D&D 5E Could we do away with numbers for the six stats?

[Quartz]

Stat bonuses and proficiency bonuses are in the same ballpark, so could we just replace the former with the latter?

For instance, being Proficient in Str would let you add Str to your attack and damage rolls, while being a Fighter might bump that to Expertise. Being Proficient in Con would give you bonus HP (= HD * Prof. Bonus). Hit points would be as now. Similarly, being Proficient in Int would let you add your proficiency mod to the DC of arcane spells whereas someone not proficient (a dabbler like an Eldritch Knight, perhaps) would not. And so on.

Characters could gain stat proficiencies as they advance.

 

[ccs]

I'm sure we could.

But how the 6 stats are expressed is one of those things that makes D&D D&D. If you scrap that you lose a core bit of the game....

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Sure. "Here are six +1 attribute points, assign them to your attributes as you see fit, with no more than +4 in a single stat."

Takes some of the fun and tradition out of the game, though.

 

[MarkB]

Stat bonuses and proficiency bonuses are in the same ballpark, so could we just replace the former with the latter?

For instance, being Proficient in Str would let you add Str to your attack and damage rolls, while being a Fighter might bump that to Expertise. Being Proficient in Con would give you bonus HP (= HD * Prof. Bonus). Hit points would be as now. Similarly, being Proficient in Int would let you add your proficiency mod to the DC of arcane spells whereas someone not proficient (a dabbler like an Eldritch Knight, perhaps) would not. And so on.

Characters could gain stat proficiencies as they advance.

It removes some of the flavour from the system. Your ability modifiers are basically your core competences, what you are naturally good at, whereas your proficiencies are the things you've studied and practiced to be good at, and where they overlap is where you truly excel. Your system loses that, making you only good at the things you've studied in.

 

[Quartz]

It removes some of the flavour from the system. Your ability modifiers are basically your core competences, what you are naturally good at, whereas your proficiencies are the things you've studied and practiced to be good at, and where they overlap is where you truly excel. Your system loses that, making you only good at the things you've studied in.

Under the point buy system the two are often if not usually one and the same.

 

[Waterbizkit]

Ideas like this are always interesting and I think make for good experimental house rules, but it's something I could never do and certainly not the kind of thing I'd ever like to see change in the published core game. When you think of D&D there are certain things that come to mind immediately, for better or worse. Call them sacred cows if you'd like, but they're the things that make the game what it is and if you tinker with or outright remove some of them it's just not D&D anymore.

Anyway, tinker as you'd like and good luck with it if you decide to try it out in practice, but strong changes to the core pieces of the game are not for me.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I'm sure we could.

But how the 6 stats are expressed is one of those things that makes D&D D&D. If you scrap that you lose a core bit of the game....

Pretty much this. We could get rid of HP and AC too, but then it wouldn't really be D&D

 

[Mercule]

This idea gets floated every now and again. Speaking only for myself, the six stats are the ultimate sacred cow. I was vexed by the sample characters in the boxed set having the bonus written larger than the score. Removing the score would be wrong. Heck, I'm not sure I'm entirely reconciled with the stats being listed on the wrong order, and that's been almost twenty years.

 

[cmad1977]

I don't see why not but I don't see why.


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[Jester David]

Everyone in the thread seems to be going to the more common idea of replacing the ability scores with just the ability score bonuses.

Which is NOT what the poster is suggesting.

Stat bonuses and proficiency bonuses are in the same ballpark, so could we just replace the former with the latter?

For instance, being Proficient in Str would let you add Str to your attack and damage rolls, while being a Fighter might bump that to Expertise. Being Proficient in Con would give you bonus HP (= HD * Prof. Bonus). Hit points would be as now. Similarly, being Proficient in Int would let you add your proficiency mod to the DC of arcane spells whereas someone not proficient (a dabbler like an Eldritch Knight, perhaps) would not. And so on.

Characters could gain stat proficiencies as they advance.

Reading that, I think the OP is commenting that instead of having Strength as a separate ability, Strong characters could add their proficiency bonus to any strength based check. So every other ability would be just the d20 roll.

It's... a very different idea.
But it effectively removes the ability scores from the game.
It reminds me of modern World of Warcraft a little, where the only ability scores your characters have are ones relevant to your build. It would make for a less busy character sheet.

You could do it, but it would really change all the math. Not sure what the final benefit would be...