D&D 5E What To Do With Racial ASIs?

[Crimson Longinus]

I find the other racial traits already do a pretty good job diferentiating the races.

Unless things like sleep, vision, and taking damage don't really matter in your campaign, the choice between elf and orc will have an impact, even without a 2-point swing in ability scores.

If ability scores were the only racial trait I'd see your point.

Most of the other things are pretty inconsequential ribbons that rarely affect how the character plays.

 

[ZeshinX]

Most of the other things are pretty inconsequential ribbons that rarely affect how the character plays.

How the character plays is entirely up to the player (and DM to large degree). Certainly the mechanics make it easier to play them in specific directions. You might even call them "default" directions based on racial ability scores...but it's ultimately up to the player to choose how the character is played.

I mean to each their own as far as how they interpret certain rules and mechanics, but seeing predominantly hard-coded limitations based on ability scores is an unfortunate (but certainly not invalid) vision for a game of imagination.

 

[jmartkdr2]

Most of the other things are pretty inconsequential ribbons that rarely affect how the character plays.

Your play experience must be very different than mine. I see these things come up fairly frequently. They're not life-or-death differences, but they're relevant once a session, or maybe every other session.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Most of the other things are pretty inconsequential ribbons that rarely affect how the character plays.

FWIW I find more value from all the other racial traits than just the ASIs. But, that might be just me.

 

[MGibster]

Because someone suggested change and we just can't possibly afford to offend the 60+ year old bearded Grognards with that dreaded and soul-breaking concept of.... things not being the way they were when they were 12.

Eh, I'm fine with change. D&D has constantly changed since it's first inception almost 50 years ago and it will continue to change in the future. Tastes and trends change over the years and D&D must change in order to continue attracting new players. Personally, I'm a big fan of many of these changes and less of a fan of others, but 5E is still my favorite edition. While I've got fond memories of 1st and 2nd AD&D, you'd have to pay me to play them. After more than 30 years of playing D&D, I think it's pretty clear I'm not going to be driven away by change.

Except there was a point where I flat out quit playing D&D, 4th edition. It was so radically different I just didn't like it an moved on to 13th Age, Pathfinder, and other games. There comes a point where they make too many changes at once and I'll just move on again. No hard feelings or complaints though. If that's what other people like, more power to them.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Well, 100 voters and here are the collective standings:

 

[dave2008]

What if racial bonus / penalties were level dependent. I have often wanted to break D&D 5e into two categories:

1) Mundane - levels 1-10. The things PCs can do in this realm are within reason similar to what we can do in reality (+ magic)
2) Legendary - levels 11-20. This is were PCs get the ability to do legendary and/or super-heroic type things.

What this might mean for stats would be something like a mundane human can only get to STR 18 up to level 10 (where as goliath or a dragonborn could have a 20), but once you hit level 11 you can put your ASI wherever you want. You can have that STR 20 halfling or whatever. The assumption is that past level 10 you are breaking the norms your are the legendary mythic character able to things beyond natural limits

 

[dave2008]

Well, 100 voters and here are the collective standings:

View attachment 123992

So over half the votes are for some type of change. That is a little surprising to me.

 

[DND_Reborn]

So over half the votes are for some type of change. That is a little surprising to me.

Earlier over 50% did not want it changed at all. But I knew the tide would shift--it happens in polls often. People who might not have bothered to vote, see their "side" losing, and decide to vote after all.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

What if racial bonus / penalties were level dependent. I have often wanted to break D&D 5e into two categories:

1) Mundane - levels 1-10. The things PCs can do in this realm are within reason similar to what we can do in reality (+ magic)
2) Legendary - levels 11-20. This is were PCs get the ability to do legendary and/or super-heroic type things.

What this might mean for stats would be something like a mundane human can only get to STR 18 up to level 10 (where as goliath or a dragonborn could have a 20), but once you hit level 11 you can put your ASI wherever you want. You can have that STR 20 halfling or whatever. The assumption is that past level 10 you are breaking the norms your are the legendary mythic character able to things beyond natural limits

It kinda works like that already, because if you can't start with better than 15 it takes three ASIs to get that 20, which means pretty high level. But I wouldn't mind if it was made explicit. And yeah, 'realism' breaking down on higher levels is less of an issue, as I really don't see past-level-ten D&D character as 'normal people.'