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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jmarso" data-source="post: 8382897" data-attributes="member: 7032066">Since joining a 2E campaign recently, I've come to realize that a lot of angst in 5E over ability scores is centered around the fact that they give fantastic bonuses, especially within the framework of the 5E rules. (Bounded Accuracy, or whatever it's called.)The game has gotten away from the 'Bell Curve' distribution of ability scores between 3-18. If you look at early versions of the game, there weren't many bonuses to be had even with very high ability scores, and penalties didn't start until scores were around a 6 or lower. A plain strength of 18 only yields +1 hit, +2 dam. HP bonuses for high CON didn't start until you hit 15 or higher. Same for DEX. It was impossible to raise a score above 18 unless by magical means, and strength scores of 20 and higher were commonly associated only with deities / demigods. As a consequence, you took those bonuses when you got them, but they weren't character-defining. I'm currently playing a Cleric whose highest ability score in any category is 13 WIS. He's working out fine. I guess my point is that people should try (I know it's hard) to stop worrying about creating superhero characters with high ability scores, and concentrate more on playing (end enjoying) the characters they roll. This is why I'm also in favor of rolling scores rather than point buys and standard spreads- the latter result in 'cookie cutter' templates with certain scores always being applied to certain abilities depending on class. Rolling introduces some luck and randomness to the process, and we all know there are multiple ways to do it so that the player can play the class of character they want. TLDR version: Quit worrying about ability scores mechanics, roll your character, play him/her/it without turning it into a game of math and statistics.</blockquote>

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