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

[Quartz]

I really don't like racial stat modifiers. Just replace them with a feat (humans get 2 feats). If you do want stat bumps, let the background give a +1 and the class give a +2.

Both of these have the advantage that if your PC changes race (e.g. Reincarnate, curses, whatnot), you don't have to recalculate stats.

 

[Danzauker]

Honestly I think the base racial stats work well as they are.

They are "all in all starting packages" for someone who just wants to play the archetipycal elf or dragongorn or whatever, with allthe cons and pros of that choice.

If you want to have a really customizable character, you'd be better to just choose human and imagine it with pointy ears or scaly skin, put the modifiers wherever you want, choose (or make up one) a racial feat from UA or whatever source and be done.

 

[TwoSix]

Just get rid of ability scores all together. There is often only the loosest and shakiest of reasons of why they affect anything they affect across the character sheet in the first place and despite being treated with equal weight in character creation, a character most certainly does not get the same benefit from investing in each.

1st and 2nd edition saw people tanking their mental stats for physical ones unless they were a spellcaster, 3/3.5 was the age of characters with no Charisma and only average Constitution, 4E had class basically dictate your main two ability scores unless you were intending to render yourself utterly inept, 5E is the age of everyone having super high Dexterity and no Intelligence.

The ability scores were arbitrary from the beginning and while people have tried to create some sort of connection with them in order to justify them-- there really isn't. They just aren't the best array for describing a character and certainly not the best array by which to balance a character for the game. It would be far easier to create a much more balanced game by doing away with them entirely. Most everything one does with them can be assessed by a skill or by creating a skill that does that thing.

Once ability scores are eliminated, you don't need to worry about ability score improvements either. Which, in 5E, means you'll see way more people taking feats which are fundamentally more interesting anyway.

Once you start thinking about changing or removing the ability scores, you've moved firmly out of "Possible changes to official D&D" territory and into "I'd like to make my own indie fantasy heartbreaker" territory.

 

[TwoSix]

If we're going pie-in-the-sky, I'd go with this:

1) Instead of races, or ancestries, have backgrounds. Some of the backgrounds are tied to particular fantasy tropes of races, some aren't. One background might be "Dwarven Miner", another one might just be "Noble", with the possibility of being flavored for any kind of race. These give you starting hit points, skills, some proficiences, etc.

2) Every character picks 2 classes at 1st level. When you level, you gain the abilities of both. Some of these classes are actually races, which give progression for themed racial abilities. So your two classes might be Dwarf and Wizard, or Elf and Ranger, or Fighter and Cleric.

 

[jmartkdr2]

I see nothing wrong with having racial ASI's, personally I think characters start with too many point buy stats but that is easily ammended with a lesser point buy for a grittier game. I'd prefer, like some others suggested, an 18 cap with your racial bonuses allowing one to reacher higher.

I have no issue with having ability disparities between races in a roleplaying game where one can play an awakened tree, an orc or a satyr. Having a standard +2/+1 for every race is lame and hardly innovative. IME Limitations allow for interesting choices (innovative), whereas standardised benefits inspire unimaginative, window-dressing options.

My experience is the opposite: racial ability mods reduce the number of options, causing players to play the same characters over and over, rather than doing anything new. So you never see dwarf wizards or elven fighters or halfling clerics.

 

[Sadras]

My experience is the opposite: racial ability mods reduce the number of options, causing players to play the same characters over and over, rather than doing anything new. So you never see dwarf wizards or elven fighters or halfling clerics.

This may be due to our differing styles. It is true sometimes I may want to play the half-orc barbarian, other times I may want to play against type (which includes against the mechanics) by playing a half-orc bard. We all min/max, but often enough I loved jumping into something uncommon like the dwarvern wizard or the halfling cleric - the allure (for me) is there BECAUSE the numbers are not necessarily favourable.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

My experience is the opposite: racial ability mods reduce the number of options, causing players to play the same characters over and over, rather than doing anything new. So you never see dwarf wizards or elven fighters or halfling clerics.

And your solution is have to play same characters that are different in name only?

 

[GreenTengu]

Once you start thinking about changing or removing the ability scores, you've moved firmly out of "Possible changes to official D&D" territory and into "I'd like to make my own indie fantasy heartbreaker" territory.

Well-- I guess we'd best start recalculating to-hit numbers using THAC0 and restrict all non-human races to just being given arbitrary attribute limits and allowed to be 2-3 classes and have hard level limits on all those classes for each race while humans have "dual classing" which means they lose all abilities of the old class until their new one reaches the same level. Every adventure using random encounter tables that get rolled only when you open the door to the next room of the dungeon. And when the encounter is over, the DM needs to go pour over the treasure types tables and randomly generate the appropriate treasure that randomly spawned by the randomly occurring monsters that only popped into existence when you opened that door.

Druids must be forbidden from using any metal, except scimitars "because" and have to murder a higher level Druid in order to gain levels. Wizards should need to carefully track their spell components which should routinely cost more than the spell is worth casting and involve trophy hunting unusual monsters just to pluck their eyeball or a few wing feathers or such. Rogues need to be using Rogue ability tables which include skills like "climb walls" that no one else can do and rolling results on d100s with early levels being almost guaranteed to fail at everything-- and those tables must be arbitrarily modified by race.

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.

 

[TwoSix]

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.

<shrug> Some things are more core to the D&D experience than others. Ability scores, levels and classes, the core races, the recognizable "old chestnut" spells, rolling a d20 to attack and other dice for damage are all pretty central to the definition. The trappings around them, not nearly as much.

 

[jmartkdr2]

And your solution is have to play same characters that are different in name only?

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.