccs]

Drop the ability score modifiers entirely and just increase the point buy or array values?

Hey, don't forget about the 4d6 default method.

 

[FrogReaver]

Hey, don't forget about the 4d6 default method.

easy... 5d6 drop lowerst 2

 

[DND_Reborn]

Look no further than the 1e stat charts.

Yeah, it's been a while, but I still have all my books LOL!

 

[77IM]

For some races, the stat bonuses are sub-optimal. For example, elves get proficiency in longsword, but they don't get a Strength bonus. Letting them switch the bonus around would make a high elf wizard with a sword a bit more powerful.

It's also a slight nerf to half-elves (who need the nerf) and variant humans (who seem pretty balanced to me) since those races can already move around ability score bonuses.

 

[bedir than]

For some races, the stat bonuses are sub-optimal. For example, elves get proficiency in longsword, but they don't get a Strength bonus. Letting them switch the bonus around would make a high elf wizard with a sword a bit more powerful.

It's also a slight nerf to half-elves (who need the nerf) and variant humans (who seem pretty balanced to me) since those races can already move around ability score bonuses.

Which reminds me -- weapon proficiencies shouldn't be a right of birth, but instead awarded based on culture/upbringing.

 

[abirdcall]

It's another step to turning the game into a 'thematic mush' as Jeremy Crawford puts it.

 

[Horwath]

Drop racial bonuses.

Point buy is 32pts

8 - 0pts
9 - 1pt
10 - 2pts
11 - 3
12 - 4
13 - 5
14 - 6
15 - 8
16 - 10(max at lvl 1)

 

[Coroc]

Oh my, not only that none of the races got bonus malus anymore, now any race shall be able to put their bonus in whatever attribute they like.
Newsflash: we got that already it is called standard / variant human.

No offense intended, but what is it you want to get out of that?

If you want to build a certain character you should opt for point buy.
If you roll your stats, then depending on the method, the modifier won't help you much.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

At that point, I'd question the need for stat bonuses at all. If you're going with the idea that a particular person in a particular race is more geared to a charismatic diplomat or a physical specimen, then their actual stat array shows that off just fine. The way you assign your stats shows us exactly what type of person they were-- no adding of bonuses is necessary.

The whole point of racial bonuses was to differentiate races from humans. If humans are the default race, then the entirety of elven culture will be more dexterous on average because they have the additional point in DEX bonus over humans. Same way that dwarves as a race are one ability point more hearty than humans because of the extra bonus point in CON.

The problem of course (and why I think racial bonuses have really become unnecessary) is that adventurers are not average. And when you have a party of five adventurers at a table, there is absolutely no way to know or visualize the elf being slightly more dexterous than the human, or the dwarf slightly more hearty than the human because their actual ability scores show us what each of them are individually. It doesn't matter in the slightest that an Elf Cleric with a 11 DEX (rolled a 9 and added +2) is part of a race that got that extra boost to go from a 10 to 11 when put up next to the Human Rogue with a 15 DEX (rolled a 14 +1). Will anyone at the table ever care or be able to conceptualize that the Elf Cleric is slightly more dexterous than they otherwise might have been had they been Human? No, of course not. All the players at the table will know is that this particular Elf Cleric AIN'T AGILE and the Human is agile as all get out. So the elf bonus to DEX is completely masked and essentially non-existent. So why bother giving them the bonus in the first place?

The only time players can visualize a race being more than their human counterpart is when they get the additional +1 modifier bonus when they add their big bonus to the maxed-out ability score. The Elf with a 16 (+3) DEX has an obvious difference in the party than the Human with the 15 (+2) DEX. At that point, everybody can tell that the Elf's racial bonus has been an actual bonus because they got something the default humans couldn't get. The demihumans could get a +3 bonus while the best the humans could get was a +2 in their primary racial score.

So at the end of the day if you are going to just let people gain an extra +2 and a +1 to ANY two ability scores regardless of their race... then sure, you can do that I guess. Or you can just give people more points in Point Buy to get to those same numbers, or give them more dice to roll if you are rolling for scores or whatever. The bonuses themselves are meaningless... only the final score matters-- however they reached that final score.

If Elves are always supposed to be more agile, maybe the races should not have a bonus, but "preassigned" points?
Using Horwath's 32 Point Buy example above:
The non-Human races have an exceptional ability.
A non-human race with an exceptional ability starts with 22 instead of 32 build points. Its exceptional ability score starts at 16, and they can spend 3 build points to raise it to 17.
Elves would have Dexterity as exceptional ability, and Dwarves Constitition.


This means that Elves are always at least as dextrous as humans, even adventurers. But the 22 points should still be enough to get your character's primary class ability score to the required value.

Optional Rules:
Each race might also have a renown ability and a weak ability. Once you have spend all build points and have a 15 in the renown ability, and a 9 or less in your weak ability, you can voluntarily lower the weak ability by 2 and raise the renown ability to 16.

Dwarves might have Wisdom as remarkabe ability and Dexterity as weak ability. Elves might have Intelligence as remarkable ability and Constitution as weak ability.

Races that do not have exceptional or renown ability might instead have Balanced Abilities. After having spend all build points, if none of your ability scores are higher than 15, and none of your ability scores are lower than 10, you gain 2 build points to spend on any ability score. This cannot raise a score to 16 or higher.
Half-Elves and Humans might have "Balanced Abilities".

 

[Horwath]

If Elves are always supposed to be more agile, maybe the races should not have a bonus, but "preassigned" points?
Using Horwath's 32 Point Buy example above:
The non-Human races have an exceptional ability.
A non-human race with an exceptional ability starts with 22 instead of 32 build points. Its exceptional ability score starts at 16, and they can spend 3 build points to raise it to 17.
Elves would have Dexterity as exceptional ability, and Dwarves Constitition.


This means that Elves are always at least as dextrous as humans, even adventurers. But the 22 points should still be enough to get your character's primary class ability score to the required value.

Optional Rules:
Each race might also have a renown ability and a weak ability. Once you have spend all build points and have a 15 in the renown ability, and a 9 or less in your weak ability, you can voluntarily lower the weak ability by 2 and raise the renown ability to 16.

Dwarves might have Wisdom as remarkabe ability and Dexterity as weak ability. Elves might have Intelligence as remarkable ability and Constitution as weak ability.

Races that do not have exceptional or renown ability might instead have Balanced Abilities. After having spend all build points, if none of your ability scores are higher than 15, and none of your ability scores are lower than 10, you gain 2 build points to spend on any ability score. This cannot raise a score to 16 or higher.
Half-Elves and Humans might have "Balanced Abilities".

This is also a good idea but it kind of goes against what we are trying to do here and that is remove race influence on ability scores too much.

If you give all Elves 16 dex and someone wants to play heavy armored fighter or a paladin(yes, I Know that Elf in heavy armor is heresy ), he could argue that 10 ability points are wasted on that build.

Maybe better way is to go with Extra bonus racial skills that define what a race is good in.

I.E.
Elves
proficiency and expertise in Perception
proficiency in Balance

High Elves,
bonus proficiency in Arcana and History

Wood Elves,
bonus proficiency in Nature and Survival

Dwarves,
Bonus proficiency in Athletics, History and Insight,
Expertise in History


etc...