D&D General Vote Up A 5e-alike, Part 3: Stats and ASIs

[CreamCloud0]

2. ancestry, background, culture, and class. let's get the whole spectrum going. we ball.

i like the four parts as character creation building blocks but i don't know if i'd want ASI tied to all of them

 

[billd91]

I'd be content with ASIs coming from ancestry, background, AND class. +1 from each because each could easily give you some reason to have a benefit over the unmodified 3-18 normal distribution.

 

[Li Shenron]

Standard 6.

No ASI, or small and fixed based on either creature type or culture.

 

[Faolyn]

I must mention the system @Levistus's_Leviathan discussed years ago.

Species - Grants a single ASI of a variation per species.
Class - Grants a single ASI of a variation per class.
Background - Grants a single ASI of variation per background.

I think its conceptually similar to how PF2 ended up, and its pretty close to floating, but not. In the hypothetical where culture, becomes Culture (a game object) sure, just tack on another ASI for Culture.

Just another option out there.

I like this one the best.

 

[TwoSix]

I like this one the best.

Besides my own suggestion, that's also my favorite, with the caveat that the ASIs from Class/Race/Background shouldn't stack.

 

[Scribe]

Besides my own suggestion, that's also my favorite, with the caveat that the ASIs from Class/Race/Background shouldn't stack.

Stacking to a potential +2 is how I had it.

 

[Aldarc]

Question 1: Standard 6 is a sacred cow even I wouldn't kill in something that's D&D-like.

Not even in Shadow of the Demon Lord or Shadow of the Weird Wizard?

 

[TwoSix]

Not even in Shadow of the Demon Lord or Shadow of the Weird Wizard?

I did think about that, but the lack of the big 6, combined with its other evolutions, puts SotDL (and SotWW) just outside of my own idiosyncratic (and probably not fully coherent) definition of a "D&D-like". It's about as close as you can get without going over, though.

 

[Minigiant]

1) Classic 6

Can I be the odd one.

2)
You choose
TYPICAL
You get the Ancestry, Background, Class, and Culture Ability Score Increases and Decreases which add up to +4 total but with -2 in your scores.

Or

VARIANT
You get floating ASI which add up to +3.

 

[RangerWickett]

The stats should be:

Awareness
Brawn
Cunning
Daring
Education
Fanciness
Grit
Health
Initiative
Justice
Killing

We are making a Cowboy game, right?

---

Or more seriously, if I were in charge of D&D, I'd keep the 6 scores, since the 6 scores are sacred cows -- but they're kinda dumb sacred cows. Like, I want to be able to make a skilled knife-fighter without also being an Olympic gymnast. Or I want to have a cleric of the god of storms who is not, y'know, full of little nuggets of wisdom; he's just full of righteous fury. I want an option to make a paladin who is really good at smiting, but not very persuasive. Stuff like that.

So I'd try to divorce combat from ability scores.

Like, Strength can still affect what kind of weapons and armor you can use, but I wouldn't have it affect attack rolls. Arnold Schwarzenegger is not a better swordfighter than a wiry old dude who's been doing kenjutsu for 40 years. Ditto Dexterity. Simone Biles ain't necessarily good at archery. Ditto save DCs being modified by Int/Wis/Cha for spellcasters.

Just set the numbers to fair amounts, and rely on tactics to provide bonuses. I much prefer when choices during the game session matter more than choices made during character creation.

And now that we're getting rid of combat being modified by ability scores, we can reduce the importance of ability scores. So there's no need to 'increase ability scores.' Just have what you have, though maybe make it an option during gameplay to spend some character-building resources to get better at one or the other.

Like, feel free to give elves +1 to attack rolls with bows, but not a bonus to Dexterity.

And if a PC starts off rude by wants to have a glow-up by going to charm school or whatever, cool, let them do something to increase their Charisma, and now you don't have to worry about every sorcerer in every game wanting to go to charm school to improve their save DCs.