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

[Myrdin Potter]

I prefer the current system of the bonuses being tied to the race you chose. If you don't want to min max, you can still play whatever class you want, just that some races are a more natural fit. However, I have zero problem with just making the bonuses floating. You character is already going to be an exception, so why not?

I think there is way to much angst over possible parallels to non-game issues, and not enough focus on the game itself.

My daughter plays a Goblin Bard in my campaign. No charisma boost, but so what? She enjoys the role playing and fun of playing a goblin out in society trying to be different. It probably is more fun for her that way. With a floating bonus, she could have the typical very high Charisma score but it really is not needed.

 

[Tallifer]

Just put the stat boosts in Classes. I always refluff one race to roleplay another otherwise, because 1) I think mechanical optimization shouldn't interfere with my roleplaying or 2) some some dungeon masters forbid certain races. Some people enjoy playing suboptimal stat arrays, but their teammates usually don't enjoy their constant whiffing or incompetence in their class skills.

 

[DND_Reborn]

And that’s fine, but you should be aware that your desire to remove racial bonuses because you think stats are too high is an idiosyncratic one. The rationale that most people are presenting is that racial bonuses should be removed because they object to the idea that race should pigeonhole characters into certain roles. You’re arguing about absence of bonuses, most people are arguing about absence of bonuses that are explicitly tied to race.

Sure, and I am fine with that. I know most people want more bonuses. I like my starting PCs only having a +2, maybe the super +3, at level 1. Others want +3 as a minimum when they start. For me, the +3 ASI were talking here, which at best leads to two +1 modifier bumps, are not essential to the game. That is I voted to either keep them as is, or just get rid of them. I'm fine with either option.

As an aside, a lot of people are also arguing about racial issues (why can't halflings be as strong as minotaurs!?), not so much pigeonholing (although that certainly is an issue as well!).

 

[Micah Sweet]

I think we should keep the bonuses tied to race, but I'm fine with splitting them among ancestry and culture.

 

[NotAYakk]

Can I vote "have a competition to see who wins, and use that system"?

Because that would make it a competition.

 

[Guest 6801328]

By E, you mean get rid of them entirely? How is that roughly equivalent to voting for B, C, or D?

Because it accomplishes my objective of making races more equal for any given class.

 

[MGibster]

I thought removing the attribute penalties was a good idea and enough to avoid pigeonholing races into certain roles. I remember thinking nobody would ever be a half-orc bard back in 3E because they got that Charisma penalty. But I don't see any reason to decouple attributes from race altogether. If someone wants to play a hulking brute then maybe a 40 pound halfling isn't the right choice for them.

 

[delericho]

I'm leaning towards getting rid of them. If you want to reflect the fact that half-orcs are particularly strong, give your half-orc a high strength score.

My inclination would be to simply remove them entirely - everyone just has lower stats across the board (and all humans use the "choose a feat and a skill proficiency" approach of the variant human package. But I could live with giving everyone three +1s to assign wherever they want (with no more than +2 to any one stat).

My "second choice" option would be to assign each race one fixed and two 'floating' +1 bonuses to assign. So all half-orcs would get +1 Str, which they can choose to boost to +2 if they want... or they can instead boost Int by +2, or whatever.

My third choice option would be to just leave them as-is. I can see the benefit of enabling any race to optimise for any class, but I'm not hugely bothered if it isn't built-in.

 

[DnD Warlord]

I was told in another thread I was the minority for trying to suggest (someone else came up with it) a way to keep race stat bonuses...but so fra 53% say to leave it alone...

 

[Crimson Longinus]

I was told in another thread I was the minority for trying to suggest (someone else came up with it) a way to keep race stat bonuses...but so fra 53% say to leave it alone...

It's actually over 75% when you count the bizarre double votes.

EDIT: Except it is not really that either because the total is more than 100%... Math is hard...