D&D 5E Ability Score Increases (I've changed my mind.)

We get what you're saying. We just disagree.

Half-orcs get Menacing, Relentless Endurance, and Savage Attacks.

Elves get Keen Senses, Fey Heritage, Trance, some weapon proficiencies, and another trait or two based on their subrace, most of which are magical in nature.

Imagine you had an elf fighter with an 18 Strength standing right next to a half-orc fighter with an 18th Strength (with all other variables being equal as well). Because of their traits and the cultures people imagine half-orcs and elves to have, I'd say the vast majority of people will imagine the half-orc as being stronger-seeming than the elf is. The fact that they both get a +4 to attack and damage rolls literally doesn't matter here--after all, either of them would get the same +4 if they had an 18 in Dex instead.
Yeah, this is 'ability scores are just numbers but don't actually represent anything' argument. And apparently some people are able to think things that way and good for them, but I absolutely cannot. That's heading deep into disassociation land and I'm not getting into that buss.
 

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I'd like to see the +2 stay, and have the +1 be floating.

Then it'd be established that all elves are dextrous (something I'd like to preserve), but within them you'd get the strong elves, extra dextrous elves, constitute elves, intelligent elves, wise elves, and charismatic elves (something I'd like to be up to the player).
Edit: Reworded.
The Dexterity +2 is painful to me. It denies the elf traditions that I want to play. Interferes with my fun.

The Dexterity elf isnt the only part of the D&D tradition. I need the freedom to drop it when I dont want Dexterity, for example, to build a sun elf, or a 4e eladrin elf, a superlative Bard, or a Grugach.

Consider also the gith race. The gith has the +1 to Intelligence. But then the Githyanki adds the +2 to Strength, while the Githzerai adds the +2 to Wisdom.

A race doesnt need all of its members to share the same ability for the +2.

In the case of elf, it is better when the +2 floats according to which tradition to build.
 

Because elves aren't as hardy.

Why not? Legolas could run for days without tiring, just like Gimli. Clearly some elves are incredibly hardy.

Elves really should have retained the +1 with bows that they used to have. They are no longer the best archers, but then I'm not arguing that they are.

No, you are arguing that a +2 Dex (+1 compared to humans) is vitally important to describing all aspects of elves, more so than any other aspect they have. Which is silly, since they have the exact same dexterity as Goblins, and yet no one would say goblins and elves are identical.

It doesn't make sense, because that's not my argument.

Well you jumped into that conversation and started laying about with your argument, and I said that being able to use the same stats as you would have in a hard-coded system while using a free floating system is easier than the reverse. So, since you are saying I'm wrong you must be saying that using that it is harder to have an elf have +2 Dexterity and +1 Intelligence in a free-floating system than in a hard coded system.

It's easy to forget when in games with feats, variant humans get picked the vast majority of the time.

Except variant human also gets +1 to a stat. Not +0. Also, with a feat, you can get a +2. In fact, a variant human can match point for point any +2/+1 combination of races that are "superior" to humans in those.

Goliaths are stronger and tougher because of +2 str, +1 con? Nope. Human with a +2 str, +1 con is trivial to make at level 1

Elves are more graceul and intelligent with their +2 Dex, +1 Int? Nope, human with a +2 dex and +1 Int is easily made.

So, it is kind of amusing to see people arguing as those humans are +0 across the board when that is utter hogwash.

I'm not conflating anything. You misrepresented my argument and I corrected you on it. There's no tautology in my argument and my argument is based on fact.

Your argument is based on Powerful Build being a +2 Strength. Because you keep talking about both like they are the same thing.

Take away the powerful build ability and they aren't twice as strong, but they would still have a huge size advantage which is appropriately represented by a strength bonus. My argument doesn't change. The silliness with a 70whatever strength is all that changes, but that was your argument in the first place, not mine.

AH, so your argument is that Goliaths are bigger, so they should have a +2 strength. Cool, cool.

Loxodon are on average 7 and a half feet tall and weigh 350 lbs, they do not get a bonus to strength.

A human trivially be taller and heavier than a dwarf, but the dwarf might have the strength bonus, or they might not. In fact, a halfling is just as strong as a loxodon, an elf, a tiefling, a dwarf, a tabaxi, all of whom are twice as big or more and have a far greater size advantage than the goliath over the human. Firbolgs are just as big as Goliaths, yet they are just as strong as humans with that +1 strength

So, I don't think "huge size advantage" is really holding water.

They really should, yes.

But they don't. And it was never a problem, never a concern... until suddenly people realized that they were the poster child for our point that big races aren't always strong races.

Only because you preferred something else, not because it was somehow inherently broken. "Broken because I don't like it." does not make something broken.

And "it isn't broken because I like it" doesn't mean it isn't broken.

False Equivalences are false. World records get broken as we get better with refining our training techniques, food intake, etc. Not because suddenly physiology drastically changes in a matter of a few decades.

So, woman with an better refined training techinique, food intake, ect could lift more than a man.... seems like that sounds like exactly my point. Weird. Almost as if you keep telling me I'm wrong without looking into what I'm saying.
 

Yeah, this is 'ability scores are just numbers but don't actually represent anything' argument. And apparently some people are able to think things that way and good for them, but I absolutely cannot. That's heading deep into disassociation land and I'm not getting into that buss.
So what do they represent to you that the actual traits don't?
 

Just because you don't, doesn't mean others don't too. I have seen many a post on these forums about people have the most fun playing against the grain. So it may not be valid for you, but it is for some (of course you can do the same thing with a floating stat too - just put in a stat that doesn't help your classs).

Exactly! If it is more fun for you to not increase your intelligence, this route lets you do that. before you couldn't play a gnome and still have a +0 INT. Now you can.

The beauty of the floating ASIs is that they cover everyone's preferences.... unless your preference is that everything must be hard-coded for a population simulator.
 


I see an elf PC, and I see a representative of their people, though perhaps an extraordinary representative. He should still be more like other elves than like humans, or dwarves.

Is that the human with the +2 Dex? The +2 Int? The +2 Con? Which "human" are they not like? Because with the Variant human and a feat I can make any combination of abilities at all. So how is your elf more like an elf than a human if my human also has a +2 Dex?
 

I fully get not liking the racial ASIs due how dependent 5e classes are on specific ability scores, but I don't get how the basic concept of what they're supposed to represent seems to be so hard to get for some.

A half-orc will have higher minimum, maximum and average strength than an elf. Because as a species elves just are not as strong. Just like humans are not as strong as gorillas. And sure, an exceptionally strong human might be stronger than a weak or even average gorilla, but an exceptionally strong gorilla would be even stronger. The only weirdness in the system is that logically there should be different absolute maximums too, even after levelling ASIs and realistically the differences should in some cases be larger. But these are concession for the game balance.

Exactly. And that's why an exceptionally strong horse can never be stronger than a human, because gorillas have to be stronger than humans, and a strong horse can't be stronger than a gorilla either. And we all know that since Bears are stronger than humans and tougher than humans that they can't also be faster than humans, we humans can outrace them every single time.

Or maybe... real life biology doesn't really apply here....
 

The Dexterity +2 is painful to me. It denies the elf traditions that I want to play. Interferes with my fun.

The Dexterity elf isnt the only part of the D&D tradition. I need the freedom to drop it when I dont want Dexterity, for example, to build a sun elf, or a 4e eladrin elf, a superlative Bard, or a Grugach.

Consider also the gith race. The gith has the +1 to Intelligence. But then the Githyanki adds the +2 to Strength, while the Githzerai adds the +2 to Wisdom.

A race doesnt need all of its members to share the same ability for the +2.

In the case of elf, it is better when the +2 floats according to which tradition to build.
I fully support a variant rule, included in the Player's Handbook, that allows you to reassign the +2 as you see fit!
 

@mrpopstar

For me, the essence of the elf is it personifies magic.

If the 5e elf has Dex score +2 rather than a mental ability score +2, it feels less magical to me. As if it is only mediocre at magical classes. It feels wrong.

I love the D&D magical elf archetypes: gray elf, sun elf, 4e eladrin elf. These with Int +2 and Cha +2 are the elf that I want. 5e already has their names and flavor, but want their mechanics too.
 

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