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

[Worrgrendel]

That is the narrative that is associated with the fiction of the race. I expect the rules to respect that narrative. We could habve exact same argument about dragonborn or aarakocra abilities. If I want my ork to fly and breathe fire why shouldn't the rules allow that? It is the same thing, but if the race's niche is something that can be represented by ability scores, it according to many should just be claimable by any race, whilst I doubt many would extent the same courtesy to more exotic capabilities.

If you want to have a flying fire-breathing Orc then play an Orc Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer! Granted, flight won't happen until level 14 unless you take the Fly spell at level 5... Oh and your CHA will be behind the curve... but you'll be stronger than a Halfling (maybe)!

On a more serious note, this is not an apples to apples comparison for what we have been discussing and I think you know it. I have been saying, all along, replace the ability increase with something meaningful that defines the Race from level 1 - 20. Not something that will give you a 5% edge for a few levels and then not matter at all any more. I feel like you are stuck on generalizations of Race and not on PC's being exceptional representatives of that Race. Ed Greenwood would certainly have never made Drizzt Do'Urden if he stuck with generalizations about Races.

 

[Myrdin Potter]

There is an option in the market that is selling well right now if you want to ditch Racial ASI and stay for 5e:

DriveThruRPG

www.drivethrurpg.com

 

[EscherEnigma]

No player should show up with a halfling character expecting to be the strongest unless they've spoken to the GM about increasing the character's strength beyond the maximum possible with the rules as written.

Seeing as halflings and half-orcs have the same cap on strength, it feels like this advice applies regardless of which race you plug-in to this sentence.

And yes, I've said (repeatedly) that you should talk to your GM about your character's narrative. The RAW/RAI do a poor job of modeling most narratives. Don't expect rules to stand-in for RP.

So that flying, fire-breathing orc is cool with you then?

I've run some campaigns where I intended to tell a stronger story, and gave restricted character creation rules to players, and spent more time with them talking about their character's story and background to make it "fit" what I had planned.

I've also run beer-and-pretzels games where we were all about the whacky shananigans and a flying fire-breathing orc (with or without explanation) would have fit right in.

So... it depends.

As always, if you want to do something outside the rules, talk it over with the GM. If something is important to your narrative (even if it is supported by the rules), talk it over with the GM. The issues you keep raising are matters of RP, spotlight, lore and so-on. These aren't issues you should be relying on rules to enforce (best case scenario, they do it clumsily). They are issues you should be relying on your strong communication skills to enforce.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

If you want to have a flying fire-breathing Orc then play an Orc Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer! Granted, flight won't happen until level 14 unless you take the Fly spell at level 5... Oh and your CHA will be behind the curve... but you'll be stronger than a Halfling (maybe)!

On a more serious note, this is not an apples to apples comparison for what we have been discussing and I think you know it. I have been saying, all along, replace the ability increase with something meaningful that defines the Race from level 1 - 20. Not something that will give you a 5% edge for a few levels and then not matter at all any more. I feel like you are stuck on generalizations of Race and not on PC's being exceptional representatives of that Race. Ed Greenwood would certainly have never made Drizzt Do'Urden if he stuck with generalizations about Races.

Characters being exceptionally is already reflected by the generous point buy. And no, I don't think that abilities and features are different. Both are things that affect the capabilities of the character. It simply happens that some things can be represented with abilities and some cannot. And I feel that if something can be represented with abilities, it should, because that's why they are there! Their literal purpose is to measure capability of a creature on these six axis. Inventing parallel mechanics that measure those same things in some different manner is just confused and ugly game design.

 

[Dausuul]

There are a few ability score modifiers that do make sense for the race. Elves are graceful. Dwarves are tough as nails. Halflings are small and sneaky. Fine. But an awful lot of racial modifiers are very obviously just checking boxes: Every race has to have a +2 and a +1, so we gotta find stats to match that. We need a +1 mod for hill dwarves. Uh... how about Wisdom? Sure, sounds good. Drop a line in the subrace description about how they're deeply intuitive. Tieflings should be good at warlocking, so give them +2 Cha, even though most tieflings are isolated emo loners and they look like literal fiends from hell*.

So I say junk the lot of 'em, and boost the starting array/points to make up for it. For the mods that really fit a race's concept, most people will be pursuing a character concept that fits that race, and so they will invest in that stat anyway. Or else they will be deliberately playing against type as a clumsy elf or a sickly dwarf, and more power to 'em. For the other mods, they were only ever there in the first place to check a box, and the game is better off without them.

*Note that a similar criticism could be leveled against the warlock class. And this here is why I want to get rid of ability scores entirely.

 

[MGibster]

Seeing as halflings and half-orcs have the same cap on strength, it feels like this advice applies regardless of which race you plug-in to this sentence.

Sure. But some races get +2 on the Strength while others get no bonus.

 

[CleverNickName]

Sure. But some races get +2 on the Strength while others get no bonus.

I guess if you needed to somehow model the strongest half-orc always being stronger than the strongest human, you could change the ability score cap from 20 to "18 + racial modifier."

 

[Micah Sweet]

There is an option in the market that is selling well right now if you want to ditch Racial ASI and stay for 5e:

DriveThruRPG

www.drivethrurpg.com

Yeah, this is good stuff. They put out a couple supplements that add over a 100 ancestries/cultures as well. Very playable.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

I guess if you needed to somehow model the strongest half-orc always being stronger than the strongest human, you could change the ability score cap from 20 to "18 + racial modifier."

That certainly would work. Though it would cap most abilities of most races to 19, and it is questionable whether that is desirable.

 

[Micah Sweet]

There are a few ability score modifiers that do make sense for the race. Elves are graceful. Dwarves are tough as nails. Halflings are small and sneaky. Fine. But an awful lot of racial modifiers are very obviously just checking boxes: Every race has to have a +2 and a +1, so we gotta find stats to match that. We need a +1 mod for hill dwarves. Uh... how about Wisdom? Sure, sounds good. Drop a line in the subrace description about how they're deeply intuitive. Tieflings should be good at warlocking, so give them +2 Cha, even though most tieflings are isolated emo loners and they look like literal fiends from hell*.

So I say junk the lot of 'em, and boost the starting array/points to make up for it. For the mods that really fit a race's concept, most people will be pursuing a character concept that fits that race, and so they will invest in that stat anyway. Or else they will be deliberately playing against type as a clumsy elf or a sickly dwarf, and more power to 'em. For the other mods, they were only ever there in the first place to check a box, and the game is better off without them.

*Note that a similar criticism could be leveled against the warlock class. And this here is why I want to get rid of ability scores entirely.

Again, we can't assume everyone uses the standard array, even if assuming that makes it easier to white room. Rolling has to be accounted for.