Knightfall
World of Kulan DM
So, I'm a bit of a grognard when it comes to how ability scores are generated for PCs. I've always liked that each race (besides humans) had a negative ability score adjustment. I realize that sort of concept has fallen out of favor and the D&D community is not likely to want to go back to it (if there is ever a new edition, which I doubt).
I've toyed with the idea of adding negative scores to the existing D&D 5E races (based mainly on 2E and 3E), but I don't think players would be willing to accept it.
However, late last night, I had an idea for an optional house rule.
What about the idea of specifying for each race a Default Low Ability Score? You'd roll as normal for your scores but when assigning the values (assuming you do it that way), you have to put the lowest score rolled in the Default Low Ability Score for the race you choose. For example, say you roll a 16, 14, 13, 12, 10, and 8. You decide you're going to pick Elf as your race. Assuming you choose, say, high elf instead of one of the other subraces, you'd have to put the lowest rolled score (8) into Constitution (as per the Elf in 3E). There's no penalty to the roll, but you have to put the lowest score into Con.
Each race (or subrace) would have its own Default Low Ability Score (DLAB). Each DM would decide based on the campaign being played. Your high elf might not be the same as mine. You might prefer the elf to have its DLAB be Strength instead of Constitution. And for races that used to have more than one negative score (as per the Half-Orc in 3E), the player can choose either one or the other as the DLAB.
Now, I know a lot of people prefer to assign ability scores based on point buy, so it might be that when you use points for the DLAB, you pay more to increase it. 1 point becomes 2 and 2 becomes 3. I don't use point buy very often in my games, so it isn't something I am passionate about. Maybe this idea doesn't work with point buy or maybe you have to use fractions to make it fair (but complicated).
I just wanted to run it by the people here on EN World and get everyone's opinion. And I'm all for suggestions for how to make the idea better or if you have your own house rules about making 5E feel more like the older editions when generating ability scores.
Knightfall
I've toyed with the idea of adding negative scores to the existing D&D 5E races (based mainly on 2E and 3E), but I don't think players would be willing to accept it.
However, late last night, I had an idea for an optional house rule.
What about the idea of specifying for each race a Default Low Ability Score? You'd roll as normal for your scores but when assigning the values (assuming you do it that way), you have to put the lowest score rolled in the Default Low Ability Score for the race you choose. For example, say you roll a 16, 14, 13, 12, 10, and 8. You decide you're going to pick Elf as your race. Assuming you choose, say, high elf instead of one of the other subraces, you'd have to put the lowest rolled score (8) into Constitution (as per the Elf in 3E). There's no penalty to the roll, but you have to put the lowest score into Con.
Each race (or subrace) would have its own Default Low Ability Score (DLAB). Each DM would decide based on the campaign being played. Your high elf might not be the same as mine. You might prefer the elf to have its DLAB be Strength instead of Constitution. And for races that used to have more than one negative score (as per the Half-Orc in 3E), the player can choose either one or the other as the DLAB.
Now, I know a lot of people prefer to assign ability scores based on point buy, so it might be that when you use points for the DLAB, you pay more to increase it. 1 point becomes 2 and 2 becomes 3. I don't use point buy very often in my games, so it isn't something I am passionate about. Maybe this idea doesn't work with point buy or maybe you have to use fractions to make it fair (but complicated).
I just wanted to run it by the people here on EN World and get everyone's opinion. And I'm all for suggestions for how to make the idea better or if you have your own house rules about making 5E feel more like the older editions when generating ability scores.
Knightfall
Last edited: