D&D 5E Ability Score Balance: through the eyes of fresh players

[Xeviat]

Hi everyone! I'm going to be running Lost Mines of Phandelver for a group of 5, 4 of whom have never played before but have really wanted to. We've got a half-orc barbarian, a tiefling rogue, a drow ranger, a wood elf druid, and a rock gnome wizard.

The Barbarian has a Strong 16, everyone else has a Strong 8. The Barbarian and Wizard have Con 16, the ranger has Con 14, and the rogue and druid have Con 12.

12 is actually the lowest Con scores I've seen in a game before.

It has me, yet again, for my homebrewed houserules (this game is by the book, unless the ranger wants to go beastmaster, then I'll offer beast of air or earth) thinking about how to change Constitution and possibly nerfing Dex.

Constitution is a tough one. I don't think Constitution is too good. The trouble is that it's good for everyone, and it feels important to everyone. It might be possible to adjust Constitution, taking away it's +HP/level but making it so HD recover entirely on a long rest (and have HD still apply Constitution modifier). This way, high Con characters would recover faster, but they wouldn't necessarily be tougher than others.

For Strength vs Dexterity, I think they can be brought more to balance if Finesse weapons only applied Dex to hit and ranged weapons used Str to damage still (except the crossbow). Perhaps using the variant carrying capacity more would help too, as the carrying capacity for 8 Str makes even light armor pretty encumbering.

Now, it is partially class choice, as only one chose a class that prioritizes Str, but I just found it particularly interesting that no one put 10s or 12s in Str (everyone used Standard Array).

 

[Flamestrike]

For Strength, enforce Encumbrance.

The Ranger is borked. Studded leather armour, a dagger, a sword, shield, longbow and 20 arrows and he's pushing the 40lb limit already.

He wears any sort of medium armor, and he's encumbered.

 

[Yardiff]

I believe the problem lays in the standard array. It doesn't work very well for multi stat needs. Do something like 15, 15, 14, 13, 13, 10/8. Just my opinion.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I just use a higher point buy or roll stats, and once people aren't stressed about their main stats, everyone builds their stats for story and make more well rounded characters.

 

[DND_Reborn]

I've done a lot towards re-balancing ability scores.

Strength
Used for damage, including ranged weapons (but not loading, they receive no bonus to damage)
Ranged weapons do not get the bonus at long range, but penalties still apply
Heavy weapons do 1.5x STR mod (round down)
Light weapons do half STR mod (round down)
Encumbrance strictly enforced

Dexterity
Can be use for attacks for finesse, but not damage.
Monks can use DEX mod for damage with monk weapons and unarmed strikes.

Constitution
No only affects HP per level.
Grants "free" levels of exhaustion before effects are felt.

Intelligence
Grants additional proficiencies.

Wisdom
Grants favor, a once per long rest bonus to any roll.

Charisma
Grants a bonus or penalty whenever Inspiration is used to reroll a d20 check, attack, or save.

So...
low STR? Can't carry much and always a penalty to weapon damage.
low DEX? Well, bad AC of course!
low CON? Exhaustion affects you sooner.
low INT? Lose a skill.
low WIS? DM can impose a penalty to your roll, usually at the worst time!
low CHA? A penalty whenever you reroll a check using Inspiration.

Finally, your HP are modified per level by your maximum ability score modifier, NOT Constitution. This prevents the need for CON to be 12 or higher pretty much with every character.

While hardly perfect, all this has helped a lot to make nothing a dump stat unless it is part of the character's design (low CON for sickly character, low WIS for foolish, etc.).

 

[bedir than]

Does it matter if the Ability Scores aren't balanced against each other?

 

[Umbran]

For Strength, enforce Encumbrance.

This. Just the simple form of encumbrance will do.

The ranger will have to re-stat, and possibly the rogue as well - remind them that climbing (a thing rogues often want to do) is based off strength, as is having capacity to carry away loot!.

 

[billd91]

Does it matter if the Ability Scores aren't balanced against each other?

To a certain degree, yes. Ideally, dumping any one of them should be a choice with significant trade offs and be noticed in play. Some character concepts and classes may favor certain choices, such as strength for fighters with big, two-handed weapons. But the game should have ample opportunity for that player to notice and feel he doesn’t do well in things dependent on the lower stat values he had to put elsewhere to get that high strength. Any tendency to neutralize those instances, for that character, should be seen as a weakness in the game rules.

 

[Flamestrike]

I've done a lot towards re-balancing ability scores.

Strength
Used for damage, including ranged weapons (but not loading, they receive no bonus to damage)
Ranged weapons do not get the bonus at long range, but penalties still apply
Heavy weapons do 1.5x STR mod (round down)
Light weapons do half STR mod (round down)
Encumbrance strictly enforced

Dexterity
Can be use for attacks for finesse, but not damage.
Monks can use DEX mod for damage with monk weapons and unarmed strikes.

Constitution
No only affects HP per level.
Grants "free" levels of exhaustion before effects are felt.

Intelligence
Grants additional proficiencies.

Wisdom
Grants favor, a once per long rest bonus to any roll.

Charisma
Grants a bonus or penalty whenever Inspiration is used to reroll a d20 check, attack, or save.

So...
low STR? Can't carry much and always a penalty to weapon damage.
low DEX? Well, bad AC of course!
low CON? Exhaustion affects you sooner.
low INT? Lose a skill.
low WIS? DM can impose a penalty to your roll, usually at the worst time!
low CHA? A penalty whenever you reroll a check using Inspiration.

Finally, your HP are modified per level by your maximum ability score modifier, NOT Constitution. This prevents the need for CON to be 12 or higher pretty much with every character.

While hardly perfect, all this has helped a lot to make nothing a dump stat unless it is part of the character's design (low CON for sickly character, low WIS for foolish, etc.).

So Charisma, Int and Wisdom get a boost (favouring the Casters) while Str, Dex and Con get nerfed (punishing martials)?

 

[DND_Reborn]

So Charisma, Int and Wisdom get a boost (favouring the Casters) while Str, Dex and Con get nerfed (punishing martials)?

No, martials benefit just as much from the mental scores being positive as the casters do, just as casters benefit from high physical scores if they want them.

DEX is the only score that got nerfed, but that's because it was unbalanced in the first place.

Like I said, it works great for us and we rarely see dump stats. Try it before you knock it.