D&D (2024) Sacred Cows: Ability Scores

[Charlaquin]

Rip off enough bandages and the game may bleed to death. One person's sacred cow is another person's meat.

Can’t you see the sacred meat processing industry is destroying the planet?

 

[turnip_farmer]

I still like to see ability scores as a resource. They are used that way in some obscure situations (intellect devoured attacks for instance) though I would like to see them used that way again.

Particularly poisons. I thought 3e’s poison and disease system was very elegant at representing all sorts of damage to the body that was far more interesting than simply reducing hp. I have several homebrew poisons in by file ready to spring on the players.

In principle I like ability draining ideas.

But in practice taking ability score damage means rewriting a whole bunch on numbers on your sheet, and then changing them all back when you heal. It gets annoying.

 

[TheSword]

In principle I like ability draining ideas.

But in practice taking ability score damage means rewriting a whole bunch on numbers on your sheet, and then changing them all back when you heal. It gets annoying.

Fair play. I guess I’m used to doing that with lots of things.

 

[ReshiIRE]

As an aside, how long have ability draining abilities been in the game? I can't imagine managing them in a non-electronic format. Then again, even were I to play D&D irl, I'd need an electronic sheet of some kind - I could not handle writing and then rubbing out information and the fact that I am a slower writer in general.

 

[Oofta]

Can’t you see the sacred meat processing industry is destroying the planet?

Only if the sacred meat is actually Cowthulhu.

 

[Faolyn]

As an aside, how long have ability draining abilities been in the game? I can't imagine managing them in a non-electronic format. Then again, even were I to play D&D irl, I'd need an electronic sheet of some kind - I could not handle writing and then rubbing out information and the fact that I am a slower writer in general.

Since the beginning, along with level-draining abilities.

 

[ECMO3]

you could also simplify it and roll a d4 or something. If you want to mantain 5e's progression cap you could do the 4 meaning you got a 0 or something like that.

D4	bonus
1	+1
2	+2
3	+3
4	0

That would have a huge variance.

3d6/4d6d1 results in a bell curve and it is unlikely many scores will be very high or very low. Rolling a single dice would result in a uniform distribution where a +4 is as likely as a +1. If you went 3d4 and dropped lowest and highest it would be better.

Also, not that it is statistically relevant - Why is a higher roll a lower score?

 

[commandercrud]

Mainly way too many "dead levels" where increases had no real impact, and no baked in means of increasing stats outside of magic or magic items. Your rogue as a 15 dex? That's for life.

That's what I like about it.

 

[the Jester]

When we get a new editions, should we dispense with ability scores and just have bonuses listed instead?
A starting stat block might instead give a +3, a +2, Two +1s, a non bonus, and a -1 for example.
Besides tradition, the only reason for ability scores that are translated into bonuses is "granularity", in which one can have odd numbered scores that don't increase the bonus, acting as a stopgap between actual mechanical increases or penalties.

Thoughts?

That seems like it would make it much more difficult to roll stats and still end up with a bell curve.

 

[the Jester]

you could also simplify it and roll a d4 or something. If you want to mantain 5e's progression cap you could do the 4 meaning you got a 0 or something like that.

D4	bonus
1	+1
2	+2
3	+3
4	0

Sorry, but for those of us who like rolling stats, this completely misses the point. Not only is there no bell curve creating an average, you can never roll low. I know I'm probably in slim company here, but any version of stat generation that never produces a 3 is not going to satisfy me, no matter its other virtues.