I see PCs closer to Lebron James than Joe Average
LeBron James is a normal person.
aside from silly gimmick settings, that no serious gamer would ever want to play in
Oh boy
That’s great, but most folks would prefer not to have to choose between having a baseline functional character and playing the race/class (or background/class) combination they want.
I’d argue that 14-15 main stat is baseline functionality, not 16+.
Let me put it this way. I haven't seen a non-MAD character in years without a 16+ at level one.
I see them much more often than level 1 16+ characters, outside of games where we roll or use a higher point buy.
Freaks is a harsh word. The point I was trying to make is that PCs aren't normal. They are anomalies. PCs are usually irregular at the "genetic" level and a noticeable amount are culturally usual as well.
Few if the Sample PC characters have NPC stats and many have strange or rare personalities or social statuses. People don't shun them because they tend to be heroes and are useful for society.
But PCs are not normal average folk of their race.
They aren’t average, but “above average” and “freakishly above average” are completely different ideas. A level 1 PC is only truly exceptional by virtue of the fact that they will quickly reach level 3, which is close to the top of what any roughly normal person achieves in most D&D worlds, and will soon afte that su
All the people who think NPCs and PCs are really the same thing probably play this out such that Karnath's population is mostly clerics, whereas the fishing village is all rogues, etc. Because, you know, NPCs would do exactly what PCs would do.
this is a very odd idea of what other people think.
If those odds of a commoner having a 15 are too high then use a tighter bell-curve with the same extremes.
exactly. I don’t need NPCs to be built using PC levels and whatever else, but using the same ability score range is a must, for me.
That's not how I mean "serious" in this context. I mean, if you choose to play in Discworld, then you probably aren't looking for drama. Weird meta-settings are used to tell weird meta-narratives.
You’re incorrect. Especially about Discworld.
PCs can be exceptional. They're literally 1 in a million. Billion. You disagree, but that's all it is.
But even 1 in a billion people are still people. The strongest person alive can’t throw cars. The most agile person can’t dodge bullets. D&D PCs start within the range of normal people. Level 1 in 5e D&D is Objectively not superhuman. You can pay for level 2 spells in most sizeable settlements, according to the PHB. That means every town has a caster that is more advanced than your level 1 PC.
The Guard Captain probably uses a statblock that makes two attacks and has more HP than a level 1 Fighter.
The level 1 party is mostly exceptional in potential.
This whole idea that we can’t conclude anything about Dwarves by looking at the Dwarf playable race writeup is nonsensical on every level.
on usability, it’s absurd to think that people are reading the phb and not drawing conclusions about the phb races as general populations.
on narrative, it’s absurd to assume that all campaigns are level 1 superhero campaigns, which is what is implied by “the PCs are 1 in a billion exceptional weirdo freaks”.
s
Yes.
I mean, I can understand the appeal of playing an RPG in which you start off as just like everybody else. That might be fun sometimes.
But it's also fun to play knowing that your character happens to be a couple standard deviations above average. Or even that your character has advantages that aren't just statistically unlikely among commoners, but that are just unachievable to them.
They're all valid premises for play.
The PCs abilities being things that anyone else cannot ever achieve is pretty untenable in 5e D&D, without ignoring rather a lot of data in the game.
The idea of my character’s race abilities and features being something that other members of their race cannot ever achieve, the implied genetic superiority, honestly turns my stomach a bit.
but also, narratively, Han and Luke And Mulan
aren’t capable of things that no one else can ever achieve. Hell, the first Star Wars reads a lot like Jedi abilities are learnt, not inherent, and later work makes it clear that rather a lot of people can learn to do Jedi stuff, and Luke is the closest to what you describe. But Luke is still a Human. It would be jarring as hell to say that Luke has abilities completely unrelated to his Jedi training that are somehow Human traits that he shares with Han and Leia and Lando, but that his aunt and uncle and Biggs and Wedge and Mon Mothma all lack, because they’re the exclusive traits of Homo Superior.
My Gnome Rogue/Wizard is able to speak to small animals because all Forest Gnomes can do so, not because he was born better than other gnomes. I’ve literally got bile in my throat just thinking about the worldbuilding implications. Just no. Absolutely not.
