D&D 5E PC Limitations vs. Do Whatever You Want

[payn]

One thing I find humorous is that we often see complaints about fighters not boosting cha, int or wisdom because str or dex is too important. Never once have I seen it advocated for a wizard to boost cha over int. Or a cleric to boost int over wisdom. Or a sorcerer to boost str over charisma.

Except in the right campaign any of those choices may actually end up as more optimal than the typical choices. It’s just rare to see a campaign that way.

And also the stakes and resolution of combat in d&d is much more mechanically clear. That’s not so much the case with out of combat.

Largely, its because casters have a get out of dump free card in spells. They can make up for any shortcoming so its no big deal. Martial characters tho got what they got.

 

[Neonchameleon]

One thing I find humorous is that we often see complaints about fighters not boosting cha, int or wisdom because str or dex is too important. Never once have I seen it advocated for a wizard to boost cha over int. Or a cleric to boost int over wisdom. Or a sorcerer to boost str over charisma.

Except in the right campaign any of those choices may actually end up as more optimal than the typical choices. It’s just rare to see a campaign that way.

And also the stakes and resolution of combat in d&d is much more mechanically clear. That’s not so much the case with out of combat.

The thing you're missing here is that Int and Wis are both social and exploration stats. Wisdom lets you spot threats and read people - both critically important in both exploration and social situations and Int lets you find things and know about what's going on and backgrounds - again both very important. And they can both use their spells in social and exploration situations.

Meanwhile strength isn't a social stat and in practice it's a pretty weak exploration stat past the first few levels when you get spells like flight and items like bags of holding. And fighters normally don't get anything meaningful other than the most basic amount of skills to help outside combat whereas casters get spells.

 

[Steel_Wind]

If you don't want PCs to play weird races, just do what Gygax did and make humans the most mechanically powerful race. How about Humans don't have stat limits?

Alternatively? Just say "no".

I say "no" all the time. I have no shortage of players, or campaigns. "No" works just fine.

However, I don't say "no" just to say "no". I often do so because the campaign I want to run is something I do not want to be defined by the name of the Adventure -- but principally by the nature of the PC party and who they are. Thematic approches to the PC party makes the adventure about the PCs, not about the lands they are in, the foes they will face, or who the BBEG is. That may be the book I have bought, but it isn't the campaign I plan to run. That's something entirely different.

This approach to a campaign works. It works very well when you take the time and effort to bring it all together. So "no" is about YES to the narrative theme you are trying to create.

In order to have that sort of narrative theme shine through, you need player buy in. Once you have that, all the rest of this multi-racial murder hobo stuff goes away without a problem - and mechanical bonuses are wholly irrelevant.

 

[CleverNickName]

You really want to blow your players' minds? Remove headbands of intellect, gauntlets of ogre power, and other stat-boosting items from the game.

 

[Vaalingrade]

You really want to blow your players' minds? Remove headbands of intellect, gauntlets of ogre power, and other stat-boosting items from the game.

Do those even matter now that they come late in the game and only set your stat instead of giving a bonus? Except the ones that break the arbitrary ceiling the DM should be ignoring anyway?

 

[CleverNickName]

Do those even matter now that they come late in the game and only set your stat instead of giving a bonus? Except the ones that break the arbitrary ceiling the DM should be ignoring anyway?

I mean, it's Dungeons & Dragons. Nothing matters until the DM says it does, and says how much.