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<blockquote data-quote="Helldritch" data-source="post: 8389736" data-attributes="member: 6855114">Forcing someone to be the underdog is not the same thing as someone choosing to be one. The first is distasteful and downright abusive the second must be encouraged. As a DM, I will tag along any character concepts a player might come up with. One thing I will never do is to force someone to play a weakened character because:&quot; reasons&quot;....But, you are also talking to an optimizer here. The kind that will test a game system to its limits (and we did with 5ed, and quickly found many of its flaws and proceeded to correct them with optional rules already in the DMG). This said, I can't understand if given a choice with floating ASI a player would voluntarily gimped his/her character. Floating ASI = always the best stat at the best position. Anything less is just not properly building a character (to stay polite). Fixed ASI forces you to think why would a character would go for such a career that is not &quot;optimal&quot; for its race. You have to carefully balance the strength of the race and the flaws to make a unique concept that stands a chance to do well if not great. And, theorically, most races will catch up stat wise by 12th level anyways. So it is only in the early levels that the weakness will matter. It is not that floating ASI can't be used to play the underdog in itself. It is that with floating ASI, it is simply a choice, not an obligation. This mean in the end that it simply becomes a cheesy picking of ability(ies) for optimal character concepts without any costs attached to it. True power gamers understands this perfectly.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Helldritch, post: 8389736, member: 6855114"] Forcing someone to be the underdog is not the same thing as someone choosing to be one. The first is distasteful and downright abusive the second must be encouraged. As a DM, I will tag along any character concepts a player might come up with. One thing I will never do is to force someone to play a weakened character because:" reasons".... But, you are also talking to an optimizer here. The kind that will test a game system to its limits (and we did with 5ed, and quickly found many of its flaws and proceeded to correct them with optional rules already in the DMG). This said, I can't understand if given a choice with floating ASI a player would voluntarily gimped his/her character. Floating ASI = always the best stat at the best position. Anything less is just not properly building a character (to stay polite). Fixed ASI forces you to think why would a character would go for such a career that is not "optimal" for its race. You have to carefully balance the strength of the race and the flaws to make a unique concept that stands a chance to do well if not great. And, theorically, most races will catch up stat wise by 12th level anyways. So it is only in the early levels that the weakness will matter. It is not that floating ASI can't be used to play the underdog in itself. It is that with floating ASI, it is simply a choice, not an obligation. This mean in the end that it simply becomes a cheesy picking of ability(ies) for optimal character concepts without any costs attached to it. True power gamers understands this perfectly. [/QUOTE]

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