D&D 5E +2 Wisdom Races and Kewl.

[Zardnaar]

One thing missing from the PHB I found was a +2 wisdom race. A variant human with the right feat can get +2 wisdom, the others not so much. With default array this doesn't bother me do much as no race can get an 18 at level 1. It makes a bit more of a difference with 4d6 drop the lowest as I have seen starting PCs with 18 or even a 20 (once).

With the Default array its not hard to have say a Dwarf cleric with 16 wisdom and 16 con if you like. Or an elf with 16 wisdom, 16 dex or 16 prime attribute and 2 14's.

Well I found 2 races that get +2 wisdom in the Southland Heroes PDFs from Kobold Press.

The Tosculi (insect men)

Ability Score Increase. One of your physical ability scores (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution) increases by 2, and one of your mental ability scores (Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma) increases by 2. You also take a –2 penalty to any one ability score. You may apply this penalty to the same ability score to which you gave a +2 bonus, granting you an overall +2 bonus to any one ability score.

The Werelion is the other one.

Ability Score Increase. Your Wisdom score increases by 2, and your Strength score increases by 1.

And the Kewl part of the thread title. No Dragonborn exist in the Kobolds world but you do have Dragonkin with 5 subraces. Dragonkin are found in Midgard Heroes. The soldier subrace (mixed heritage in the Dragonkin) gets +2 charisma, +1 strength and one of the abilities is this.

Soldier’s Eye. You know the shillelagh cantrip. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for it.

Interesting interaction with the Staff, Polearm master feat and the charisma based classes like Bladelock, Paladins and Valor Bards. I thought that was kewl.

 

[Rhenny]

Adding variety to the game is a terrific idea.

I'd love to get rid of the racial bonuses to ability scores. Instead, I'm tempted to allow a player to decide what type of hero he or she is playing since in any population (of any type of creature), there are always variations.

Why not have an wise Elf, Halfling, Half-Elf, even a wise Half-Orc. I guess a lot of people like to make their choices based on racial bonus, but honestly, I'd much rather have players playing the types of PCs they envision rather than feel constrained by "racial" profiling.

(This post isn't as serious as it sounds. I'm not against the idea that fantasy races have different strengths and weaknesses. I just don't see a need to hold players hard and fast to those constraints in home games).

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

5e is designed to approach the problem in a different fashion. Instead of giving races that allow you to optimise every available combination of stats, it just reduces the need to optimise at all.

Players can play the types of PCs that they envision without constraints of racial profiling and will not suffer much while doing so.
The hardcore min/maxers are going to optimise anyway rather than follow a concept, whether through ability scores or racial abilities.

 

[Sunseeker]

I kinda wish that they had stuck to their playtest idea of every racing having a +1 that could go in one of two places, and then each class would have a +1 to one of your two main stats.

 

[Zardnaar]

Does the Aasimar in the DMG get a +2 wisdom mod or does it get +1?

+1 wis and +2 charisma.

 

[Shiroiken]

I kinda wish that they had stuck to their playtest idea of every racing having a +1 that could go in one of two places, and then each class would have a +1 to one of your two main stats.

I really liked that also, but I understand it had to go for multi-classing purposes. I'm sure they could have found a way to make it work, but the current system was probably easier.

 

[CapnZapp]

5e is designed to approach the problem in a different fashion. Instead of giving races that allow you to optimise every available combination of stats, it just reduces the need to optimise at all.

Players can play the types of PCs that they envision without constraints of racial profiling and will not suffer much while doing so.
The hardcore min/maxers are going to optimise anyway rather than follow a concept, whether through ability scores or racial abilities.

That does nothing to change the basic fact there are very few +2 WIS choices.

 

[Radaceus]

After SCAG came out and reskinned Tieflings, I felt compelled to reskin an Aasimar variant of +2 wis, +1 Cha...and found they still really only work well as Clerics and Paladins lol

 

[Radaceus]

Also, interesting to note, the DMG listed NPC stats for Aaracocra as +2 Dex, +2 Wis, but when it became a playable race it was nerfed to +2 Dex, +1 Wis

Dwarf NPC is listed as +2 Str or Wis, +2 Con.

So with that in mind, logic would dictate that one could make a variant of Dwarf or Aaracocra with +2 Wis, +1_X_

 

[jayoungr]

Why not have an wise Elf, Halfling, Half-Elf, even a wise Half-Orc.

It's not too hard. Use the standard array and put your 16 in WIS. Put your 14 in whichever stat gets the racial bonus. The only way you suffer is if you absolutely MUST have an 18 at first level, but if you're the kind of player who can't bear to give that up, you're not likely to be making this sort of character anyway.