All 14s guy. Is it a trap?

[doc225]

I've received the offer to be allowed to play a character that starts with all ability scores of 13, without racial modifiers. I'm considering it, and using a human, to get all 14s, and then playing a champion fighter.

I realize I won't be awesome at anything, but having a positive modifier to very single roll I could make seems like a decent way to go. I'm wondering if it's worth it.

As a part of the deal, I'd be allowed to take the max amount of gold from the starting gold chart, and purchase my equipment instead of taking the packages.

Should I do it?

[tieren]

I've received the offer to be allowed to play a character that starts with all ability scores of 13, without racial modifiers. I'm considering it, and using a human, to get all 14s, and then playing a champion fighter.

I realize I won't be awesome at anything, but having a positive modifier to very single roll I could make seems like a decent way to go. I'm wondering if it's worth it.

As a part of the deal, I'd be allowed to take the max amount of gold from the starting gold chart, and purchase my equipment instead of taking the packages.

Should I do it?

Could be fun, especially if you want to try some wacky MC build.

Maybe a champion/arcane trickster/trickery cleric/wild mage sorcerer

[Theodoxus]

What's the other option for character generation?

And typically, yes, 14's across the board is worth it...

[Grod_The_Giant]

You'd be about one ASI behind someone with a normal race-boosted starting stat. Hardly a big deal. The system is swingy enough you probably won't notice.

As for class, I'd actually say Bard, all other preferences being equal. Maybe Valor Bard. You get Jack of All Trades to USE those high scores, plus medium armor (maxed out with your 14 Dex), good combat ability, good spells, the best skills...

[TheTeaMustFlow]

Wouldn't be bad. I wouldn't go Champion, though - something a little more MAD.

I once rolled and played a character with all 14s, actually, but it was back in 2nd Edition.

[Anonymouswizard]

I agree it's fine, and one of the few times I'd agree with standard human. I wouldn't go with Champion Fighter, I agree with Valor Bard (your first few ASIs go towards Charisma), or else I would be tempted by one man adventuring party (aim to finish with five levels each of Fighter, Rogue, Cleric, and Wizard).

[Sir cryosin]

We roll for stats I rolled all 15's went dragonborn fighter got killed by a Goblin right of the back. I don't know if it was bad stats or rolls but I couldn't hit the broadside of the barn. And if you go spellcaster your dc is crap it's going to be 12 most thing will make that. But I'm not here to keep you from having fun. I like having one bad stat because it gives your character a weakness.

[KorvinStarmast]

We roll for stats I rolled all 15's went dragonborn fighter got killed by a Goblin right of the back. Right off the bat? 5e is swingy at low levels.

[Mhl7]

We roll for stats I rolled all 15's went dragonborn fighter got killed by a Goblin right of the back. I don't know if it was bad stats or rolls but I couldn't hit the broadside of the barn. And if you go spellcaster your dc is crap it's going to be 12 most thing will make that. But I'm not here to keep you from having fun. I like having one bad stat because it gives your character a weakness.

Do you realise that 15 is the maximum that you can have with Standard array or point buy. All 15s is the VERY BEST that you can get.

Also the maximum DC of your spells at lvl 1 cannot be higher than 13 if you use the standard rules and 12 is not that far beyond.

As was already suggested I would totally go for some crazy MAD multi class that would be impossible otherwise! You can literally take a level in each class: start Barbarian and go in alphabetic order!

[Stabfist]

1 level every class, play into that not really good at anything, but ok at everything. My theory build for this is Rogue, Wizard, Ranger, Monk, Cleric (life), Mystic, Fighter, Sorcerer, Bard, Paladin, Druid, Barb, Warlock, Rune Mage. But you obviously don't need to go the same order. It basically nets you a ton of proficiencies, cantrips, almost every lvl 1 spell, and An Ok amount of physical damage by stacking Rage, Sneak, Martial Arts, and a fighting style on top of your moderate STR.

[Zman]

It comes out to 30 Pointbuy. In a 27 Pointbuy game it isn't great as it doesn't net you much. Now, getting to play all 14s before racial would be awesome. In a roll 4d6b3 game it isn't terrible good.

If negotiate for a 14,14,14,13,13,13 array. Or more balanced a 14,14,13,13,13,13

[Captbrannigan]

Monks are the traditional MAD class, so that's probably a go.

My vote is Bard, Valor/Lore depending on party makeup and needs. As previously stated, Jack of All Trades would combo great with +2s across the board.

[Mors]

You should not be a regular martial since you will hit a lot less than usual, and should also not be a regular caster since your DCs will be low.

Be a moon druid so you alleviate the problem through wild shaping, or a bear barbarian that tanks superbly thanks to resistance to all damage and because he increases his damage throuh rage. Otherwise, be a caster that uses only spells with no DCs like a life cleric, although the later will probably end up boring combat-wise.

That is if you care about optimising your suboptimal stat array.

[Gtdead]

The pros of going fighter with this is the extra ASIs. You can grab one feat and reach 20 str or dex by lvl 12. Not too bad. I'd stay away from GWM though, getting polearm master instead.

Otherwise, going for skill monkey builds seems best. Bards, Rogues, even knowledge clerics could work.

You could potentially try a shillelagh gish (Bard and Warlock should work great. They can get shillelagh through class feats, Cleric would need magic initiate). Warcaster is a bitch though.

[Nifft]

Should I do it?

Really depends on the stats of the rest of the party.

Do it if you won't feel overshadowed in your role.

[Grod_The_Giant]

You should not be a regular martial since you will hit a lot less than usual, and should also not be a regular caster since your DCs will be low.
You're one point behind the max. That's hardly a big deal.

[Blacky the Blackball]

I've received the offer to be allowed to play a character that starts with all ability scores of 13, without racial modifiers. I'm considering it, and using a human, to get all 14s, and then playing a champion fighter.

I realize I won't be awesome at anything, but having a positive modifier to very single roll I could make seems like a decent way to go. I'm wondering if it's worth it.

As a part of the deal, I'd be allowed to take the max amount of gold from the starting gold chart, and purchase my equipment instead of taking the packages.

Should I do it?

Sounds perfectly fine to me.

My suggestion would be to be a wizard and to specialise in spells (e.g. Magic Missile, Color Spray, Sleep, Cloud of Daggers) that simply work and require neither to-hit rolls nor saving throws. That way it doesn't matter if your spellcasting stat is merely okay rather than great.

That's what my character is at the moment. He's a Dragonborn Conjuration Specialist Wizard - and since Dragonborn don't get an Int bonus he's got an Int of 15 (we're using Standard Array). With all 13s you would have a similar Int if you were a race that gave a +2 Int bonus (although to be honest going for a race with a +1 bonus would be equally effective since a 14 Int isn't any worse than a 15 Int as they both give the same bonus to attacks and DCs and they're both going to be increased each ASI anyway).

[Firechanter]

Hm. Depends on a couple of things. Is Variant Human available? If so, then that's worth a lot more than standard human with all 14s.

Generally, pretty much any single class can't really make good use of more than 3 stats. That's exactly why standard human is so lackluster -- literally half its boons are in things you don't need and can't use.

The viability of an All-14-Human might be higher if you are looking to play some kind of "wacko" multiclass -- i.e. a multi that you normally don't even look at due to conflicting primary stats. With an All-14, you might play a Paladin-Monk if for some reason that strikes your fancy.

So the question you should really be asking is: what obscure Multiclass combo would offer an unexpected synergy that normally nobody looks at due to MC ability conflicts?

[Drackolus]

Paladin/monk? Could be interesting.

I would go for a MAD combo and then just stack feat on top of feat rather than try to pump a 14 up to a good number. Get some inspirational leader, warcaster, magic initiate, mobile, healer, ritual caster, whatever. Things that don't really need great stats to do great.

I'm running a paladin/wizard, rolled 2 16's and 2 14's - put the 14's into str and con and went warforged. DM gave us a free feat, which I used for warcaster. Planning on res:con and heavy armor master as my next two feats for simply being good and to get the other 16's, then whatever sounds fun (probably m.initiate at least, my personal favorite).

The less you use each stat individually, the less of a good idea it is to raise that number. Meanwhile, you can get feats that are just good.

Consider, at 14 monk you get all save profs, and 6 paladin you get the aura... something to look forward to.

[ShikomeKidoMi]

Huh. Paladin Monk would eventually net you proficiency on all saves and your charisma bonus as a further addition to them.

All 14s might be one of the few characters who could swing that if you felt like it.

[bid]

Monks are the traditional MAD class, so that's probably a go.
Monk needs Dex16 / Wis16 or your AC suffers a lot. Its main MADness lies in ASI constraints and you won't get 6 ASI to cap both.

Dex14 is great with medium armor. Cha14 will help for berserker intimidating presence, battlemaster parry and swashbuckler initiative, which uses tertiary stats. 13 everywhere opens up all MC.

I would look for a SAD class that gains a lot from out-of-stat MC.
- SAD on Cha : bard / cleric combo
- SAD on Dex : paladin / ranger combo (halfling beastmaster)

[RickAllison]

Rogue 11/Lore Bard 4/Knowledge Cleric 1/Ranger 1. Ultimate skill monkey, 8 Expertise skills, 13 skills total. 5 skills where your lowest possible result is 12+proficiency, 8 skills where it is 12+2*proficiency. The true jack-of-all-trades.

[djreynolds]

I've received the offer to be allowed to play a character that starts with all ability scores of 13, without racial modifiers. I'm considering it, and using a human, to get all 14s, and then playing a champion fighter.

I realize I won't be awesome at anything, but having a positive modifier to very single roll I could make seems like a decent way to go. I'm wondering if it's worth it.

As a part of the deal, I'd be allowed to take the max amount of gold from the starting gold chart, and purchase my equipment instead of taking the packages.

Should I do it?

You have 7 feats/asi as a fighter, you can easily max out your attack stat and more. You could max out str and dex. Take GWM and sharpshooter, take archery and GW styles. A very versatile PC, nothing wrong at all. Heck take the skilled feat and make use of that intelligence, wisdom and charisma.

Looks very well rounded. Go for it.

[Corran]

Should I do it?
Unless you are going for sth very MAD, then no, dont do it.

[Seraphina]

What is the rest of the party like? What is the setting?

[ShikomeKidoMi]

Actually, going back to your original idea of playing a fighter, have you considered an Eldritch Knight?

14s in Str/Dex, Con, and Int are all handy. And a 14 Wis never hurts, for saves and Perception.

[unwise]

I know you have already heard it, but my suggestions are:

Valour Bard - Str for better weapons, maybe even Polearms, Dex for medium armor, Con, Cha, Int for lore skills expected of a bard. Leaving only wisdom which you never want to be low anyway.

EK - Str/Con/Int/Dex the rest never hurt to have.

Arcane Trickster - Dex, Con, Int are all needed, the rest are gravy.

Personally of the three I would go with the Valour Bard, as they make the most use of skills with Jack of All Trades and some expertise, which won't hurt as your stats are not super high for important roles. It works well as the traditional backup roll of the bard too, being the second best at everything.

[KorvinStarmast]

With all 14's it seems that you'll have a nicely rounded character.

My recommendation: (even though I think this guy sets up well for Eldritch Knight ...) if you are going Fighter/Champion, I'd suggest the Sailor Background. That provides Athletics and Perception proficiency. This leaves you some interesting choices for your 2 fighter proficiencies.

Acrobatics, Animal Handling, History, Insight, Intimidation, Survival


I'd suggest Intimidation and Insight, but depending upon your campaign world Animal Handling and Survival might be a better fit. What's your world like?

Do you intend to go Str fighter or Dex fighter? (What's your party need: a defender, a tank, what?) You can use any kind of armor and any kind of weapon ... Dueling fits with sword and board, but maybe protection is what your party needs. You and a rogue side by side, you with protection, could result in some sick damage while you keep the enemy off of his back ... situation dependent.

No, it's not a trap, but without knowing what the rest of your party looks like ... no further suggestions.

[Rhaegar]

Whether or not it's worth it would partially depend on your other options. In a standard point buy system, all 13s is worth 30points, where the standard is 27 points. You're +3 points, however depending on your class, several of those points would be in 'dump stats'. In a 27 point buy you could do 14,13,13,13,13,8. If your dumps stat is truly worthless to you, this would be superior. With standard human, you'd be 15,14,14,14,14,9. I would think most classes would prefer that set of stats over straight 14s.

[2D8HP]

I've received the offer to be allowed to play a character that starts with all ability scores of 13, without racial modifiers. I'm considering it, and using a human, to get all 14s, and then playing a champion fighter.
Should I do it?
Yes! Yes! Yes!
In 1e terms this would be a phenomenally powerful first level character. With all the ASI's a Fighter can have, if the character survives (how killer is the DM's world?) your character will quickly become really badass! Then you can multi-class to whatever looks fun. But with point buy in 5e you can already create a standard human character that has at least a 14 in all but one stat anyway, so basically you would only be bumping up one stat, but every little bit helps!

[Blas_de_Lezo]

I've received the offer to be allowed to play a character that starts with all ability scores of 13, without racial modifiers. I'm considering it, and using a human, to get all 14s, and then playing a champion fighter.

I realize I won't be awesome at anything, but having a positive modifier to very single roll I could make seems like a decent way to go. I'm wondering if it's worth it.

As a part of the deal, I'd be allowed to take the max amount of gold from the starting gold chart, and purchase my equipment instead of taking the packages.

Should I do it?

I would play a half elf instead (for the two +1 boni) and use my 4th level feat to increase 2 atributtes. This way you have more skills, darkvision, more charisma and charm resistance. A valor bard would be awesome this way.

If you badly want all 14s since beggining, the most MAD martial class is the Eldritch Knight. You could take advantage of all your 14s abilities. Str for melee (2Handed fighting style), Dex for CA in medium armor, iniciative and saves, Con for hp and saves, Int for spells, Wis for perception and saves, Cha for Friends cantrip and social skills. Increase your Str by +2 at 4th level and upgrade to fullplate.

[Knaight]

From a balance perspective, the character will be weaker. 5e is deliberately designed so that every class has a small subset of stats that matter to it and which they get a lot of mileage out of, and a set which are completely irrelevant to them, and character power could be extracted by dropping the low-value stats for the high-value stats.

With that said, it's not a huge difference, and there are a lot of fun character options that only really work with someone who is broadly above average. I say go for it.

[doc225]

As far as the fighting style, I'd like to go sword an board, with dueling FS.

I'm thinking this is just a guy that happens to be good at a lot of things. Not great, but passable. Probably go with either the folk hero background. I've always been interested in playing a rather self sufficient character. He just takes care of himself and does his thing. He'd work with the party, try to extend his knack for survival to the rest of them. I kinda see this guy as a plain everyday average joe as far as personality. Folks like him, he's not stupid, has common sense, doesn't really need a lot of help for most things.

I don't know what the others are playing, and it's a fairly standard D&D world. DM isn't a killer, but also isn't a pushover, either. Thanks for all the input. I remember reading a thread on the old WotC boards about a solo campaign with a commoner as the PC. It was awesome. I kinda see this guy as a way to do that, but still be useful in a party.

[Icewraith]

We're missing some context here:

WHAT DID EVERYONE ELSE ROLL?

Did everyone else start with 15 14 13 12 10 8? 2 15-17s, 2 13-14s, a 12, and a 9? Or are people rocking 18 18 16 14 12 11?

If the first array is representative, starting with straight 14s is great. If the second, it still will probably make something like Valor Bard do well. If the third, no, it's not a good deal.

[doc225]

I don't get to know what everyone else is doing.

I have to make my character as a stand-alone guy, without seeing what the others have. That's the tricky part. As many have said, if everyone else has standard array or pretty darn close, I'm doing ok... If others rolled good stats, then my guy becomes not so great all of a sudden.

It's a tricky situation.

[bid]

I don't get to know what everyone else is doing.
It's a tricky situation.
You know what?

I'm pretty sure human 16 14 14 14 11 10 is better in most cases. So is 16 14 14 12 10 10 if you consider the features of any 2/1 race.

Most skill tests require a single success across the party, you'd be master of none. Someone else will have a proficiency along with a +3 for that skill.

You could do it just to show it works, but you'd need some special non-flaky snow to make it useful. I mean, even some weird Wis/Cha MC combo still leaves Str/Int to dump.

If your DM allows the AL reset, you could fool around until level 5 and see if it has any value.

[Icewraith]

I don't get to know what everyone else is doing.

I have to make my character as a stand-alone guy, without seeing what the others have. That's the tricky part. As many have said, if everyone else has standard array or pretty darn close, I'm doing ok... If others rolled good stats, then my guy becomes not so great all of a sudden.

It's a tricky situation.

Was your guy the only one that got killed or did you all wipe and individually remake characters? Even if you've played with other characters for only one session, unless you have some very, very strict table rules you should have a pretty good idea of what various characters' best stats are, at least.

If you roll using 4d6b3, you're probably better off rolling, since you'll get better (and worse) rolls than straight 13 base. If you've now got a character concept you think could be fun- do it.

If your DM is known for running high body count games I wouldn't spend too much time worrying about it, either.

[PeteNutButter]

Don't go human(non-variant). Every class only needs 3 abilities. You could go variant human and take a feat to bump your third stat and be just as good at anything plus the side benefit of the feat. For instance a cleric could bump dex and wis to 14 and use resilient con to bump it to 14: Solid character.

Pretty much you gain nothing from offstats aside from more MC options, which don't usually help you much to have another +1. Example: You are a fighter that wants to take some levels in ranger for hordebreaker. Your 13 wis is just as good as a 14 would be, your spells would probably be used for hunters mark. Since you started as fighter you bumped str and con, and took polearm master and do +1 attack a round instead... scaling even better w hunters mark (assuming its up already) etc.

Avoid Monk since starting with a 14 AC as a melee character is pretty much suicide in any game that isn't ponies and rainbows.

Jack of all trades is nice, but doesn't really feel impactful until character level 9(Making it +2). So you could MC into bard for levels 8-9.

I'd propose 14, 14, 13, 13, 13, 13 with polearm master go Barb1/BM Fighter 6/Bard 2/then back to barb or fighter. PM gets you solid damage. Rage 2/day gives resistance to make up for low hp and helps make up for your low damage at start. BM nets some nice tricks, and Bards get utility.