D&D (2024) Buffing Int, Wis, and Cha (Mostly Int and Cha)

[UngeheuerLich]

He doesn’t though. For the most part rage damage reduction plus advantage to be hit is close to the same dpr taken without either feature running. Assuming a 50% chance to be hit. Its identical. For typical barbarian ac values 40-60% chance to be hit is very typical.

Rogues also reduce damage by 50% at level 5.

 

[FrogReaver]

Rogues also reduce damage by 50% at level 5.

No they don’t. They reduce 1 hit of damage per round by 50%.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

No they don’t. They reduce 1 hit of damage per round by 50%.

Which is usually enough. They can also reduce any kind of damage. Barbarians only reduce piercing, slashing and bludgeoning.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

Rules As Written, Strength is a critical stat for everyone and not overshadowed by Dex at all. In practice is becomes terrible because few tables play with Encumbrance. If you want Strength to matter, just enforce Encumbrance rules

We do play with encumbrance, but the weight limit is so absurdly high it doesn't matter. Like, they even state in the rule

"Carrying Capacity. Your carrying capacity is your Strength score multiplied by 15. This is the weight (in pounds) that you can carry, which is high enough that most characters don't usually have to worry about it"

It's a rule designed specifically to not be used, even when its used.

Now, I have played games where it does matter. Star Wars has a pretty restrictive weight limit, Pathfinder to some degree, but D&D says "yeah, that 8 Strength couch potato? They can carry 120 pounds without being slowed down at all, no problem!"

 

[ezo]

We do play with encumbrance, but the weight limit is so absurdly high it doesn't matter. Like, they even state in the rule

"Carrying Capacity. Your carrying capacity is your Strength score multiplied by 15. This is the weight (in pounds) that you can carry, which is high enough that most characters don't usually have to worry about it"

It's a rule designed specifically to not be used, even when its used.

Now, I have played games where it does matter. Star Wars has a pretty restrictive weight limit, Pathfinder to some degree, but D&D says "yeah, that 8 Strength couch potato? They can carry 120 pounds without being slowed down at all, no problem!"

Again, use the Variant Encumbrance rules and it changes IF you actually make players track it...

An 8-STR Rogue for example, will find a 40-lb limit very... um, limiting.

 

[deadman1204]

hmm... chr and wis dont need buffing. Wis is a power stat. Perception? Best skill in the game, plus will saves?
Chr is wierd because its treated like a casting stat, which makes litearlly no sense. Chr also has several stats.

INT is what needs buffing. The only thing it does is give a few knowledge skills, but if the dm wants you to know the info, they'll tell you anyways. Unless your a wizard, int is the worst stat in the game and serves zero purpose.

 

[Xeviat]

Thanks for all the input!

In my experience, Charisma gets dumped unless someone is using a Charisma class. I want to see more people think about putting their 10 or 12 in Cha, even when it's not part of their class, just for decision variety. I do think contacts and fame/infamy is the way I'm gonna go with it, as they're both noncombat buffs and feel right for high and low charisma.

For Intelligence, bonus tools or languages feels right. Similar to Charisma, I want a non-combat buff, since Intelligence and Charisma skills are already useful in combat in my games.

As for Wisdom, with the way I do Perception and with Passive Perception being so important, I think it's in a good place.

I do think I want to go through spells and effects and split up some of the Wisdom saves into Intelligence and Charisma as well, but that's a separate thing. I give everyone proficiency in all saves and increase the base DCs to 10+proficiency+modifiers already in my games, so smoothing out the save distribution will be good.

 

[ART!]

One idea I had was to give a number of skill specialties equal to each ability score's modifier. So, if you're Wisdom modifier was +3, you would have 3 specialties in Wisdom-based skills you are proficient in. Same for all the ability's skills.

I was thinking of using something like the Proficiency Dice variant rule for this, so if you have a specialty you get to add whatever the Proficiency die is for your Proficiency bonus.

 

[Greenstone.Walker]

I bump up the importance of INT by making it the ability score for disarming traps.

 

[Xeviat]

I bump up the importance of INT by making it the ability score for disarming traps.

I don't know about that: my sister's ex-husband is a locksmith and he's a total idiot. Hah!