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

[FrogReaver]

At that point you have to find a way to compare Trance to Halfling Luck and say which is better for wizards - which is going to be hugely dm dependent (basically: how often do you need to make nighttime perception checks) as well as requiring more judgement calls, which is why it immediately dissolves to talking past each other or just shrugging and moving on. Which one works best for my Monday night game has no bearing on anyone else here but me.

But hey, if we're sharing anecdata: my overall experience is that players just want to hit the minimums, and they tend to think of 16 in their main stat (in this case intelligence) as the minimum, so with floating modifiers any race is 'good enough', so people would pick based on flavor/art reasons rather than mechanical ones. Which is probably why I've had such good experiences with the rule.

I don’t think it’s that hard to compare asymmetrical abilities most of the time.

 

[Charlaquin]

I’m pretty convinced that house ruling ASI’s to be floating +2/+1’s will actually create more power disparity for class + race combos than less.

And I’m pretty convinced of the opposite. Only one way to find out who’s right.

 

[FrogReaver]

And I’m pretty convinced of the opposite. Only one way to find out who’s right.

Do a poll?

 

[Charlaquin]

I think with floating ASIs the net effect over all will be a wash.

On one hand, you will have people playing new races because they can put the ASI's where the want them.
On the other hand, you will have players sticking to a few races because they don't need to expand their selection to put the ASIs where they want them.

I guess I just... Don’t see a problem with the other hand here? Like, if you’ve got one player who’s just nuts about elves and wants every character they play to be an elf... Why not let them? Why punish them with a lower score in their class’s primary ability, just for wanting to play their favorite race but wanting to try their hand at being a Cleric for once instead of another Ranger (or whatever)?

 

[jmartkdr2]

I don’t think it’s that hard to compare asymmetrical abilities most of the time.

You can compare them, but without knowing how often they'll come up you can't really say which is "better" in an objective or provable sense, so you can't end the argument/debate. Key ability mods are different in that they come up pretty much every turn in combat at least, so the frequency issue isn't there. Secondary abilities go back to the 'comparable under certain assumptions' category, though, which is probably why I don't see a rush towards races with both ability mods in a good spot for most classes.

 

[Charlaquin]

Maybe.
Let’s play a game and name the races that would make good wizards if ASI’s were floating.

I’d say mountain dwarf and variant human are the standouts.

That’s Significantly different than the list we have today. Variant human, high elf, gnome, mountain dwarf.

High elves and gnomes would make excellent wizards if ASIs floated... And mountain dwarves only make sub-par wizards as-is...

 

[Scott Christian]

For all the talk about the 3 pillars WotC did during the playtest, that didn’t bear out in the actual game they published. As long as the game rules are disproportionately focused on resolving combat, discussion of the game’s design will be similarly focused on combat. Obviously DMs can compensate for this combat focus on their own tables, but we’re talking about the game’s design and mechanics here.

I too, am talking about game design and mechanics. If your skill challenges are really not needed, they are just dice rolls to keep people busy, great. But for many tables, skill challenges open quest lines or close quest lines. They allow you to take a shortcut bypassing one, two or three combats or make you have to fight. They decide whether you can stay in a place or not. They even decide if the magic item comes into your possession or if you are sol. Those are all rolls, based on mechanics. The only difference is, they function in the skills department.
And granted, the role play may be DM based. But for some tables, what you choose has made a huge difference. Some tables, race means nothing, but background offers a lot of opportunities for gameplay. Other tables it may be the opposite. And in some tables, none of it matters. All the races and professions and economic classes hold hands and are happy together. There is no right or wrong. But to say it doesn't matter means the table, and most importantly, the DM, has decided not to pay attention to it.

 

[Charlaquin]

Do a poll?

I was thinking try it at your table and see what happens. A poll is going to tell you what people think will happen, only play testing will tell you what will actually happen.

 

[Charlaquin]

I too, am talking about game design and mechanics. If your skill challenges are really not needed, they are just dice rolls to keep people busy, great.

Who said anything about skill challenges not being needed???

 

[FrogReaver]

I was thinking try it at your table and see what happens. A poll is going to tell you what people think will happen, only play testing will tell you what will actually happen.

Why would I play test something I don’t think is a good idea and why would I do it for someone who will just dismiss my results if they are contrary to their expectations?