LogFAQs > #906156553

shadowsword87 posted...

You get both bonuses, because otherwise it would be silly to have some races get +2, +1 on stats, and some not.
There is a subrace of dwarf that gets +2 str, +2 con though, and those guys are awesome!

And of course, humans get +1 across the board, which is 6 total. Though the argument there is that humans are compensating for not having specific awesomeness or extra abilities by being slightly good at everything (though a lot of settings wind up swinging that back the other way by having "demihuman" races suffer social bias outside of their own communities).

But like I said, the question mostly occurred to me because the book suggests that choosing a subclass is optional, but why would you NOT take a subclass? Not only are you usually giving up at least one +1 ability mod, but usually at least a couple of other benefits.

I forget which online game/character sent my brain down this path, but I think I saw someone playing a character who didn't seem to have a subclass, and I started wondering about it.



shadowsword87 posted...

It depends on how I want the feel to be, high powered/low powered. Right now I just use the character array, it forces base abilities to 15, but that's fine. 5e is a low number game.
I have actually come around to 4d6d1 or 4d6k3 and then down the stats list, but that's because I've played everything and I want to force myself to try new stuff.

Personally, I prefer 17d6k3+2.



Actually, based on my own history with other RPGs I should probably prefer point buy (since almost every other RPG I've ever liked uses it or a variation of it), but I actually kind of like 4d6k3. It does allow the possibility of terrible stats (even if it's less likely than it is with 3d6), and Critical Role does a pretty good job of demonstrating that it can be fun to play a character with a really low stat (Grog's one of the most popular characters on the show with an Int of 6, which he really RPs, even when it's somewhat detrimental). But it also can give you the opportunity to have some truly powerful stats if you get lucky.

Considering my own terrible luck with dice rolls (which may be part of why I prefer diceless or freeform games), I'd probably allow a player who winds up with an overall total of 66-68 points or less (ie, slightly less than standard array) to either re-roll or just default to standard array/point buy, because I don't think a player should be punished just because random chance gave them shit numbers across the board. Especially if they're in a group where another player rolled really well and now have this over-the-top PC who's good at pretty much everything.


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