D&D General Hypothetical: D&D without ability scores (or bonuses)

[Reynard]

This statement applies equally to skills in 5e, the DM rules on basically everything related to using a skill, from when you can use it, to how difficult it is, to what happens when you succeed/fail.

The secondary skill table is basically your background where you explain to the DM why you think it would allow/help you do something, and the NWP were the skills and they'd agree or not.

This is true. In 3.x, the uses of and DCs for skills were much more prescribed.

 

[FrogReaver]

Under the no ability scores method How does one differentiate a strong wizard from a charismatic wizard?

 

[Reynard]

Under the no ability scores method How does one differentiate a strong wizard from a charismatic wizard?

Why would that be a question? They are a wizard. Their power comes from wizardry.

 

[Umbran]

Could D&D be D&D without ability scores? Would you play D&D without ability scores?

So, you can get a perfectly functional role playing game on the d20 framework, without ability scores. I play other games that don't have ability scores.

To answer whether it would be "D&D" if you did that... why would you want to call it that? What's the purpose in attaching that name to the resulting game?

 

[FrogReaver]

Why would that be a question? They are a wizard. Their power comes from wizardry.

Why would that be a rebuttal? Wizards can be strong and/or charismatic.

 

[Scott Christian]

Under the no ability scores method How does one differentiate a strong wizard from a charismatic wizard?

It's left up to the skills the player wants their character to focus on. If they are great at persuasion and performance, yet terrible at athletics, then odds are the player is describing their character as charismatic. If they are great at sleight of hand, and terrible at persuasion and performance, then maybe they are dexterous. At least, that is how I would interpret it.

 

[FrogReaver]

It's left up to the skills the player wants their character to focus on. If they are great at persuasion and performance, yet terrible at athletics, then odds are the player is describing their character as charismatic. If they are great at sleight of hand, and terrible at persuasion and performance, then maybe they are dexterous. At least, that is how I would interpret it.

I guess you could turn strength into a skill?

 

[Basic Expert]

OD&D had the six ability scores, but they were rarely used as roll modifiers and, if they were, were capped at +/-1 on a d20, so not a huge effect on play. They mostly affected xp and that's it. Each addition upped the disparity between high and low scores and added additional uses for them because players LOVE differentiation in their characters (even if it means being worse at some things).

There are a few OSR games that don't use ability scores or modifiers. Searchers of the Unknown and its various derivations comes to mind. There is also Wizard, Rogue and Mage (which isn't D&D-based) but you essentially take ranks in the three classes to determine what you're good at. And Quest RPG characters are almost entirely mechanically defined through their feats.

In something like a 5E context, I would probably consider everyone to have (maybe) a +2 bonus to everything. They could take feats like "Great Strength" or "Hardy Constitution" to give them additional bonuses. However, with 2024's feat structure already giving ability score bonuses (but not necessarily a d20 bonus), you're looking at more of a rework than you'd probably want. Ability scores are just really baked into the system at this point.

 

[Scott Christian]

I guess you could turn strength into a skill?

Sure. Break/lift/jump.

 

[jmartkdr2]

I guess you could turn strength into a skill?

It’s called athletics and it’s been around for almost 20 years now.