Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="RingXero" data-source="post: 1041777" data-attributes="member: 109">In DMG 3.5 pg 173They balance the physical and mental skills differently, and whether a bonus or negative is applied is handled differently. ------------------------------------------------Ability score equivalencies:A.S. Bonus       Ability Score or Scores PenaltyStrength--------Dex OR Con OR Int and Cha OR Int and Wis OR Wis and ChaDexterity--------Str OR Con OR Int and Cha OR Int and Wis OR Wis and ChaCon---------------Dex OR Int OR Wis OR ChaInt----------------Wis OR ChaWis---------------Int OR ChaCha---------------Int OR Wis--------------------------------------------They also point out that it is ok to have a 'weaker' race by not evening out the penalties (ex. +2 Cha, -2 Str) but be aware that some players may not want to play it.So in the end they point out that a -2 to Str is worth more than the +2 to Cha,  valuing the physical stats above mental in both positive and negative. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />This is of course based on the assumption that physical combat will happen more often than diplomatic encounters in the average D&D campaign.  But then I still have a problem with it overall, as you do.  If I had a campaign that centered around magic use or diplomacy more than physical combat, then the +2 to int or cha would be worth more than the physical values.Elves in my campaign are -2 Str, -2 Con, +2 Dex, +2 Int, +2 Cha.I personally feel that this is a little top heavy but overall balanced, considering some penalties in the game with playing an elf.  Would this be considered balanced for everyone? no, but it balances out in my campaign which is all that matters.  This also allowed me to give the half elves a +2 to Cha, to balance what I felt where some inadequacies in their alotment.</blockquote>

Verification