D&D (2024) Put initial stat bonus in class not background

[d24454_modern]

I'm not sure which direction your point is facing.

Personally, my direction is "I enjoy that I am no longer limited in picking froma particular set of races for each class so as not to nerf my character and instead have the freedom to pick from the full list of races for any class". I remember back with AD&D and AD&D 2nd when you just were not allowed to play certain combos, like dwarven wizards, and it was a drag.

Then where’s the fun in playing a Sorcerer Orc if it plays exactly the same as every other Sorcerer.

 

[Ixal]

So you just wants "averages". The "average" dwarf is tougher than the "average" nondwarf. Well guess what? PCs aren't average. You want the "average" dwarf, you go to the Monster Manual where the book can present thousands more "average" dwarves with a simple statblock than the dwarves we get from the Player's Handbook. Cause if the dwarf statblock has their CON set at 12 and the human commoner at 10... pretty sure most people would be fine with that. So let's let the MM do the dirty work and stop demanding the character creation rules attempt to do it but fail miserably.

Yet the PC dwarf is still a dwarf, hence begin tougher than a PC elf (with the same specialization). Because dwarf.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Yet the PC dwarf is still a dwarf, hence begin tougher than a PC elf. Because dwarf.

And yet you can have a PC dwarf with a 9 CON and an elf with a 15 CON. Because game mechanics.

 

[Yaarel]

Then where’s the fun in playing a Sorcerer Orc if it plays exactly the same as every other Sorcerer.

Because the Orc invites flavors. The Sorcerer invites flavors.

The combination of flavors and how these flavors can work together create an interesting character concept. The past backstory and the future ambition are fun.

 

[Ixal]

And yet you can have a PC dwarf with a 9 CON and an elf with a 15 CON. Because game mechanics.

And? Intense training can overcome biological averages especially when you compare a trained and untrained person.
Yet the difference would be even bigger when comparing two dwarves or a human and that elf.

 

[DEFCON 1]

And? Intense training can overcome biological averages especially when you compare a trained and untrained person.
Yet the difference would be even bigger when comparing two dwarves or a human and that elf.

Great! And thus we can assume that all PCs have had intense training that has overcome biological averages... and this is represented in-game as not needing to have ability modifier bonuses on races! WotC got it right!

 

[Ixal]

Great! And thus we can assume that all PCs have had intense training that has overcome biological averages... and this is represented in-game as not needing to have ability modifier bonuses on races! WotC got it right!

Wrong, because now you do not deal with averages but racial maximums. An elf CON 15 vs. a dwarf CON 16 because of biology.
No way how you turn it and how trained or not trained someone is, biology has an influence.

 

[Charlaquin]

Then where’s the fun in playing a Sorcerer Orc if it plays exactly the same as every other Sorcerer.

It oughtn’t, because not every other sorcerer can gain temp HP and move up to their speed as a bonus action a couple times per day, or remain at 1 HP when they would be knocked to 0 once per day, or carry twice as much as usual for their size. All of those make tremendously more gameplay difference than an extra +1 to a few d20 rolls.

 

[d24454_modern]

Because the Orc invites flavors. The Sorcerer invites flavors.

The combination of flavors and how these flavors can work together create an interesting character concept. The past backstory and the future ambition are fun.

Flavor is created by limitations; not freedom.

It’s the fact that’s “sub-optimal” that incentives people to play differently than they otherwise would’ve.

By removing that, you make it the gameplay equivalent of shaved ice.

 

[d24454_modern]

Because the Orc invites flavors. The Sorcerer invites flavors.

The combination of flavors and how these flavors can work together create an interesting character concept. The past backstory and the future ambition are fun.

Flavor is created by limitations; not freedom.

It’s the fact that’s “sub-optimal” that incentives people to play differently than they otherwise would’ve.

By removing that, you make it the gameplay equivalent of shaved ice.