D&D 5E Is Tasha's More or Less The Universal Standard?

[ECMO3]

2. The temp hp rolls were streamlined so that every ally in range gets a set amount of temps rolled at the start of the cleric's turn, rather than having to stop and roll and adjust temps at the beginning of every single ally's turn for the whole encounter

This does get rather disruptive in play.

 

[ECMO3]

Thus far (We are only on level 3) of allowing all the books this campaign as it takes too much flipping through different books when I need to look up a rule or two on what they can do. It's sort of a pain, but maybe it will become easier as the campaign goes further and the different abilities get into memory.

IME this can be a problem, but it is really a player problem. It is mostly a problem when either

1. The player does not understand his or her own abilities so we have to stop and sort through 9 different books to find it.

2. The player tries to "cheat" and understands it but does not come clean with the DM on how it works and abuses a less knowlegable DM. I am thinking of the player that knows form of dread is only active for attacks on your turn but tries to frighten someone with an opportunity attack anyway. As an example, we had a player who kept casting absorb elements when he was hit with necrotic damage. The DM was following so much crap he did not notice it. I did but I didn't say anything because I did not want to be "that guy" especially as it was a climactic tough combat. Finally after 3 or 4 rounds in a row the DM blurts out "does absorb elements even work on necrotic damage?"

Either of these cases violate the basic player contract IMO. I think players have an obligation to do their homework on their PC abilities and they have an obligation to run the ability like it should be run and to be honest about how things abilities work.

 

[ECMO3]

Because optimizers love a good challenge? My group is full of optimizers and yet, they play the mountain dwarf wizard and rogue. They play the halfling barbarian. They play the elf fighter based on strength. They play the half-orc warlock. The fun is to succeed where others are afraid to thread. Floating ASI do not encourage builds, it simply encourage rubber masks. If any race can do anything with equal ease, what is the fun in that?

I don't think the Dwarf is a good example to use when the armor itself is a huge boost.

Moreover floating abilities don't make a rubber mask, to the contrary they make the race about the racial features and not the ability bonueses.

An Elf fighter has trance and fey heritage and perception proficiency and weapons training and it has all that whether his strength is a 14 or a 16 at 1st level. Also I don't think the 8 vs 10 in dexterity he would have is much of a discriminator and having a 10 in dexterity instead of an 8 does not really make him any more "elfish".

If I want a half-orc bladesinger to get relentless endurance and savage attacks how is it putting a mask on his race if his dex and intelligence are 16 and 17 instead of 15 and 15. Moreover why is he more orcis with an 10 and 9 strength and con instead of 8 and 8?

 

[LordEntrails]

No. I won't use the race options for ASI. Its counter to what I imagine a race is. To me, race choice must have pro's and cons, mechanically, its not just a flavor thing.

Have not yet allowed the bonus feats. Not opposed but would just need to be the same for everyone.

Haven't really look at everything else. My players may have picked up something from it here or there, but honestly not sure.

 

[Synthil]

Because optimizers love a good challenge? My group is full of optimizers and yet, they play the mountain dwarf wizard and rogue. They play the halfling barbarian. They play the elf fighter based on strength. They play the half-orc warlock. The fun is to succeed where others are afraid to thread. Floating ASI do not encourage builds, it simply encourage rubber masks. If any race can do anything with equal ease, what is the fun in that?

I mean, floating ability modifiers don't prevent you from doing that. You can still put the scores into strength and constitution as a wizard. Now you just can do that as a gnome too.

 

[Helldritch]

I don't think the Dwarf is a good example to use when the armor itself is a huge boost.

Moreover floating abilities don't make a rubber mask, to the contrary they make the race about the racial features and not the ability bonueses.

An Elf fighter has trance and fey heritage and perception proficiency and weapons training and it has all that whether his strength is a 14 or a 16 at 1st level. Also I don't think the 8 vs 10 in dexterity he would have is much of a discriminator and having a 10 in dexterity instead of an 8 does not really make him any more "elfish".

If I want a half-orc bladesinger to get relentless endurance and savage attacks how is it putting a mask on his race if his dex and intelligence are 16 and 17 instead of 15 and 15. Moreover why is he more orcis with an 10 and 9 strength and con instead of 8 and 8?

Nice try, but floating ability screams for the best score in the best place. Always.
What prevents a lot of people from doing the orcish sorcerer, the dwarven wizard and so forth is exactly the fact that will not get the famous sweet 16. Most will not see that they gained something else in the process. They do not care about the other stuff the race gives them. They care about the sweet 16. And with floating ASI, you see mountain dwarves wizards with that 16 in intel and medium armor and 14 in dex and 15 in Con for quite an over powered char. Or half elves and so on.

I mean, floating ability modifiers don't prevent you from doing that. You can still put the scores into strength and constitution as a wizard. Now you just can do that as a gnome too.

I saw this argument in other posts and no. You will not see people do that on purpose if they are not "forced" to by the rules. They will not try to play the underdog unless they are very advanced in RP and even then, it will not be their first reflex and they will not do it with every DM they will see. You do not see gnome fighter based on strength for that simple reason. Doing it means you gimp yourself. You want that gnome to overcome or have a surprise value. You have to work with what you have and work hard to make it work. With floating ASI, you just do it without a second thought. With floating ASI rubber masks races become.

 

[MoonSong]

As an unrepentant optimizer, not allowing floating ASIs doesn't discourage me from maximizing my main score. It just discourages me from playing anything than matching races. It has the opposite effect of getting me to consider the roleplay aspect more, while it does nothing for those who already prioritize the roleplay aspect over optimizing.

I'm also thinking of making a houserule that death saves have your class keyscore as the DC instead of the default, and they only reset when you are healed to full HP.

 

[BookTenTiger]

Oh fun it's turning into this thread again!

 

[Seramus]

I've found even the most optimization minded players tend to enjoy at least one lowish score.

As long as I have one really good stat, I'm entirely happy with two or even three low ones. Granted, I find stats as low as 3 pretty difficult to roleplay, but 6-10 is absolutely on the table if I have my one comfy 17-18.

 

[kapars]

I allow all of it but the Twilight Cleric ability applies to 1 character of choice and the Peace Cleric d4 doesn’t stack.