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?

[Guest 6801328]

My suggestion would be to go full on 13th Age.

Each race gets a +2 from choice of two.
Each class gets a +2 from choice of two.
They can't be the same one.

So race will influence your character, but you will always have a +2 matching what your class needs.

This is a good solution, too.

 

[Bolares]

I like the way Pathfinder 2 does it, a lot of liberty to build your stats.

 

[Horwath]

My suggestion would be to go full on 13th Age.

Each race gets a +2 from choice of two.
Each class gets a +2 from choice of two.
They can't be the same one.

So race will influence your character, but you will always have a +2 matching what your class needs.

one idea would be that class give +1 to one of 3 scores. Then you avoid having it double down with racial bonus.

I.E.

Barbarian: str, dex or con
Bard: dex, int or cha
Cleric: str, wis or cha
Druid; str, int or wis
Monk; str, dex or wis
Fighter; str, dex or con
Paladin; str, wis or cha
Ranger; str, dex or wis
Rogue; dex, int or cha
Sorcerer; con, int or cha
Warlock; dex, int or cha
Wizard; dex, in or wis

 

[Coroc]

So, I'm in the last 1/3 of Tomb of annihilation, and I'm already planning our next campaign, wich will be set in Eberron. In this current game, one thing has being bothering me. One player chose to play an Air genasi storm sorcerer, for RP reasons. The race and class work perfectly in theme, but the racial ability scores made the character fall a little behind power wise. The player loves the character, but I can sense that the low Charisma score bothers him a bit. I don't believe that players should be penalized for thinking outside the box when choosing race/class combinations, so I thinking of borrowing some ideas from PF2 and other games and giving classes a +1 to a main score on character creation.

This is how I'm planning to do it:

• Races with a +2 in a racial score get a +1 on it instead;
• Races with only +1 to multiple scores lose one of those scores and can't chose the same scorethey will receive from their class;
• Classes give +1 to 1 ability score. I'm usingthemulticlass pre-requisites as a base to wich score a class can improve, as follows:

Artificer	Intelligence
Barbarian	Strength
Bard	Charisma
Cleric	Wisdom
Druid	Wisdom
Fighter	Strength or Dexterity
Monk	Dexterity or Wisdom
Paladin	Strength or Charisma
Ranger	Dexterity or Wisdom
Rogue	Dexterity
Sorcerer	Charisma
Warlock	Charisma
Wizard	Intelligence

This +1 is only received on the 1st level, and does not affect choosing a new 1st level class for multiclassing purposes.



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

Breaks nothing, it shifts the planning using +1 ASI feats and whatever a bit. Although it also does not change much as well, since normally people tend to optimize their prime score for their class.

 

[Coroc]

Yes, only to the first class chosen.

Non variant humans gain 5 +1s but none can be put in the same score as the one you will receive from your class.

That one is a bit unfair, just make them loose one but without a restriction. Humans get more + to attribute at the beginning because other class do get mighty goodies:

e.g. darkvision, Armor proficiency, saving with advantage (Gnome) etc.

Some of these goodies are worth far more than a +1 ASI.

Also with ruling it like I suggest, the human is not outpaced by mountain dwarf for strength which is ridiculous. (Halforc being stronger than human at level 1 is ok, but not mountain dwarf imho)

 

[Coroc]

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.

What about humans? They stay at +1 to all? Or do you only allow human variant ?

If you only give +2 +1 to human standard you nerf them a bit for certain builds.

Btw no player is gimped by a +1 difference in an attribute score. At +2 you can start complaining. Anyhow if everything is balanced out over the races you can set any threshold you want, but do not forget to give standard humans 2x the asi of the other classes, e.g. you reduce it to +1 then standard human should get 2x +1 or 1x +2, If you say I want more and give other races a +2 x 3 times then standard human should have +2 for each attribute.

 

[ART!]

Another way of doing something similar:

Race: +1 in whatever ability score that race normally gives you a +2 in.
Class: +1 in whatever that class' quick build recommends as your highest ability score.
Background: +1 in...whatever makes sense for that background.

As per normal, you can't have more than a +2 from any of that at 1st level.

 

[NotAYakk]

Or my funish method.

Everyone gets a 15 and a 14 in stats of their choice.

They the roll 4d6 drop lowest in order for remaining stats.

Then they can swap 2 of the random-gen stats.

Then add racials. Then add a +1, but not to a stat they get a racial bonus to (except baseline human, who can stack it).

This means you (a) are guaranteed a 16 or 17 in your "primary" stat regardless of race (hence a +3 mod), and at least a 14 in a secondary (maybe 16), and (b) the rest of your stats are somewhat random, and (c) a high chance of a decent (13+) in a tetriary (but maybe much better).

Most 5e builds have a primary and secondary stat that have the largest balance impact. Sane people will use the 15/14 for those. So balance wise this is similar to standard array, just with higher and more chaotic tetriary stats.

And, by having the high stat at 15, a +1 vs +2 is less important; they both generate a +3 mod. One gets to grab a half-feat on the way to maxing the stat.

 

[LordEntrails]

Or my old school method, 3d6 in order!

Or for a gestalt campaign, 4d6-L assign as desired.

 

[Bolares]

Or my old school method, 3d6 in order!

Or for a gestalt campaign, 4d6-L assign as desired.

They're just finishing going through ToA in meat grinder mode.... I'm trying to go easy on them on the next one hahahah