D&D 5E Where's the Dump?

[iserith]

Threat of exhaustion due to forced marching or other situations is frequent in many of my games including some I play, so Constitution saves come up for that a fair bit. I gather not a lot of DMs include a lot of this in their games though.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Heavy armor is incredibly underrated in D&D. You may be able to hit someone with an 8 dex, but unlike what you see on TV and movies you can't just stab someone in the chest if they're wearing well made armor and do anything other than potentially leave a small scratch they'll have to buff out later.

Given how the game is constructed, there's not really a good solution, but traditionally the main way to take out someone in plate armor was to wrestle them to the ground and stab them in the face after opening their visor. So I don't mind that dex makes it easier to connect, it's still not going to do much most of the time.

5E is pretty bad in that respect, but the higher ACs make for a lot of "well, you hit but since you didn't beat the AC, the armor deflected/absorbed the blow, etc."

For 5E, grappling someone in heavy armor should be modelled better and you can always knock them prone, granting advantage and making it a bit easier to hit the higher ACs. A failing is without a way to restrain them they can just stand up.

Anyway, it makes no sense that a DEX penalty applies to Light and Medium armors, but not Heavy.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Only problem with that is without hp, con becomes a pretty weak stat.

It is still one of the most common saves and Concentration checks rely on it. Exhaustion comes up enough in our games it is still worthwhile for that reason as well.

Also, pretty much every other stat is weak other than Dex. A lot of PCs don't need STR, INT, WIS, or CHA really. As a poster said earlier, as long as you have one PC who is strong an ability, you don't often need another.

 

[jmartkdr2]

It is still one of the most common saves and Concentration checks rely on it. Exhaustion comes up enough in our games it is still worthwhile for that reason as well.

Also, pretty much every other stat is weak other than Dex. A lot of PCs don't need STR, INT, WIS, or CHA really. As a poster said earlier, as long as you have one PC who is strong an ability, you don't often need another.

Yeah, dex and con are must-haves for nearly everyone (dex can be dumped if you have heavy armor), and str and wis are generally useful for anyone. Int and Cha are either your spellcasting ability or a nice-to-have.

I'd be willing to try getting Con out of hp, (although it becomes a bit of a nice-to-have at that point IMO) but I'm more worried about getting dex out of AC for most classes. Without needing it for AC dex it's still useful for anyone but it shouldn't be necessary for classes like wizards and druids and such.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

If I have the option to use heavy armor, I pretty much always dump Dex. I dont care for ''going first''; I'll go 1 time in the round anyway. Some Dex save are pretty painful when failed, but I actually love losing HP; it makes me feel alive. Playing it safe isnt for me

 

[CleverNickName]

In my experience, Strength and Intelligence are always the lowest stats.

"I want to play a wizard!" (rolls an 8) "...Warlock it is!"
"I'm gonna play a fighter!" (rolls an 8) "...a Dexterity-based fighter!"

 

[CleverNickName]

When I make a character, I roll my stats in order.

That's how I do it for one-shots and casual games.

 

[Dausuul]

5E is pretty bad in that respect, but the higher ACs make for a lot of "well, you hit but since you didn't beat the AC, the armor deflected/absorbed the blow, etc."

For 5E, grappling someone in heavy armor should be modelled better and you can always knock them prone, granting advantage and making it a bit easier to hit the higher ACs. A failing is without a way to restrain them they can just stand up.

Anyway, it makes no sense that a DEX penalty applies to Light and Medium armors, but not Heavy.

None of the ability scores make a lick of sense anyway. There's no point nitpicking this or that detail--they are wildly and wholly unrealistic.

And Dex is already one of the most important stats in 5E. You can dump it if you wear heavy armor, but it's still a major save and the stat that controls your initiative; a bad initiative roll can cost you as much as a full round of combat. The last thing I would want to do is make it more important.

 

[John R Davis]

Str. Dex way better make str near redundant. Means you don't need to dump int or cha which are the interesting stats

 

[HammerMan]

Str and Int are the two most common.

back in 2e it was Cha, but in 3e and 4e that was turned around. By 5e more than 1/2 the casters use CHa as there stat and Cha saves are more important than Int saves.