D&D 5E I'm really hating Constitution right now

[BrokenTwin]

I still say the game would be a better TTRPG with only four ability scores:

Brawn
Agility
Intellect
Personality

You have to change the names or else people will associate them with the older categories.

The only major issue is that it's not always easy to give monsters lots of hit points. But, if you want to have monsters that are really beefy but don't have high Brawn, just give them more hit points. You can do that. You can just cross out 10d8-10 and put in 10d8+20 if you want them to have 65 hp instead of 35 hp. The game totally lets you do that.

If you really, really want to make it all codified, you can just make abilities that change the stat used to determine hit points away from Brawn and instead use something else. This Air Elemental uses Agility instead of Brawn. That Lich uses Intellect instead of Brawn. That Beholder uses Personality instead of Brawn. Hit points represent your ability to ignore or avoid damage, so just lean into that and make hit points for some creatures based off what makes the most sense for that creature.

Unfortunately, you can't really change this aspect of the game anymore. The six stats are central to the game and changing it would make it Not D&D.

You should give Shadow of the Demon Lord a look, if you haven't already. It does exactly that.

 

[DND_Reborn]

was referring to multiple stats,

we have them also but people are fanatically tied to single casting stat.

most are paladin + bard/warlock/sorcerer...I smell some divine smite/aura of protection conspiracy

So was I.

Druid/Sorcerer, Cleric/Wizard, and Druid/Wizard are three examples in our current party. We have had only one Sorcerer/Warlock who would normally be tied to double-Charisma, but our house-rule is Sorcerers use CON so that isn't the case for us.

 

[Don Durito]

Simple suggestion.

HP bonus per level is based on the lowest of Strength or Con.

Kill two birds with one stone.

 

[Seramus]

So a few design issues if you want to go this way.

I have a lazy solution. ALL races can choose where their +1 goes.

Dwarves get +2 Strength, +1 other attribute of their choice.

 

[toucanbuzz]

You all talk me into bad ideas. Here I was gaming along with Constitution, just like the days of old, and suddenly we're coming up with common sense reasons it doesn't make sense. Shame!

 

[Celebrim]

Constitution has been every characters second best attribute since 1e days. Removing the cap on the constitution bonus for non-fighter classes in 3e, and thereby decreasing the relative value of large dice for HD, only increased the truth of that. Turning the combat system into one were really only hit points mattered in 5e only further heightened the importance of Constitution.

The real choice limiter isn't so much "You Need Constitution" or not as "Multiple Attribute Dependency" or not.

For those upset about this, I suggest using house rules where every character just has a single ability score Awesomeness upon which all ability score related things depend, and then just have every character start with an 18 in Awesomeness. It will solve all the underlying problems.

 

[jmucchiello]

Again I reference Critical Role: The party could have Scanlan do ALL the Social work. They don't. Percy does Diplomacy, Vex does Haggling, and Scanlan does BS......FFS Scanlan's Persuasion is +18! +18!!! Vex's is +9! But guess what, their character's don't work that way. Percy has 20 INT, Vex has 17 Charisma. They are going to engage with the world/story socially. So they do - they don't defer to Scanlan in every social situation because he has INSANE Charisma. Those stats aren't "wasted" in the slightest - they are fundamental pillars of the characters.

It's not "they have Vex or Percy do persuasion instead of Scanlan." It's Scanlan would BS people instead of persuade them and Vex or Percy jumps in before he can do that so they don't end up BSing someone important. That's a party dynamic.

But the CR crew is not really a good comparison, in one other regard. They run. They see something they've never seen before. Matt describes something even slightly creepily and they get completely intimidated and am-scray as fast as possible. A fight isn't going well, they start debating if they should run. Most parties you have to assume will not run unless you start putting hundreds of drider minis out. Not CR. They will run when they are overwhelmingly likely to win.

 

[CleverNickName]

You could just make a house-rule where Constitution always starts at 10. Players only roll 5 ability scores instead of 6, and the default array is 15, 14, 13, 12, and 8.

Certain race options, ASIs, and feats could then be used to increase it as the character levels up.

 

[cbwjm]

I guess this thread made its final death save and rolled a "20" giving it a hit point.

It was me, I killed this thread and I'll do it again!

 

[Xeviat]

I was actually thinking about this again today, and then I come here and see my thread was necroed.

Neat.

I'm thinking the 4E solution might be best. Con improves your recovery, not your base HP. So Con adds to Hit Dice rolls, but it doesn't add to HP per level. One would have to change hit dice to recover fully on a long rest, but then high con characters could recover more than their base HP over the course of a day.

I crunched the numbers on it a while back and it was reasonably close to where things were now. Monster math would need to be revised, but monster HD is mostly descriptive now so you could remove that without any loss. I might also add Con score to HP as a buffer at low levels, but I really want to do that anyway.