Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Putting the Attributes into more focus.
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="volanin" data-source="post: 6377558" data-attributes="member: 69817"><p>Lately, I've been having two problems while DMing 5th edition:</p><p></p><p><strong>1.</strong> Whenever I am DMing to players that come from other systems (usually Storyteller), they always get confused about the dual nature of the main Attributes vs. the Attribute modifiers. They don't understand why both are necessary if only the modifiers are ever used, and some get genuinely confused. And they are right indeed, since I believe the main Attributes (from 3-20) are only in the game in order to maintain the original D&D feeling.</p><p></p><p><strong>2.</strong> Also, when I DM to new players, they quickly get the concept, but they no longer refer to they character as having Strength 18, or the classic "I want to make a Charisma 18 woman". They don't get confused as the Storyteller players, but they only look at the modifiers, losing this "time-proven classic D&D feeling". I admit to this problem being more nostalgic than functional, but I really miss it from my old games.</p><p></p><p>Anyway, I was really thinking about ditching the Attribute modifiers table and instead just writing the main Attributes on the character sheet. And then, calculate the "modifiers" by dividing the main Attribute by 2 when adding them to the D20. So instead of having modifiers going from <strong>-5 to +5</strong>, I would get modifiers going from <strong>0 to 10</strong>. Mechanically, this would be the same range, and the game balance would be unchanged, with the benefit of bringing the main Attributes more into focus.</p><p></p><p>If I recall correctly, the only change I would have to do is to <strong>add 5 to every DC</strong>. The AC values and Spell Save DC would need no modifications at all (I would have to add 5 to the DEX limit of every armor as well, but that's it).</p><p></p><p>An extra bonus: if I want to deal with fractions, I could optionally rule that a player with Strength 13 could add 6.5 to the dice against another with Strength 12, which would add only 6 to the dice, giving the player with the "useless Odd Attribute" a small advantage in these challenges (during Grapple, for example, a tie in the D20 would rule in favor of the STR 13 player).</p><p></p><p>Am I missing something?</p><p>What do you think?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="volanin, post: 6377558, member: 69817"] Lately, I've been having two problems while DMing 5th edition: [B]1.[/B] Whenever I am DMing to players that come from other systems (usually Storyteller), they always get confused about the dual nature of the main Attributes vs. the Attribute modifiers. They don't understand why both are necessary if only the modifiers are ever used, and some get genuinely confused. And they are right indeed, since I believe the main Attributes (from 3-20) are only in the game in order to maintain the original D&D feeling. [B]2.[/B] Also, when I DM to new players, they quickly get the concept, but they no longer refer to they character as having Strength 18, or the classic "I want to make a Charisma 18 woman". They don't get confused as the Storyteller players, but they only look at the modifiers, losing this "time-proven classic D&D feeling". I admit to this problem being more nostalgic than functional, but I really miss it from my old games. Anyway, I was really thinking about ditching the Attribute modifiers table and instead just writing the main Attributes on the character sheet. And then, calculate the "modifiers" by dividing the main Attribute by 2 when adding them to the D20. So instead of having modifiers going from [B]-5 to +5[/B], I would get modifiers going from [B]0 to 10[/B]. Mechanically, this would be the same range, and the game balance would be unchanged, with the benefit of bringing the main Attributes more into focus. If I recall correctly, the only change I would have to do is to [B]add 5 to every DC[/B]. The AC values and Spell Save DC would need no modifications at all (I would have to add 5 to the DEX limit of every armor as well, but that's it). An extra bonus: if I want to deal with fractions, I could optionally rule that a player with Strength 13 could add 6.5 to the dice against another with Strength 12, which would add only 6 to the dice, giving the player with the "useless Odd Attribute" a small advantage in these challenges (during Grapple, for example, a tie in the D20 would rule in favor of the STR 13 player). Am I missing something? What do you think? [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Putting the Attributes into more focus.
Top