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<blockquote data-quote="Guest 6801328" data-source="post: 8047382">The thread that will not die.&nbsp; (&quot;How do you kill that which has no life?&quot;)Anyway, I've solved it. You can either leave now, confident and content that it all has been resolved, or read on and become enlightened.First, from the point of view of not having to choose between optimization and story, the problem that's bigger than racial ASIs is variant humans and their free feat.&nbsp; +2/+1 where you don't get to assign it, vs. floating +1/+1 and a feat?&nbsp; I go for the latter almost every time.So here are my design goals:<ul>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">Freedom, or as much as possible, from an optimization point of view, to choose whatever race you want.</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">Preserve the flavor/lore of some races being faster, stronger, smarter, whatever.</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">Preserve the flavor of humans being the most versatile.</li>
</ul>Here it is:<ul>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">Non-humans get +1/+1, with one assigned and one floating.&nbsp; Humans get +1 to all stats.</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">Everybody also gets one feat.&nbsp; Each non-human race gets a list of feats they can choose from (for this free feat only; at higher levels they get the full list) some of which include a +1 bonus to their favored stats.&nbsp; I.e., half-orcs might have feats that give +1 to Str or Con, plus some feats that don't give any bonuses.&nbsp; Humans get to pick from all the lists.&nbsp; (Note: we'll probably have to come up with some more feats.)</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">Non-humans still get their other racial features (plus maybe some new ones?&nbsp; They have to add up to being a good trade-off for +1 to your four least important stats.)</li>
</ul>The result is that if you want to optimize for an archetypical class (e.g. halfling rogue) you can start with a 17 in your primary stat; otherwise the highest you can start with is a 16.&nbsp; That both preserves the sense that some races are just stronger, faster, etc., but doesn't actually provide a higher bonus for those first 3 levels.You can thank me when 6e is in print.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Guest 6801328, post: 8047382"] The thread that will not die. ("How do you kill that which has no life?") Anyway, I've solved it. You can either leave now, confident and content that it all has been resolved, or read on and become enlightened. First, from the point of view of not having to choose between optimization and story, the problem that's [I]bigger[/I] than racial ASIs is variant humans and their free feat. +2/+1 where you don't get to assign it, vs. floating +1/+1 and a feat? I go for the latter almost every time. So here are my design goals: [LIST] [*]Freedom, or as much as possible, from an optimization point of view, to choose whatever race you want. [*]Preserve the flavor/lore of some races being faster, stronger, smarter, whatever. [*]Preserve the flavor of humans being the most versatile. [/LIST] Here it is: [LIST] [*]Non-humans get +1/+1, with one assigned and one floating. Humans get +1 to all stats. [*]Everybody also gets one feat. Each non-human race gets a list of feats they can choose from (for this free feat only; at higher levels they get the full list) some of which include a +1 bonus to their favored stats. I.e., half-orcs might have feats that give +1 to Str or Con, plus some feats that don't give any bonuses. Humans get to pick from all the lists. (Note: we'll probably have to come up with some more feats.) [*]Non-humans still get their other racial features (plus maybe some new ones? They have to add up to being a good trade-off for +1 to your four least important stats.) [/LIST] The result is that if you want to optimize for an archetypical class (e.g. halfling rogue) you can start with a 17 in your primary stat; otherwise the highest you can start with is a 16. That both preserves the sense that some races are just stronger, faster, etc., but doesn't actually provide a higher bonus for those first 3 levels. You can thank me when 6e is in print. [/QUOTE]

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