D&D General How do you like your ASIs?

[Bill Zebub]

This is a misrepresentation.

1. People are doing it for the stat bump.
2. The games math does not require that stat bump for your character to be effective.

Now, what labels one wishes to apply to this behavior, and any value associated with said labels, is completely up to the individual.

Likewise...

1) People want to keep fixed ASIs so that only some races get certain stat bumps
2) The game's math does not require your character to have a higher stat than the other guy's character in order to be effective

 

[Scribe]

People want to keep fixed ASIs so that only some races get certain stat bumps

I mean...yes? lol

 

[Maxperson]

Likewise...

1) People want to keep fixed ASIs so that only some races get certain stat bumps

Actually, quite a few of us would be okay with +2 fixed and +2 floating. The other side seems unwilling to engage in reasonable compromise, though.

 

[Lanefan]

I think a point of contention is he idea that Player Characters are typical members of their race.

However in 5e, this is not the default.

In 5e, your player character is an anomaly among their race and the elite of the elite.

Sometime around 3e, D&D got rid of the death funnel and made the PCs the survivors of the death funnel. Play normies what skipped in order tofurther stories. Since adventuring normies were expected to die, 3e justskipped the step. 4e took it further and skipped the novice tier as well. 5e brought back novices but assumed Elite PCs as the default. In 5e, your character isn't typical. Even if the PC has weaknesses, they have more potnential than normal memers of their race.

Indeed; and IMO those are all very poor developments which, futile though it may be, I will push back against whenever I can.

You can't do zero to hero by skipping the zero step. Personally, I'd rather skip a lot of the hero step; as while it can be fun enough I find high-level play often seems to have an underlying "this jumped the shark long ago" feel to it.

 

[Lanefan]

Actually, quite a few of us would be okay with +2 fixed and +2 floating. The other side seems unwilling to engage in reasonable compromise, though.

To cut down the power a bit, what about +2 fixed and -2 floating?

 

[Vaalingrade]

You can't do zero to hero by skipping the zero step. Personally, I'd rather skip a lot of the hero step; as while it can be fun enough I find high-level play often seems to have an underlying "this jumped the shark long ago" feel to it.

5e already has two levels of zero and recent threads show a lot of people already want to skip that.

I for one will be happy never having to play a zero again.

 

[clearstream]

This is a misrepresentation.

1. People are doing it for the stat bump.
2. The games math does not require that stat bump for your character to be effective.

Now, what labels one wishes to apply to this behavior, and any value associated with said labels, is completely up to the individual.

Given 2, what is the hypothesis for 1?

Implied is 3. People have some belief that places value on the bump even though according to the game math it is not required to be effective.

If powergaming is connected with aiming to be effective according to the game math, we seem to have ruled out powergaming as the motive for 1.

 

[clearstream]

And the most common argument 3) if you're going to represent a race as stronger than other races, the strength score should get a bonus to reflect that, otherwise they aren't truly stronger than the other races. Same with the other stats and other races. If you represent strength only through racial abilities, but not the strength score, you have a race which is simultaneously stronger and not stronger than other races, which is nonsensical.

That turns on the meaning of stronger. A creature that can lift twice as much is stronger even if they do not have +1 to attack and damage with a martial weapon.

 

[Lyxen]

Again, it's not giving powergamers more power, it's giving people who have both powergaming and roleplaying tendencies the ability to satisfy both without conflict, instead of having to choose which itch to scratch.

Then we do agree that the Floating ASIs are only there to scratch the powergaming itch and that they are only a power option. Thanks I don't need more than that, just an honest answer about the reason for it, with no judgement about the quality of the game that it generates.

 

[Azzy]

Then we do agree that the Floating ASIs are only there to scratch the powergaming itch and that they are only a power option. Thanks I don't need more than that, just an honest answer about the reason for it, with no judgement about the quality of the game that it generates.

Sure, if you completely ignore my answer about tailoring a character to a concept (and, as Umbran points out, completely redefine "powergaming"). But other than that...