Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Felon" data-source="post: 4148976" data-attributes="member: 8158">I like so much of what I've seen, but there seems to be one reoccurring mechanic that just stinks on ice. I wish there was some extant clever term for it, but I don't think there is one yet. Basically, it's allowing players to decide which ability score modifier to apply in a given circumstance. For sake of simplicity, I will use the portmanteau "lopstatting".The broadest case of lopstatting we've seen is the defense system, which allow players to pick one of two ability scores to apply to their AC, Reflex, Fort, and Will saves. We've also seen it in the class paths, where one rogue uses Strength for attack and damage, and another uses Dex. And we're seeing it with the Dragonborn's breath weapon (which can apparently use a Str-based attack roll). This seems to really make a totally lopsided character, with one ability score set as high as he can get it and the others left at their base value, much more efective than a well-rounded character with multiple mid-range ability scores. There is a finite list of things an ability score modifer can apply to: attack, damage, defense, initiative, hit points, skill checks, and maybe a couple of other things that aren't springing to mind right away. It doesn't take too many instances of this kind of cherry-picking before a character is virtually a one-state wonder. I don't think I'd mind this if it seemed like lopstatting was just one character-building option, but it appears to be a component that's hardwired into defenses, classes, and other core elemnts of the game, so the well-rounded path is just a suboptimal option. And that's something that I just buy into. For me, it begs the question of why there are multiple ability scores to begin with if ultimately every character is empowered to just use their best one.</blockquote>

Verification