D&D 5E Why do you use Floating ASI's (other than power gaming)? [+]

[BookTenTiger]

But all choices made in D&D are for power. All those nifty abilities we get from races, classes, feats, weapons, treasure, etc. are to be awesome adventurers.

I made a halfling alchemist (from EN world's Masterclass Codex) and the floating ASI let me put +2 in Int and a +1 in Cha. She's a travelling healer and I really wanted her to be smart, with a good bedside manner. I don't think putting my highest score in Int was for "power gaming." There is absolutely no reason that my halfling should not start just as bright as a gnome. And working harder to catch up makes no sense.

I also used the "create your own race" to make a brownie. +2 Wis, +1 Dex and the Chef feat. I have him all figured out except his class.

Power gaming is squeezing every last advantage you can get out of the system to create as powerful build as possible, ignoring all story reasons. With Tasha's, I'm seeing players excited at having a little more room to get creative.

I think this is my favorite answer yet: creativity.

 

[Ixal]

I think this is my favorite answer yet: creativity.

Yet fixed ASI did not prevent this creativity. Only the unwillingness of players to play anything without a +3 bonus.

 

[prabe]

Yet fixed ASI did not prevent this creativity. Only the unwillingness of players to play anything without a +3 bonus.

Then consider that some (many? (most?)) people were perhaps unwilling to sacrifice perceived character effectiveness upon the alter of creativity, and instead chose to sacrifice creativity upon the altar of effectiveness. Maybe this was power-gaming; maybe this was not wanting to be the weak link; maybe this was just wanting to be good at what they wanted to be good at.

Now consider that with floating ASIs, creativity and character effectiveness are no longer competing goods. One can both have a ... non-standard character concept (as far as people-class combination) and have an effective character.

 

[BookTenTiger]

Yet fixed ASI did not prevent this creativity. Only the unwillingness of players to play anything without a +3 bonus.

Dude, this is a + thread. Add ideas instead of shooting them down.

 

[Arilyn]

It also lets people lean into tropes that exist but ones not chosen by WoTC. Wise high elves, charismatic halflings, tough or intelligent tieflings, wise dwarves, strong firbolgs, etc. If I were to mimic Sam Gamgee, for example, I'd probably want +2 in Con or Wis.

 

[cbwjm]

I actually think floating ASIs are the way to go, and I believe that once the revised books come out they will be much like the races in the newer books that have the +2/+1 or +1/+1/+1 ASIs in the ability score section of creating your character.

It's going to have to have some changes to the various races/subraces. For instance, right now, if I said to my players that you get three +1s to throw around your ability scores, ignore the ASIs part of race selection I'd also remove some subraces completely. Mountain dwarf is the one that immediately jumps out at me, I'd remove it and have hill dwarf cover both subraces.

 

[Swarmkeeper]

Have we seen an answer given yet that did not involve getting a +3 modifier in the primary stat of the PC's class? (Other than @Arilyn's brownie whose class is yet to be defined)

 

[BookTenTiger]

Have we seen an answer given yet that did not involve getting a +3 modifier in the primary stat of the PC's class?

Creativity

 

[Swarmkeeper]

Creativity

Ninja'd my edit

 

[Jacob Lewis]

Creativity

So when will we hear from the player that gave their half-orc fighter a boost to Intelligence instead of Strength? Or the dwarven cleric with more Charisma than Wisdom? Because that could be more creative than just making mechanically effective characters with uncommon race-class combinations. IMHO.