D&D 5E How quickly should ability scores increase in 5e?

[Mercule]

They should increase at the same rate they did in 1e. Failing that, 3e was tolerable. 4e is painfully inflated.

As a side note, I'd like to see a return of racial ability bonuses and penalties in 5e. I'm not necessarily advocating pointless "one up, one down", but 4e was silly with its aversion to ability penalties. Also, humans are the baseline. They shouldn't get any bonus or penalty to abilities on creation.

Bring back racial maximums, too. Dwarves cap at a 20 constitution. Elves at a 20 dexterity. Humans are 3-18 until they die. I'd probably be okay with a compromise of 3-18, plus racial mods at creation, with the ability to eventually raise one ability score two points above that. I guess I don't have as much problem with abilities increasing as I do with PCs with a natural 24 strength. Lack of basic boundaries is one of the contributing factors to the later 3.5e convolutions attempting to balance things.

 

[DonAdam]

In 3e, I gave a "point buy point" at every level rather than a +1 bump every 4. So it cost 2 to increase from a 14 to a 15, for instance. That created a nice tradeoff between pumping lower but secondary stats and putting more points into getting prime attributes up; most players did a mix of both. There was both shoring up of weaknesses and increasing strengths.

 

[Savage Wombat]

You know, if you think back to lots of old 1e modules, you'd find that high-level characters tended to have better stats than randomly-generated ones. And there was no explicit mechanism for this.

There were, however, several dungeons (even B1) that had strange phenomenae with the ability to raise or lower ability scores. I remember playing a low-level F/MU who lucked into a 19 Str, though that may have been homebrew.

I suspect that EGG and his cohorts expected that experienced adventurers would, over time, have run into magical events and devices that gave them increased stats without needing to build it into the system.

 

[Deadboy]

I REALLY liked 4e's rate of advancement. You started off a hero and grew into an epic badass... I really loved that, how the experience changed over time and eventually you became superheroic, and you could do it without Wishes, books or decking yourself out with magic items. It made for great story and fun gameplay.

 

[Mercule]

You know, if you think back to lots of old 1e modules, you'd find that high-level characters tended to have better stats than randomly-generated ones. And there was no explicit mechanism for this.

There were, however, several dungeons (even B1) that had strange phenomenae with the ability to raise or lower ability scores. I remember playing a low-level F/MU who lucked into a 19 Str, though that may have been homebrew.

I suspect that EGG and his cohorts expected that experienced adventurers would, over time, have run into magical events and devices that gave them increased stats without needing to build it into the system.

I hadn't really thought about it, but you're right. Still, I like the flavor of the pools, wishes, and divine favor a ton better than *ding* eight-level power-up.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

That also leaves it in the hands of the dm. Got a fighter with a 16 strength that needs a boost? Throw in magical fountain. Think the 18(93) strength fighter is strong enough? The fountain is dry.

 

[FireLance]

That also leaves it in the hands of the dm. Got a fighter with a 16 strength that needs a boost? Throw in magical fountain. Think the 18(93) strength fighter is strong enough? The fountain is dry.

You could also get that with a +1 to Strength subject to [cap] rule. It has the added advantage of not raising issues related to "Schrodinger's Fountain".

 

[Thalionalfirin]

I prefer a modest increase, if any.

I would do something like the 1e Unearthed Arcana rules for cavaliers but make it universal.

Every character starts with a stat and a percentile die roll. Every level, roll 2d10 and add to the percentile.

Cap it at racial maximum.

 

[mach1.9pants]

I could not say without seeing the rest of the math, looking at the scores in context. I can say that I'd like the scores to change to give some mechanical backing to character growth and change over time, but I can't say how many points per level, or the like.

With ability scores seemingly being quite important (saves and skills etc) and not knowing what the bonuses will be and/or how important those bonuses are I agree with Umbran:

Insufficient data to answer

However I do like the idea of improvement of some amount, like 3 or 4 E

 

[yoshikawa666]

I'd like to see it like in 4e. And with no caps (or mortal limits).