D&D 5E Alternate Character Creation rules (houserule)

[Hawk Diesel]

I have a similar house rule. However, I tie the +2 to the class (and give the player a choice to put it in a stat related to one of their proficient saves) and the +1 is tied to the background (and I developed two choices based on the stats that seem most relevant to the background).

 

[Warforged DK]

Thanks for the advice and info everyone!
I think I'll end up using a mix of everything here.

 

[Shiroiken]

A big thing to consider when tweaking this way is racial balance. Some races are balanced based on their ability score bonuses, and changing/removing them can upset this balance (some of which is already upset, but that's another argument).

I'd suggest you take a concept from the D&D Next playtest that I loved, but was removed: each race got a +1 bonus, and each class got a +1 bonus. With the end result that most races receive a +2 and a +1 from sub-race, I'd suggest that you reduce the +2 by 1, then have each class give +1 to the primary ability (or a choice for some classes). A few races will require some extra work, especially base human, but I feel this a better solution to fix your problem.

 

[Hawk Diesel]

A big thing to consider when tweaking this way is racial balance. Some races are balanced based on their ability score bonuses, and changing/removing them can upset this balance (some of which is already upset, but that's another argument).

I'd suggest you take a concept from the D&D Next playtest that I loved, but was removed: each race got a +1 bonus, and each class got a +1 bonus. With the end result that most races receive a +2 and a +1 from sub-race, I'd suggest that you reduce the +2 by 1, then have each class give +1 to the primary ability (or a choice for some classes). A few races will require some extra work, especially base human, but I feel this a better solution to fix your problem.

This is true, particularly for mountain dwarves, humans, and half-elves. My solution to this was just to give these particular races/subraces the appropriate bonus. Mountain dwarves get a +1 to Strength, standard humans get three +1's to stats that aren't their class bonus (the +2), and half-elf gets a +1 to any stat that isn't their class bonus.

 

[Horwath]

I would remove racial bonuses to abilities.

Raise pointbuy to 16 max starting score.
score 8 - 0pts
score 10 - 2pts
score 12 - 4pts
score 14 - 6pts
score 16 - 10pts
total pointbuy: 32pts

Then put a minimum and maximum score to certain abilities for all races.

Human: normal, no limit abilities from 8 to 16
Elf: minimum dex 14, maximum con 14, wood elf min wis 12. high elf min int 12, drow min cha 12
H.elf: minimum dex 12
dwarf: min str 12, min con 14, min wis 12, max dex 14, max cha 14
H.orc; min str 14, min con 12, max int 14, max cha 14.
Halfling: min dex 14, min cha 12, max str 14, max wis 14.