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

But didn't your player create a "suboptimal" character by choosing dwarf to begin with? That's the reason, or at least a reason, that her character is against type? Your player could create the exact same character with floating ASI (with the lower starting intelligence).
Yes and no. As I said, to play against type is mainly because you find a way to work around the weaknesses of the character and make it a strength. You can't play against type with floating ASI because there is no need to work around and no assumption.

One example I gave is the halfling barb. No one expected the character concept to work. Yet, it worked out. Monsters/foes were not expecting such a small chap to be the tornadoe it was. I was RPing the shock and stupefaction of the monsters. Some litterally fled combat when the little bugger made a few criticals in a row doing way more damage that such a small character should be able to do. That character had a higher dex than most barb have at the same level. With a 15 ST, 16 Dex, and 14 in Con at the start, the character was quite good and could even tank efficiently. Here, I think I did a good job with RP as such an halfling was not a know sight.

But with floating ASI there is no expectation from the monsters/foes. They know anything is possible and easily doable.
 

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Yes and no. As I said, to play against type is mainly because you find a way to work around the weaknesses of the character and make it a strength. You can't play against type with floating ASI because there is no need to work around and no assumption.

This one has me scratching my head.

So, let me get this straight....some people think it's fun to build a sub-optimal character and try to make it work. But that fun is spoiled if they are voluntarily building a sub-optimal character? That is, it's only fun if there's no choice in the matter?

Not sure I buy that argument.
 

That is even more nonsensical, there are only 16 numbers it is possible to get by rolling, and your special rolling method limits this even further. Having the same numbers is meaningless. Especially since a character with 15 strength and 8 Cha is very different than one with 15 Int and 8 Dex.
Clearly you don't understand, so we should probably leave it at that on this topic.
Words have meaning Max, and you constantly tell me that, and that you are careful with your words. So, no, it isn't disengenious to take you at your word. That is what you constantly tell me to do, respond to your exact words, not what I interpret.
When the result is clearly nonsense, you should ask if that was accurate, rather than responding to something you know was not intended.
Identical? No. Close enough for an abstraction? Sure.

I mean, it is equally unrealistic that every Ogre has 19 strength and 6 INT, but that's what basically every ogre run at tables has. As well as about 60 hp.
Only because most DMs don't bother to differentiate monsters. When I was younger and had more time to prep, I rolled for monster stats and hit points individually.
Have you ever seen a strength based fighter with a 3 strength as their starting point?
I think my lowest was 7 back in 1e when we did 3d6 in order and keep what you roll. My lowest in 3e was 11. I don't remember what my 2e low was.
Obviously not all fighters train at the same school, but it isn't unreasonable that a lot of them are going to end up in about the same place. Your claim that having a 15 in any stat is unrealistic because everyone ends up with something as a 15 is mind-blowing. That isn't how this works. (And yes, I know it is a 15, then a 14, then a 13, then a 12 then a 10, then an 8. Point stands. Your objection makes no sense)
Some of them don't train at all. The trope of the farmer's son taking up his father's sword to avenge him is pretty common.
If they started with an 18 before training, why did training not make them stronger?
I did answer it. Right after my humor there.
And then at level 4 they choose to be stronger, because they can just do that.
Because rules. They can do absolutely nothing requiring them to work out and exercise and get the same increase. That +2 unfortunately, isn't connect to anything in the game. I wish it was.
Yes, they absolutely did. To the point that at least two different webcomic artists made a joke about it, without even needing to provide context. Driz'zt is an archetype for Drow now, and he wasn't before.
Er, no. They make jokes about the hordes of people who all play against type in that way. A new archetype was not created.
1) You realize every cleric has medium armor proficiency right? Going dwarf or getting a feat is a waste of time. My point was since half have medium armor (the other half have heavy) that they are going to want dex.
Or go for heavy, or just not care and get charisma
2) Can get Charisma by dropping strength, they don't need it if they don't want to do melee
Or they can do strength and charisma and ignore dex.
3) Maybe. But I'm not talking about exceptional elves, I'm talking about average elves. Because, this is the flaw. If I make an elf that is exceptional... they don't need to conform to the average. So, if we except all PCs are exceptional, then it doesn't matter what the average version of their race is, they aren't average they are exceptions.
You're mixing up all kinds of things there. Average elves get compared to average other races. Exceptional elves get compared to exceptional other races. And then your conclusion doesn't logically follow your thought in any case. As members of that race, they would get the racial ASI regardless of whether they are exceptional or not. Exceptionality doesn't have anything to do with the racial bonus.
Many people, including Lanefan on another thread. It comes up all the time.
Okay. That's just how they do it for their game, though. @Lanefan has never argued that the way he treats PCs is the way it should be done in my game or yours.
 

I'm not sure something like this exists. The best you'll find is getting together a bunch of guides and averaging out the results. I don't have a lot of experience but from reading a bunch of forums for D&D, I certainly haven't come across a tier list for 5e for classes, subclasses, etc. (in comparison, I was pretty shocked to learn that 3.5e seemed to have a fairly consistently determined tier list).

I wouldn't say there are any sources that are going to be accepted as mostly correct. My understanding form the few guides I have read that a lot of emphasis is placed on succeeding skill checks and doing well in combat damage wise, but not always looking strongly at utility (especially outside of combat that isn't succeeding a skill check), or concerning whether certain 'weak' things can be quite strong in some campaigns (Actor, from what I read of it, has a lot of use in more social intrigue campaigns or anything where deception and performance is important. It has no 'combat' use necessarily but it's certainly got its place. But from what I know, it's a very lowly ranked feat. I would also say that Mounted Combat is probably not given a high ranking, but I could imagine a campaign focused on open fields and outdoor combat where a Mount will be of the utmost importance.)

So, I would say your mileage will vary, a lot.
Fair enough. I was hoping there was a 'generally accepted standard' but I'll poke around. :)
 

This one has me scratching my head.

So, let me get this straight....some people think it's fun to build a sub-optimal character and try to make it work. But that fun is spoiled if they are voluntarily building a sub-optimal character? That is, it's only fun if there's no choice in the matter?

Not sure I buy that argument.
The fun is to see if you can work around the weaknesses of your main choice and be fully functionnal. This is the principle of the underdog. You get underestimated, but you ARE deadly. You know the famous: "YOU CAN'T DO THAT!". These characters' answer is: "Yes I can".
 

The fun is to see if you can work around the weaknesses of your main choice and be fully functionnal. This is the principle of the underdog. You get underestimated, but you ARE deadly. You know the famous: "YOU CAN'T DO THAT!". These characters' answer is: "Yes I can".

You get underestimated by who?
 

So, just for laughs, I wanted to see what Tasha's did to 'meta pick' race options for Barbarians. Using this one. RPGBOT - DnD 5e - The Barbarian Handbook

Now, I have no idea if this site is right, but most of it seemed to make sense. Its ranked by colour.

Blue > Green > Orange > Red, with Blue being best.

Floating
Blue - 7 options.
Green - 15 options.
Orange - 13 options.
Red - 11 options.

Fixed
Blue - 8
Green - 8
Orange - 12
Red - 21

Ignoring the fact I messed up and cant be bothered to make exactly sure what it was I missed (the math is off if you add them up), it seems pretty clear that allowing for the player to pick, makes a noticeable impact on balance, for a very stat driven class, like Barbarian.
 


So, just for laughs, I wanted to see what Tasha's did to 'meta pick' race options for Barbarians. Using this one. RPGBOT - DnD 5e - The Barbarian Handbook

Now, I have no idea if this site is right, but most of it seemed to make sense. Its ranked by colour.

Blue > Green > Orange > Red, with Blue being best.

Floating
Blue - 7 options.
Green - 15 options.
Orange - 13 options.
Red - 11 options.

Fixed
Blue - 8
Green - 8
Orange - 12
Red - 21

Ignoring the fact I messed up and cant be bothered to make exactly sure what it was I missed (the math is off if you add them up), it seems pretty clear that allowing for the player to pick, makes a noticeable impact on balance, for a very stat driven class, like Barbarian.
What chart tells me is that it fixes issues, not enhances power gaming. Blue gets -1, Green gets +7, red(the horrible color) shrinks by 10. Sure green gained some, but those aren't the BEST, so powergamers would avoid those and go blue. Floating ASIs mainly reduce bad choices(power wise).

And if you're like me and just pick based on RP, none of those colors matter anyway.

Edit: How the heck does blue lose 1? Every fixed ASI is able to be copied by floating ASIs, so if there were 8 blue before, there should be 8 blue after. :unsure:
 

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