D&D General How do you like your ASIs?

[Crimson Longinus]

But like, they are. 10-11 is not the average ability score for a D&D 5e PC. 5e PCs get abilities and proficiencies from their race, class, and background that NPCs don’t get. The rules for character creation in 5e are not an engine for procedurally generating random people from a representative sample population. They’re tools for crafting protagonists in a fantasy adventure story. And I feel that fixed ASIs are an obstacle to that. They just prevent you from making the protagonist exactly as you envision them.

I simply don't see it that way. Sure, the PCs might be more heroic, not everyone gets so many ability points or indeed even classes, but I some NPCs do. I make more 'heroic' NPCs with PC rules, and where they differ from those rules it is more for reasons of streamlining and ease of running them.

And ultimately I don't see some ability points due races any differently than traits. Your halfling doesn't get darkvision, your elf doesn't get brave and your gnome doesn't get strength bonus. Ultimately if I wanted to create completely exceptional unique heroes I wouldn't use a splat based system for it in the first place. If we have a splat for race then I want it to define that race somehow. If it doesn't then I don't have use for such splat.

 

[CleverNickName]

I voted for the first option, but if you want some added nuance--

ASIs are fine, it's the cap that I have a problem with. So I would prefer that the ability score cap was different between characters of different origins. For example, a halfling with the Sage background would have a max Strength of 15, and a half-orc with the Soldier feat would have a max Strength of 22.

Gnomes eventually becoming as strong as goliaths always hurts my brain.

 

[Micah Sweet]

But like, they are. 10-11 is not the average ability score for a D&D 5e PC. 5e PCs get abilities and proficiencies from their race, class, and background that NPCs don’t get. The rules for character creation in 5e are not an engine for procedurally generating random people from a representative sample population. They’re tools for crafting protagonists in a fantasy adventure story. And I feel that fixed ASIs are an obstacle to that. They just prevent you from making the protagonist exactly as you envision them.

That's the issue right there. There is a fundamental disconnect between the original mind-set the game was designed for and the one that has emerged in the decades since then. Under the old philosophy, envisioning your character exactly as you want them was simply not that important. The character creation system was not designed to create the hyper-individualized PC people want now. It was designed, as mentioned above, to create a representative member of a fantasy race with a particular profession. You have adventures with that person and try to keep them alive as long as possible. If they die, you sigh and quickly roll up another one. The new paradigm bears practically no resemblance to this, and the cognitive dissonance is maddening.

 

[Micah Sweet]

So far we have.

Some form of fixed: 17
Some form of floating: 12
None at all: 14

Pretty even.

Pretty even is a problem. It means there's probably no good answer to this issue.

 

[Maxperson]

Pretty even is a problem. It means there's probably no good answer to this issue.

If things are even, the best solution is compromise. Go with +2 racial, +2 floating and a paragraph stating that the DM can opt out of ASIs entirely if he wants.

 

[Maxperson]

I voted for the first option, but if you want some added nuance--

ASIs are fine, it's the cap that I have a problem with. So I would prefer that the ability score cap was different between characters of different origins. For example, a halfling with the Sage background would have a max Strength of 15, and a half-orc with the Soldier feat would have a max Strength of 22.

Gnomes eventually becoming as strong as goliaths always hurts my brain.

I've already implemented a house rule in my game raising stat caps to 20+racial bonus, so no halfling is ever going to be as strong as the strongest goliath. Nor can a goliath hit that 22 dex that halflings cap out at.

 

[Maxperson]

I really don't see PCs as that unique or exceptional. In what they do perhaps, but not in what they are.

I see it the opposite. Fighters will be all over the place(what they do), but the PC fighter is the one fated to do great things and will generally have better stats(what they are).

 

[Minigiant]

I would be fine with a mix

Fixed Racial ASI with No Negatives: Goliath +3 STR +1 CON

Fixed Racial ASI with Negatives: Orc +5 STR -2 DEX +1 CON

Floating Racial ASI with No Restrictions: Human +1 Float, +1 Float, +1 Float

Floating Racial ASI with Restrictions: Half Elf +2 CHA or Dex, +1 Float, +1 Float

Some Fixed Some Floating: Elf +2 Dex, +1 Float

No ASI: Hobgoblin +3d8 superiority dice

 

[Maxperson]

I would be fine with a mix

Fixed Racial ASI with No Negatives: Goliath +3 STR +1 CON

Fixed Racial ASI with Negatives: Orc +5 STR -2 DEX +1 CON

Floating Racial ASI with No Restrictions: Human +1 Float, +1 Float, +1 Float

Floating Racial ASI with Restrictions: Half Elf +2 CHA or Dex, +1 Float, +1 Float

Some Fixed Some Floating: Elf +2 Dex, +1 Float

No ASI: Hobgoblin +3d8 superiority dice

Hey now! No going and be reasonable. That's not allowed on the internet.

 

[ReshiIRE]

I would be fine with a mix

Fixed Racial ASI with No Negatives: Goliath +3 STR +1 CON

Fixed Racial ASI with Negatives: Orc +5 STR -2 DEX +1 CON

Floating Racial ASI with No Restrictions: Human +1 Float, +1 Float, +1 Float

Floating Racial ASI with Restrictions: Half Elf +2 CHA or Dex, +1 Float, +1 Float

Some Fixed Some Floating: Elf +2 Dex, +1 Float

No ASI: Hobgoblin +3d8 superiority dice

I think if you showed that to any of the lead D&D designers from years past they would have a heart attack from the incaluable cost of even trying to balance around this system.