D&D 5E I want to try out a different way of doing racial ability scores in my next campaign, want to poke holes at it?

[NotAYakk]

So a 1 point difference in Cha caused a character to fall behind the power curve of the group...?

I think that's your problem right there.

Fix the 1 point if you want, but I would be more worried about the concern of the power curve myself.

So +0 cha gives you a 15, or +2 modifier. Which means 2.5 feats to 20 cha, or level 12 before maxing the stat.

While you may think maxing the stat isn't important, by level 12 some foes can have +10 in a save.

A 20 cha gives a save of 17, vs 16 with 19. So a "hit" rate of 30% vs 25%. That is big. With metamatic, that becomes 49% vs 44%; so the 20 cha sorcerer is 1.1x to 1.2x better at landing the spell.

It hurts. I mean you aren't nerfed to "barely better than a commoner" but...

 

[LordEntrails]

So +0 cha gives you a 15, or +2 modifier. Which means 2.5 feats to 20 cha, or level 12 before maxing the stat.

While you may think maxing the stat isn't important, by level 12 some foes can have +10 in a save.

A 20 cha gives a save of 17, vs 16 with 19. So a "hit" rate of 30% vs 25%. That is big. With metamatic, that becomes 49% vs 44%; so the 20 cha sorcerer is 1.1x to 1.2x better at landing the spell.

It hurts. I mean you aren't nerfed to "barely better than a commoner" but...

Wow, your perception of 5% is much different than mine. And that 5% difference would only be around for a maximum of 4 levels.

I can say that when I design and run adventures, no story is ever going to be determined by a difference of 5%. But that's my perspective.

You do you.

 

[PsyzhranV2]

Wow, your perception of 5% is much different than mine. And that 5% difference would only be around for a maximum of 4 levels.

I can say that when I design and run adventures, no story is ever going to be determined by a difference of 5%. But that's my perspective.

You do you.

Depends on how long you spend at the lower levels before getting that ASI, and how long the game will actually run which impacts how many ASIs total you get.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

So, do you think this breakes anything? Is there a way to improve it?

Seems over designed.
I do this:
Every PC gets +2 to one attribute, and +1 to another, regardless of race. I don't allow variant Human.

As someone mentioned up thread - PCs are special.

And in a population of X millions of X race, there's going to be outlyers. That's what makes them special. So having a 1st level Gnome Barbarian with an 17 strength is totally possible. She may be the only gnome on the planet with that high strength - but she can exist.

 

[Bolares]

People, I love the advices, and agree it seems over designed when written out, but in reality its quite simple, take 1 +1 from the race and put it in the class. That said, maybe I'll do something simples, depends on how the group feels.

about 5% being relevant or not... that seems kind of irrelevant for the thread. What is important to me is how my players feel. If they feel underwhelmed by that 5% difference (in every single stat that matters to their casting) I will try to pay attention to it. This is not an issue of balancing the game's math, but making the game better to what my players want of it.

 

[ad_hoc]

People, I love the advices, and agree it seems over designed when written out, but in reality its quite simple, take 1 +1 from the race and put it in the class. That said, maybe I'll do something simples, depends on how the group feels.

about 5% being relevant or not... that seems kind of irrelevant for the thread. What is important to me is how my players feel. If they feel underwhelmed by that 5% difference (in every single stat that matters to their casting) I will try to pay attention to it. This is not an issue of balancing the game's math, but making the game better to what my players want of it.

Why ask the question then?

 

[Bolares]

Why ask the question then?

I've asked if there is some problem with the house rule not if people think getting a 14-15 instead of a 16-17 to the main stat is relevant... That may be an interesting discussion, and if people want to have it here... sure, but that was not what I was asking and I felt it was necessary to clarify.

 

[LordEntrails]

about 5% being relevant or not... that seems kind of irrelevant for the thread. What is important to me is how my players feel. If they feel underwhelmed by that 5% difference (in every single stat that matters to their casting) I will try to pay attention to it. This is not an issue of balancing the game's math, but making the game better to what my players want of it.

This is, imo, the absolute right attitude to have. I didn't get that from your OP, hence raising the issue about what problem needed solving.

I don't think your solution is very cumbersome. Detailing it is a little long winded, but as you simplify it to just moving a +1 from a race to the class then it's simple. the details are only needed to clarify the edge cases and 'what-ifs'.

 

[jmartkdr2]

I've run "no racial ability mods; you get a +2 to one ability and a +1 to another at character creation."

It did exactly what I wanted it to: it allowed more variety of builds without players feeling like they gimped themselves, while creating no negative impacts. Orcs still feel orcy, etc, because of racial traits and roleplaying.

 

[Guest 6801328]

I hate racial ability bonuses. It gets in the way of character concept, because it's too tempting to optimize.

I think bonuses should have been based on class in the first place.