D&D 5E Making Abilities More Meaningful in 5E

[ren1999]

The Player's Handbook 2nd Edition did a nice job here. I'd like to see this return in 5th Edition.

For Strength -- connect Athletics Skill to that. Return to the benefits of weight allowance, open doors, bend bars, lift gates

For Constitution -- connect Endurance Skill to that.

Dexterity -- connect that to learning rogue skills and some fighter feats.

Intelligence -- connect that to learning spells, prayers, and knowledge skills

Wisdom -- ?

Charisma -- return the maximum henchman table but scale it to the number of NPCs a character may want to handle during a campaign. More than 4 NPC's becomes tiring as other players are waiting to play. If there are 4 players and each have 50 henchman, the game becomes unmanageable.

Charisma Ability Score
10-12 # of henchmen 0
13-14 # of henchmen 1
15-16 # of henchmen 2
17-18 # of henchmen 3
19-30 # of henchmen 4

Optional
If the campaign includes any type of war gaming.
10-12 # of vassals soldiers 50
13-14 # of vassals soldiers 100
15-16 # of vassals soldiers 150
17-18 # of vassals soldiers 200
19-21 # of vassals soldiers 250 etc..

 

[Minigiant]

Personally I'd start with a few ability based features and go modular from there

Strength

• Melee Attack rolls
• Heavy Melee and Thrown weapon damage rolls
• Checks that represent breaking items
• Checks that represent using muscle strength and physical force

Dexterity

• Ranged attack rolls
• Projectile weapon damage rolls
• AC bonus in light and medium armor
• Initiative bonus
• Checks that represent using precision, acrobatic control, and hand eye coordination

Constitution

• Hit Point Bonus
• Massive damage limit
• Checks that represent resisting pain, utilizing endurance, and relying on stamina
• Healing Surges (Healing Surge Module)
• Number of Soulmelds (Incarnum Module)
• Number of Grafts (Graft Module)

Intelligence

• Bonus languages
• Checks that represent using logic, reasoning, and learning
• Checks that represent crafting items (Craft Module)
• Checks that represent the effect of your reputation (Reputation Module)

Wisdom

• Checks that represent making gold via a profession on off time
• Checks that represent resiting attempts to be influenced by others
• Checks that represent using memory, insight, or discipline
• Sanity Point bonus (Sanity module)

Charisma

• Checks that represent attempts to influence others
• Checks that represent actively using physical attractiveness
• Number of followers (Follower Module)
• Number of Contacts (Contacts Module)
• Taint Points (Taint Module)

 

[AngryMojo]

By the sounds of it, the entire system is based around the ability scores. I think you'll get your wish in spades.

 

[Sunseeker]

IMO, scores should work as follows:

STR:
Melee hit: translated as the force of a blow.
Melee damage: the damage through high force.
Ranged Damage on certain weapons: the ability to pull a bow-string back is a matter of strength, not dexterity.
Athletics, your "stamina" basically.

DEX:
Melee hit: as translated through the ability to land a precise hit.
Ranged hit: the ability to land a precision strike.
Ranged damage: again, like above, through precision.
Sneak: the ability to move silently and not make noise.
Athletics alternate, represented by short bursts of fast movement as opposed to long-hauls.

CON:
HP, pure and simple.
Endurance: fort saves, "surges" other durability of body things.
Athletics alternate 2: the ability to withstand punishment over a long period of time.

INT:
Magical spells from learning.
Magical damage.
Magical hit.
Various "learned knowledge skills"

WIS:
Magical spells through raw ability.
Alernate magical damage.
Alternate magical hit.
"learned through experience" skills.

CHA:
Divine spells known.
Alternate magical/divine damage
Alternate magical/divine hit.
"force of personality" skills.


I see each score as being able to contribute to multiple things, and multiple scores being able to cover the same ground depending on the character. This would provide room for a wide variety of variant builds within the same class. Each class should have two primary scores and two secondary scores.

 

[ren1999]

Can you go into detail a little on each module?

 

[BobTheNob]

Keep the ideas coming people. I like it when every stat has at least SOME value to everyone (some more than other, but each has some). I want it to be a tough decision to even have a dump stats.

 

[rjfTrebor]

am i the only person that really hates the idea of followers? if you thought pet classes took a lot of time out of the game, imagine a guy whose turn consists of himself and twelve henchmen.

i also think the traditional adventuring party feel of dnd would be broken if several of the party members had a whole payroll of guys follow them around.

Charisma

10-12: classic 0-1 bonus to social skills
13-14: 1-2 bonus to checks and you get to pick a social perk (reroll one charisma based check once per encounter or something similar)
15-16: 2-3 bonus to checks and you get an additional social skill and can maybe take 10 at certain checks
17-18: traditional 3-4 bonus and you get another bonus social skill, and maybe some kind of second tier version of a skill you already have EX.
Improved Bluff: you can choose to reroll bluff checks but you must take the second result even if it's lower.

these are just some ideas of how i'd like to see charisma handled, i don't want it to just become the "groupie stat."

 

[howandwhy99]

AD&D's tables:

For EVERYONE:
STR: To Hit adjustment, Damage adjustment, Weight allowances, Open Doors, Bend Bars/Lift Gates
INT: Additional Languages
WIS: Magical adjustment on specific mind altering saves
DEX: Surprise & Missile adjustment, AC & Save Defensive Adjustment
CON: HP Adjustment, System Shock %, Resurrection %
CHA: Max Henchmen, Loyalty base, Reaction Adjustment for conversation

By CLASS:
STR: Higher maximums 18+ for all fighters
INT: Chance to learn a spell, Min & Max spells/level for magic-users
WIS: Bonus Spells, Spell Failure odds for clerics
DEX: Adjustments for 5 Thief abilities
CON: (none)
CHA: (none)

Plenty of class abilities are affected by ability scores too. The bonuses by class are for primary classes and all their subclasses, so are grouped above.

WIS & INT have little effect outside of a class, but these scores were really more for NPCs. Each needed to be further defined by DMs for NPCs. Most PC Intelligence and Wisdom ability were expected to come from the player.

 

[Chris_Nightwing]

Strength
- 2H weapon to hit and damage
- Heavy thrown weapon to hit and damage
- Carrying capacity
- Checks to move, break and open things
- Saves against being knocked down, moved or disarmed

Dexterity
- 1H weapon to hit and damage
- Light thrown weapon to hit and damage
- Projectile weapon to hit and damage
- Checks for acrobatics, stealth, reaction
- Saves against area damage, some traps

Constitution
- Influence on HP and other healing/injury mechanics
- Checks for endurance, athletics
- Saves against poison, paralysis

Intelligence
- Direct spell to hit and damage rolls
- Checks for raw knowledge, *perception of things*
- Saves against surprise, some traps

Wisdom
- Indirect spell to hit and damage rolls
- Checks for applied knowledge, *perception of people*
- Saves against stun, confusion, faux-pas

Charisma
- Influences luck (APs?)
- Checks for social interaction, bartering
- Saves against mental control, embarassment

 

[Blackwarder]

I would like to divorce to hit bonus from weapon bonus and ability checks.

So:
Strength
- Heavy weapons to hit bonus
- Melee weapon damage bonus.
- Carrying capacity and maximum weight lifting.
- Checks to open doors, break things etc.
- Checks for various athletic skills.
- Save vs being moved etc

Dexterity
- Light and ranged weapon hit bonus.
- No damage bonus.
- AC bonus.
- Saves vs area attacks/dodging stuff

Constitution
- HP bonus
- System shock chance.
- Gets lowered by one permenant point each time resurrected.
- Saves vs poison, petrified etc.

Intelligence
- Bonus languages.
- Bonus skills.
- Spell learning chances. (arcane)
- Bonus spells. (arcane)
- Maximum number of known spells per level (wizards)

Wisdom
- Bonus divine spells
- Mind affecting spells immunity
- Saves vs mind affecting attacks

Charisma
- Bonus reaction rolls (when dealing with NPCs)
- Number of henchman.
- Passive influence (bonus to moral of henchman or the paladin charisma based bonuses)

Each ability should also have a standard ability check bonus on top of everything else.

Warder