6-5 Rule of Three

[tlantl]

I would love the return of a bonus to all saving throws.

'cause i just that pretty.

I think humans getting a bonus to ability scores is a bonus to saves since you use your ability scores to make saving throws.


As for non human ability adjustments, they were never intended to make those races better than men. They were designed to make them weaker in one ability and to compensate for that weakness in another.

It's a bit of a shocker to see the blanket increase but it should help make adventuring parties have more humans in them.

Now if they would only nerf the 'special' races, you know the tiefling and dro, then they'll be doing something.

 

[the Jester]

There was some player speculation that Drow might make it because a) Drizzt, b) apparently they were a player race in the essentials core book and that's kinda core right, and c) Drizzt.

I sure hope not.

OTOH I'm fine with the human racial bonuses.

 

[variant]

Now if they would only nerf the 'special' races, you know the tiefling and dro, then they'll be doing something.

As long as you mean nerf them right back to the Monster Manual.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

Until we see the complete character generation rules (and really, until they have been tested and tweaked for awhile), it's rather academic on how good or poor is +1 to all ability scores, +1 of your choice. Conceptually, however, if they want something in that ballpark with most other races getting a single +1 and racial abilities, I would prefer +1 to five different ability scores of your choice. That is, the human gets to pick one score that doesn't go up--the character's relative weakness.

From a balance perspective, that is almost as good. It is missing the second +1 stacked on top (for +2 total), as the main thing, but missing out on one score that does not get the +1 is hardly a killer. And it gives a different slant to the thought that goes into making a human.

 

[tlantl]

As long as you mean nerf them right back to the Monster Manual.

I have to agree, but I'm afraid that they intend to put them in since they were included as playable races in the player's handbook of the edition I skipped.

 

[Gold Roger]

Modularity doesn't mean you can pick and choose so you can power game.

I have no idea how you came to that conclusion from my post. In fact, I want highly customizable races so:

a) races can be more easily fitted into different settings
b) races aren't forced into a particular optimal mould. You know, something that leads to powergaming.

Just as with backgrounds and themes, wether races a customizable by players or not, should depend on the group in question.

In my games I DM, I'd customize a baseline that fits the setting and figure out any customization with the players.

 

[Steely_Dan]

I think humans getting a bonus to ability scores is a bonus to saves since you use your ability scores to make saving throws.

Only if the Ability Score is an odd number.

 

[Dausuul]

I LOVE the bad reaction to the Human bonuses here and like every other forum.

Does anyone like it?

I do. I'm quite happy with it. I'm not a big 3E fan, but I do think it got some things right, and one of them was that parties tended to be mostly human with a scattering of other races. If there was a nonhuman special ability or prestige class you really wanted, you'd play that, but if you were just looking to make an effective fighter or cleric or wizard or whatever, you couldn't go wrong with human.

I hope D&DN goes back to that dynamic. People should play elves because they want elf abilities and traits, not to optimize their class abilities.

 

[Stalker0]

That means that on an odd number the +1 is useful but on an even number the +1 does nothing.

That's not quite true in 5e.

Strength and Con get some benefit to an odd stat, and because you autopass DCS that are 5 less than your ability score, and odd stat can help there.

Its not huge, but it is something.

 

[mlund]

The human racial effect is simple and mildly effective. It even allows for a few of the non-human deficiencies to show through without direct penalties (elves are less hardy, half-orcs are less bright, halflings are weaker).

That said, it is a bland and generic implementation that doesn't really reflect the core human racial characteristic of adaptability. Also, it creates situations where other races aren't more naturally gifted than humans - a nimble halflings isn't so nimble compared to a human now.

I'd prefer to see humans get +1 to any two different ability scores while other races get +1 to a fixed score + powers. If that's still not good enough a racial +1 to saving throws would easily pass muster.

- Marty Lund