beej
Explorer
I've been reading the EnWorld forums a lot more since 5B came out. I've noticed that in a lot of hypothetical situations, the character has his primary at 20. Now I realize that discussions tend to assume this because it's the hypothetical maximum, but it also got me thinking.
You see, I tended to avoid maxing out in practice when I was playing under the last playtest rules. In games where we were only expected to reach levels 7-10, I was always more excited to pick feats instead. And when we made high level characters for one-shot "let's fight balors" tests and I didn't want to be burdened with remembering feats, I tended to pump my weaker ability scores.
Besides, at high levels my proficiency of +4 (or higher) tended to make up for my ability bonus being stuck at +3: My attacks still hit reliably, my skill bonuses weren't bad, and save proficiencies tended to match my primary, anyway, so I was covered, there. My spell DCs weren't too shabby either - but that's probably because playtest monsters didn't have proficiency to saving throws. I remember having problems with monsters that had magic resistance.
Anyway, 5B doesn't have feats but I feel like I will stick to the whole "pump your weaker stats" thing (if any of my characters reach level 4 before PHB comes out, that is.) As for my primary, I'll probably start with 15-16 and pump it to 16, at best.
How about everyone else? Is maxing out your primary something you see yourself doing as a general rule for your characters? And if yes, are you going to do it as soon as possible, or will you get feats (when they become available) first?
You see, I tended to avoid maxing out in practice when I was playing under the last playtest rules. In games where we were only expected to reach levels 7-10, I was always more excited to pick feats instead. And when we made high level characters for one-shot "let's fight balors" tests and I didn't want to be burdened with remembering feats, I tended to pump my weaker ability scores.
Besides, at high levels my proficiency of +4 (or higher) tended to make up for my ability bonus being stuck at +3: My attacks still hit reliably, my skill bonuses weren't bad, and save proficiencies tended to match my primary, anyway, so I was covered, there. My spell DCs weren't too shabby either - but that's probably because playtest monsters didn't have proficiency to saving throws. I remember having problems with monsters that had magic resistance.
Anyway, 5B doesn't have feats but I feel like I will stick to the whole "pump your weaker stats" thing (if any of my characters reach level 4 before PHB comes out, that is.) As for my primary, I'll probably start with 15-16 and pump it to 16, at best.
How about everyone else? Is maxing out your primary something you see yourself doing as a general rule for your characters? And if yes, are you going to do it as soon as possible, or will you get feats (when they become available) first?
