D&D 5E Is Tasha's More or Less The Universal Standard?

[ECMO3]

For most characters dexterity and constitution are the second and third most important stats behind whatever your primary stat is. The number of Dex 14-16 adventurers is fairly silly.

I would agree on dexterity being second most important, I would not agree on Constitution.

You are going to get more mileage out of Wisdom, Charisma or Intelligence (in that order) then you will constitution, unless you have an abnormally large group or one that is focused more on combat than the other pillars.

I will admit that the optimizers tend to be focused on constitution as third (or more often second even) but they tend to be focused on combat and ignore the other scores and in many cases ignore the chance of being surprised.

 

[James Gasik]

OK, this is actually a really good example of Crawford's point about the difference between which Attribute gets an ASI on Race is about flavor not balance: which Save a Monster targets is about flavor more than "objective value." Mindflayers target Intelligence because, well...they flay minds, it's their deal. A lot of things target Dexteriry because that's what fits flavorwise. In a campaign where I pit in all Mindflayers, all the time, Intelligence is suddenly very important. Because Dexterity is only superior subjectively.

I suppose, but most games are going to use a cross section of beasties. The other thing to consider, which that post touches on, is what the failed save does to you.

A failed Dex save is usually just damage. A failed Charisma save might send you to the X-Zone for a few rounds. A failed Con or Wis save...those will put your character out of commission in the worst possible way at times.

 

[Parmandur]

I would agree on dexterity being second most important, I would not agree on Constitution.

You are going to get more mileage out of Wisdom, Charisma or Intelligence (in that order) then you will constitution, unless you have an abnormally large group or one that is focused more on combat than the other pillars.

I will admit that the optimizers tend to be focused on constitution as third (or more often second even) but they tend to be focused on combat and ignore the other scores and in many cases ignore the chance of being surprised.

I mean, everyone needs HP. All six are equal, taken holistically, however.

 

[Maxperson]

That doesn't mean though that it's always best to max out Dexterity at the expense of Intelligence. It can be more valuable to have moderately high scores in both than it is to dump one and boost the other.

If I was told that I could have a 20 and a 14, I'd rather have a 20 dex and 14 int as a wizard than the other way around. The low hit points of the wizard make the high AC and ability to make the tons of dex saves to avoid lots of damage invaluable. You'll still see lots of monsters miss saves with a 14 int, and heck, you can choose to use spells that don't offer saves if you want to avoid that.

 

[Parmandur]

I suppose, but most games are going to use a cross section of beasties. The other thing to consider, which that post touches on, is what the failed save does to you.

A failed Dex save is usually just damage. A failed Charisma save might send you to the X-Zone for a few rounds. A failed Con or Wis save...those will put your character out of commission in the worst possible way at times.

Yes, because that is usually what the narrative flavor suggests.

 

[Parmandur]

If I was told that I could have a 20 and a 14, I'd rather have a 20 dex and 14 int as a wizard than the other way around. The low hit points of the wizard make the high AC and ability to make the tons of dex saves to avoid lots of damage invaluable. You'll still see lots of monsters miss saves with a 14 int, and heck, you can choose to use spells that don't offer saves if you want to avoid that.

Um, no. Getting that high intelligence spell bonus and spell save DC is far more useful than Dex. Not dumping Dex is probably wise, but a Wizard doesn't need it.

 

[Maxperson]

I mean, everyone needs HP. All six are equal, taken holistically, however.

No, they aren't. Con, wis and dex are useful to everyone. Str, int, cha are not. That alone makes the first three better than the latter three.

 

[Parmandur]

No, they aren't. Con, wis and dex are useful to everyone. Str, int, cha are not. That alone makes the first three better than the latter three.

Whe one of them is important for a Class, then it is very important.

 

[Maxperson]

Whe one of them is important for a Class, then it is very important.

Not really. A 14 or 16 is sufficient to do very well in your class. The game doesn't assume more than that, so the 20 dex is far more useful than a 20 int is, even if you're a wizard. You get a bit of overkill that you don't need with the 20 int vs. avoidance of massively more damage with the 20 dex.

 

[Parmandur]

Not really. A 14 or 16 is sufficient to do very well in your class. The game doesn't assume more than that, so the 20 dex is far more useful than a 20 int is, even if you're a wizard. You get a bit of overkill that you don't need with the 20 int vs. avoidance of massively more damage with the 20 dex.

Well, that's true, which is also part of the ability to get to 20 doesn't break anything.