TheCosmicKid
Hero
Just spitballing here:
Scrap bonuses but limit how players assign ability scores. E.g.: for hill dwarves Constitution must be at least third-highest at character creation and Wisdom can't be lowest.
Or just floor them. E.g.: hill dwarf Constitution must be at least 13 and Wisdom must be at least 10.
Probably the former is better for rolled scores and the latter for point but.
This effectively changes the "dwarves are tough" archetype from a bonus to a restriction. Not a big restriction, because you still end up with an array that a human could have received, so it shouldn't be considered a negative to be balanced against. (I.e., if humans' only feature is that they don't have any such restrictions, that's not gonna fly.) But it also lets players put their highest score in Dexterity and play a rogue without feeling like they have to go elf or halfling, and still ensures that dwarf rogues are gonna be, on average, pretty tough rogues.
Scrap bonuses but limit how players assign ability scores. E.g.: for hill dwarves Constitution must be at least third-highest at character creation and Wisdom can't be lowest.
Or just floor them. E.g.: hill dwarf Constitution must be at least 13 and Wisdom must be at least 10.
Probably the former is better for rolled scores and the latter for point but.
This effectively changes the "dwarves are tough" archetype from a bonus to a restriction. Not a big restriction, because you still end up with an array that a human could have received, so it shouldn't be considered a negative to be balanced against. (I.e., if humans' only feature is that they don't have any such restrictions, that's not gonna fly.) But it also lets players put their highest score in Dexterity and play a rogue without feeling like they have to go elf or halfling, and still ensures that dwarf rogues are gonna be, on average, pretty tough rogues.