D&D 5E The Perils of Dump Stats

[ezo]

In a game this week I had my PC die and another player's die from the Vargouille due to both of us have CHA 9 scores. We failed our saves during the suprise round, the Vargouilles had initiative, and each of the two kissed one of the PCs.

Even though we were 5th level, we had no caster who could cast Remove Curse, and the villiage priest didn't have it. It was night time, and the sun wasn't coming soon enough to help us. The priest didn't have time to take a long rest to help us since we lost 1 point of CHA each hour, 7 hours later we both had CHA 2, died, and our heads deteched to become Vargouilles.

I've known PCs with STR dumps to fear Shadows since that can kill, but it's has never happened.

Have any of you had a PC die because of the dumped stat?

 

[Blue]

Absolutely. Especially back in earlier editions where racial modifiers included penalties, so dump stats often became very dumped. You mentioned Shadows, I killed off a 7 STR Halfling with one of those. With ability damage mostly gone in 5e it's a lot rarer.

 

[MGibster]

If you're playing D&D, it's designed with the assumption that you'll have a well rounded party. i.e. You'll have one or more PCs who will cover the bases because, in a sense, ever PC will have a dump stat. This is especially true if you use the standard array for attributes during character generation.

 

[Oofta]

I ended up not killing anyone, but had a dex or int based party and attacked them with shadows that do strength drain in a haunted house. It was at the point where several of them were crawling on the floor to find a place to rest up.

 

[Seramus]

Is 9 a dump stat? I know it's technically a negative modifier, but I still think of it as "Fairly average."

 

[James Gasik]

Is 9 a dump stat? I know it's technically a negative modifier, but I still think of it as "Fairly average."

Basically your lowest stat is technically a "dump stat" to some degree. I have a Wizard whose lowest number is a 12 Charisma- I'm not looking forward to ever having to make a Charisma save!

 

[ezo]

Is 9 a dump stat? I know it's technically a negative modifier, but I still think of it as "Fairly average."

Well, unless you are rolling stats, 8 is the lowest you'll (generally) start with. So, since 8 and 9 both have a -1 modifier, I consider it a dump stat. I certainly could have had a 10 if I wanted, but I needed the point elsewhere---and it cost me! LOL.

 

[ezo]

If you're playing D&D, it's designed with the assumption that you'll have a well rounded party. i.e. You'll have one or more PCs who will cover the bases because, in a sense, ever PC will have a dump stat. This is especially true if you use the standard array for attributes during character generation.

The party (5th-level) consisted of:

Dwarf Barbarian (Storm Herald) died)
Gnome Wizard (Conjuration) (died)
Dwarf Paladin (Redemption)
Hafling Sorcerer (Divine Soul)

Between the Paladin and Sorcerer, we have sufficient healing. The wizard served utility and some AoE, while the Paladin and Sorcerer were also both support/ buff. FWIW my wizard had the Urchin background and also served as our scout and lockpicker, etc.

It was just unfortunate that Remove Curse is Cleric, Paladin, Warlock, and Wizard. Only my wizard could have had it, but I just made 5th level and my two spells were Fly and Magic Circle.

It was just a bad situation really.

 

[jmartkdr2]

This is more “the enemy bypassed normal defenses and you didn’t have the specific countermeasures.”

Stat-draining effects are like that; if you didn’t know you would need it you probably wouldn’t have prepared remove curse (although now I’m thinking that keeping a scroll of it around is probably a good idea)

 

[payn]

Back in PF1 I remember a PFS session where a kid brought a Monk with dumped CON. Was one-shotted in the very first encounter. Very entertaining.