D&D 5E Exceptional Strength for 5E

[Hriston]

This is something I'd thought about adapting to 5E back around the release of the edition and had decided there was no good way to do it. The problem is there's not much room between an 18 Strength and a 19 Strength, or even between a +4 and a +5. A recent thread (thanks @Minigiant ) got me thinking about this again, and I think I found a way to do it that I'd be alright with.

First, some history for those who don't know, in 1E, Exceptional Strength is a Fighter class feature. Fighters, which includes Paladins and Rangers (and, with UA, Barbarians) with an 18 Strength (the highest you could get through char-gen) can make a percentile roll to see how exceptional their high Strength is. If the player rolls a high enough number, they get a really significant bonus to hit and damage rolls, weight allowance, and rolls to open doors and "bend bars/lift gates"! A high enough roll even gives you a chance to break open locked or magically held doors. The fact that this system was added on above the normal Strength bonuses in the 1E PHB (1978), and then bonuses for 19 Strength and above were added on top of that (with Deities and Demigods, I believe) means that there's plenty of room for this system between Strength 18 and Strength 19.

Which brings us to 5E. There's zero light between 18 and 19 in terms of bonus and not much more in terms of weight allowance. So I've put together something that stays within the bounds set between individual scores for weight and between modifiers for attacks and checks. Because it respects the boundaries, you could apply it to any Strength score, but I would keep the prerequisite of 18, and allow it for 19 and 20 too. Because of the constraints, it runs the risk of being too insignificant, but is also something that can just be added into the game without any real need to balance it out.

Exceptional Strength
Prerequisite: Barbarians, Fighters, Paladins, and Rangers with Strength 18 or higher
Roll d100 and consult the following tables:

Score​	Attack rolls and checks that use Strength	Damage rolls that use Strength
01-50​	--	--
51-75​	reroll 1’s once	--
76-99​	reroll 1’s once	reroll 1’s once
00​	reroll 1’s and 2’s once	reroll 1’s and 2’s once

	Add to...
Score​	Maximum unencumbered weight	Maximum encumbered weight	Carrying capacity	Push, drag, and lift weight
01-50​	--	+1 lb.	+1 lb.	+2 lb.
51-75​	+1 lb.	+2 lb.	+2 lb.	+5 lb.
76-90​	+1 lb.	+2 lb.	+3 lb.	+7 lb.
91-99​	+2 lb.	+4 lb.	+6 lb.	+12 lb.
00​	+3 lb.	+7 lb.	+10 lb.	+21 lb.

 

[dave2008]

I like the idea, but I might even go a bit more extreme / old school. Instead ore reroll damage rolls on 1 or 2, have them roll "damage advantage." So at 76-99 you roll 2d8 instead of d8 and take the highest. At 00, you roll 3d8 and take the highest. Double on a crit of course.

No that is a nice benefit without upping the max damage you can do.

 

[Krachek]

Maximum unencumbered weight +3lbs! Are you serious?
What a gain! It really give the feeling of exceptional strength! Most players don’t even know hat is the Maximum unencumbered weight for 18 strength.

 

[Hriston]

I like the idea, but I might even go a bit more extreme / old school. Instead ore reroll damage rolls on 1 or 2, have them roll "damage advantage." So at 76-99 you roll 2d8 instead of d8 and take the highest. At 00, you roll 3d8 and take the highest. Double on a crit of course.

No that is a nice benefit without upping the max damage you can do.

I'd find that a little too good because, with an 18/76 Strength and a damage die d8 or above, on average you'd be doing more damage than someone with a 20 Strength, all else being equal. One of my design goals was for this not to be better than having a higher Strength bonus.

 

[Hriston]

Maximum unencumbered weight +3lbs! Are you serious?
What a gain! It really give the feeling of exceptional strength! Most players don’t even know hat is the Maximum unencumbered weight for 18 strength.

That might be because they aren't playing with the variant encumbrance rules, in which case the first two columns of that table would not apply. I think three extra pounds is significant considering the benefit of a one point increase in Strength is five pounds. At 18/00, you're getting most of the way toward what you can carry with a 19.

 

[MarkB]

Is there any reason, other than nostalgia/tradition, to have it kick in at Strength 18? It seems like it would make much more sense, in the context of 5e's general framework, as something which you can acquire once you hit the ability cap at Strength 20. That way, it really is something exceptional - a way to exceed the normal limitations that apply to most mortal humanoids.

 

[Hriston]

Is there any reason, other than nostalgia/tradition, to have it kick in at Strength 18? It seems like it would make much more sense, in the context of 5e's general framework, as something which you can acquire once you hit the ability cap at Strength 20. That way, it really is something exceptional - a way to exceed the normal limitations that apply to most mortal humanoids.

That's a good point, and I considered moving it up to 20. It could totally work that way, which I think I addressed in my OP. You could also go the other way though and let fighter types roll it no matter what their Strength score. In the end I decided to go with a literal translation of the 1E version in that respect. But yeah, 20 would make a lot of sense for the reason you stated.

 

[dave2008]

I'd find that a little too good because, with an 18/76 Strength and a damage die d8 or above, on average you'd be doing more damage than someone with a 20 Strength, all else being equal. One of my design goals was for this not to be better than having a higher Strength bonus.

OK, I was assuming you were capping at 18 (that is what I do).

 

[Hriston]

OK, I was assuming you were capping at 18 (that is what I do).

I mostly assumed default rules for this (although I did include some benefits that only apply to the Encumbrance variant), but even if I was going to cap PC Strength at 18, the fact that monsters could (presumably) have higher scores would be a reason for me to keep the benefits from exceeding those of a 20. Again, this is in keeping with the 1E version, where scores 19 and up are better than 18/00.

 

[Minigiant]

I like it.

It's different from what I was proposing as my Exceptional strength was an alternative option for not increasing Strength or taking a feat. Because like you said, there is no space between 18 and 19.