D&D 5E Is Tasha's Broken?

[Bill Zebub]

Yes, these things are part of the same underlying issue. Even completely aside the races issue it sucks that every character of given class ends up with basically the same main score (and often very similar other scores as well.) There should be several valid and effective ways to arrange your ability scores, and not all of them should require maxing your main score. And if that was the case, then the species affecting the ability scores would be a balance problem either.

Yup. Again, for me it’s not an essentialism question, but a character concept/effectiveness one.

 

[Minigiant]

It's also one of the most praised aspects. I have 4 players. Two say it's too simple and want it expanded or to go back to 3e. Two love the simplicity and praise it whenever the rest of us(I side with the first two) want to make things more complex.

True.

However I think the simplicity only works with a skilled DM and imagining players. Hence why it is praised by 10 20 30 40 year veterans of D&D.

However it falls apart if anyone isn't above average in these areas or don't have match DM-Player vision.

This is why I think variants would help. To get DMs and players on the same page that eventually they can ajudicatr their own system.

However since according to WOTC , groups crash and have to restart every 6 months or 9 levels, a simple system with complexity options would have been best.

I just don't get the backlash against variant rules. It's not like D&D fans don't create their own. Why not sell official ones so we could pick, choose, learn the ones we prefer?

 

[Crimson Longinus]

and again, if a fighter can use Wisdom and Charisma as much or more then Strength and Constitution it allows for those choices...

Yes. But if it is just like the lazy 'attack with whatever' feat in 4e, we don't need ability scores at all, as they don't actually do different things. Different ability score arrangements should actually make the class play differently.

 

[Vaalingrade]

the idea IS simple... you can resist mindcontrol with force of personality or will power, you can resist poison with yout health or your body mass, now I admit dex/int has the most stretch but 'out thinking the fireball' isn't really that much of a stress.

I always saw that as a Sherlock Holmes awesome by analysis thing.

"Fingers slightly sticky with white substance. Bat Guano. Fireball incoming. Line of sight indicates the center will be there. Best chance of survival -- duck into the lee of the serving trolley."

 

[ECMO3]

I have to agree with you there. To be a little hyperbolic, we really just need 2: Constitution, and "Your Primary Attribute", which you could fluff however you want.

I think this is a popular sentiment on this board but I don't see it in play.

Using point buy, in most of the Characters I play Constitution is a 10 and it is never higher than a 12 unless I am playing a Barbarian or a Dragonborn. Beyond those exceptions, usually Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma are all equal to or better than Constitution regardless of class.

Most players I play with tend to push other scores as secondary before constitution as well.

The reason why is there are no skills at all that use Constitution and the hit point bonus you get from it is not enough to be worthwhile unless you invest a ton in it.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Yes. But if it is just like the lazy 'attack with whatever' feat in 4e, we don't need ability scores at all, as they don't actually do different things. Different ability score arrangements should actually make the class play differently.

Where is this a rule for game design?

What if we just changed the names of the ability scores would that make this end?

Hitness, Squirmle, Beefslab, Notdumb, Religiousness (What is Wisdom supposed to be?!), and Sexfulessence.

 

[DND_Reborn]

I would like str to represent lifting/carring but not striking

"Striking" as in hitting or damage or both?

 

[James Gasik]

Where is this a rule for game design?

What if we just changed the names of the ability scores would that make this end?

Hitness, Squirmle, Beefslab, Notdumb, Religiousness (What is Wisdom supposed to be?!), and Sexfulessence.

Beefslab reminds me of the MST3000 episode on Space Mutiny.

It wasn't just a Feat, mind you. Many classes had at-will powers that allowed for melee attacks with different stats as well.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Where is this a rule for game design?

To not fill the rulebooks with redundant confusing junk? I think it is a pretty decent design principle, feel free to disagree.

What if we just changed the names of the ability scores would that make this end?

Hitness, Squirmle, Beefslab, Notdumb, Religiousness (What is Wisdom supposed to be?!), and Sexfulessence.

You can change their names, but you still need to decide what they represent.

 

[DND_Reborn]

They don't "make sense." They are a vague gesture in the direction of making sense; a fig leaf over the fact that D&D is utterly unrealistic about such things and has never tried to be anything else.

Since people keep bringing up the halfling and goliath, let's take a closer look at that one. Halflings are three feet tall. That's the size of a four-year-old child. No edition of D&D has ever handed out a stat modifier that could represent that scale of difference. +2 is absurdly inadequate--you'd need something like +10.

Furthermore, both races have the same Strength cap at 20, so the difference will be erased anyway at sufficiently high level. Again, this makes no sense at all.

Actually, if you imposed that small creatures can carry half the amount of medium ones, you wouldn't need that big a modifier, such as +10.

This issue is that (I know for simplicity's sake) the designers decided small and medium should be equal. Also insist on using the variant encumbrance rules instead of the super-simple Str x 15...