D&D 5E Race/Class combinations that were cool but you avoided due to mechanics?

[Sir Brennen]

See, this is where people being bad at probability math really shows. They look at a +1 bonus to hit and say, "Oh it's just a 5% difference." Well the thing is, that 5% difference doesn't mean you hit or miss 5% more often. And that chance to hit is what really matters.

Say you need to roll an 11 or better, giving you a 50% chance to hit. If you add a +1 then your chance to hit has gone up by 10% of its old value. That's a noticeable amount. Now say you need a 16 or better to hit a heavily armored boss type foe. Pushing that to a 15 means your chance to hit has gone up by a full 20%. That's a massively noticeable level.

So don't undersell the value of a single +1 to hit, especially in 5e with bounded accuracy. That +1 matters a lot.

In addition to this, you have to consider all the impacts of a +1 stat bonus, beyond attacks.

Take the Uber stat, Dex, for example. I have a low level Dex-based Battlemaster in a current campaign, and you can bet I'm making sure her Dex is bumped up as much as possible. A bonus of +1 to Dex impacts :

• Attacks
• Damage
• several Skills
• Dex Ability Checks
• Dex Saving Throw
• Armor Class
• Save DC against Battle Maneuvers

Given that several of these things can come up in a single round, possibly all of them in a single encounter, the effect of that +1, and overall effectiveness of the character, becomes more than just a flat 5%. (I'm not a statistician, but I'm sure someone can give some examples.)

 

[Undrave]

You might not, but you aren't everybody.

If you don’t intend to make use of your friggin’ Class features then why the heck are you a Barbarian?! That’s just being lame for the sake of being different

 

[Guest 6801328]

But by blowing these expectations to smithereens you can also alienate new players.

Surely you're referring to something more than changing racial ASIs?

 

[Sacrosanct]

14 and NEVER raising it? So you play a character who fails at its primary role and wear it like a badge of honor?

Yes, my halfling barbarian has a 14 strength and I won't ever be raising it. It turns out that he is a better damage sponge than a damage dealer, so that's how he grew organically. Very effective damage sponge, but it was clear that he wouldn't ever be the main damage dealer like a str based barbarian would be. Not without more work and additional trade offs.

Which isn't the end of the world mind you, and I'm not upset about it. Just a bit off that in order to fill the archetype of super violent little wild savage man, I'd have to go fighter with outlander background instead of the actual barbarian class that is supposed to be designed specifically for that archetype.

 

[Sir Brennen]

Are they really a great waste? Or are you a ranger because you solve problems by negotiating with the creatures around you and your knowledge about them?

For this character, yes, they're rather a bit of a waste because that's not how I plan on playing him. He has a 12 Charisma after the bonus.

Plus, I always thought it was weird that Cha was the ASI Tieflings got. It seems more min-max first, to make them better warlocks or sorcerers, then adding fluff to justify it. Being a mortal with obvious ties to the infernal surely must result in a wide range of "charisma", from being a literal silver-tongued devil or embracing your ability to invoke fear in those who see you (high Cha) , to brushing it off (middling Cha), or loss of self-esteem or constant anger (low Cha).

Like you said, it's almost a tax on the player to select a race for a class they're not mechanically inclined toward.

 

[Sacrosanct]

.
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I guess I just had bad experiences with players who field inneficient characters and become a drag on the party 'for flavor' and are proud of it...

Oh, my red flag "if you're not optimized, you're hurting the other players" just came up.

 

[billd91]

If you don’t intend to make use of your friggin’ Class features then why the heck are you a Barbarian?! That’s just being lame for the sake of being different

Choosing to not maximize the stats driving class features is not the same as not making use of them.

 

[Undrave]

Oh, my red flag "if you're not optimized, you're hurting the other players" just came up.

that particular guy wasn’t particularly contributing outside of combat either and his character even stole a relic from other party members and replace it with a forgery.

The character basically contributed nothing to the party in any way.

and his stats weren’t even bad, too, it’s just that he never made use of them in one way or another.

 

[Guest 6801328]

See, this is where people being bad at probability math really shows. They look at a +1 bonus to hit and say, "Oh it's just a 5% difference." Well the thing is, that 5% difference doesn't mean you hit or miss 5% more often. And that chance to hit is what really matters.

Say you need to roll an 11 or better, giving you a 50% chance to hit. If you add a +1 then your chance to hit has gone up by 10% of its old value. That's a noticeable amount. Now say you need a 16 or better to hit a heavily armored boss type foe. Pushing that to a 15 means your chance to hit has gone up by a full 20%. That's a massively noticeable level.

So don't undersell the value of a single +1 to hit, especially in 5e with bounded accuracy. That +1 matters a lot.

I don't think it's necessary to mock other peoples' math skills to make this point, but it is an important point, and it continued to get ignored in this thread even after you made it.

This whole "It's only 5%" ignores the difference between a "change in percent" and a "percent change". +1 makes the most difference against the hardest foes.

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

that particular guy wasn’t particularly contributing outside of combat either and his character even stole a relic from other party members and replace it with a forgery.

The character basically contributed nothing to the party in any way.

and his stats weren’t even bad, too, it’s just that he never made use of them in one way or another.

That's one of the reasons I run multiple groups in the same world simultaneously. If a player from Group A likes naughty word with people, he can naughty word with Groups B and C instead of his own party members.

Here a few things my groups have done to each other.

• Booby trap dungeons to other groups can't get the treasure first. (The world has only one Staff of Wizardry, and nobody wants the other group to get it.)
• Send assassins after another party.
• Spread rumors about fake adventures to waste the other groups' time.
• Spread rumors that another group have small dicks and an STD.

Not only do the groups harm each other, they also work together on occasion. Sometimes there's a threat so terrible that all 22 players have to forget their differences and team up in order to overcome it. (Cue crossover session music!)