Alternate Ability Score Increases [PEACH]

[Amechra]

Ability Score Increase: Whenever you gain this feature, choose one of the following:

Increase one ability score by +2. You may only improve an ability score this way once.
Increase three different ability scores by +1.


The idea here is to encourage spreading your ability scores out a bit more. I also wanted the "improve multiple ability scores" option to be a bit more attractive.

[JNAProductions]

Ability Score Increase: Whenever you gain this feature, choose one of the following:

Increase one ability score by +2. You may only improve an ability score this way once.
Increase three different ability scores by +1.


The idea here is to encourage spreading your ability scores out a bit more. I also wanted the "improve multiple ability scores" option to be a bit more attractive.

It'll result in a little more power over time, but I doubt it'll break anything.

[Zhorn]

just my 2 copper pieces on this;

If I was wanting to have my players have a more even spread of their ASI stats, I'd take off the option to do the '+2 to one score' and only offer that '+1 to three', since at this point the +2 has become a trap option.

You are being more generous with stats in the long game, but for a featless game I'd be fine with that as the ASI rule

[MoleMage]

I'd say this was great in a system where stats don't have specific limitations, because then you're trading greater total power for lesser specialized power or vice versa. In 5eD&D though the issue is that most characters will still be able to hit 20 in their primary stat just taking 3 +1s, even with point buy/standard array.

[Amechra]

just my 2 copper pieces on this;

If I was wanting to have my players have a more even spread of their ASI stats, I'd take off the option to do the '+2 to one score' and only offer that '+1 to three', since at this point the +2 has become a trap option.

You are being more generous with stats in the long game, but for a featless game I'd be fine with that as the ASI rule

My experience is that +2 to a stat is better than +1 to two stats in most situations. And that quite a few of the times when you would take the "+1 to two" choice are better handled by taking a half feat instead.

I'm also somewhat interested in delaying the point where you hit 20 in your "primary" ability score. Normally, you'd either start with a 16 in that stat and take a +2 to it at 4th and 8th, or start with a 17 and take a half feat and a +2 at those levels (probably in that order). Looking back, however, this really encourages starting with 17/15/13/12/10/8 instead of 16/16/13/12/10/8 or 16/15/14/12/10/8, since you'd hit your 20 in that stat a whole 4 levels earlier than everyone else. Hrm...

I might need to go back to the drawing board. Fission mailed, everyone.

EDIT:


I'd say this was great in a system where stats don't have specific limitations, because then you're trading greater total power for lesser specialized power or vice versa. In 5eD&D though the issue is that most characters will still be able to hit 20 in their primary stat just taking 3 +1s, even with point buy/standard array.

My goal here wasn't to prevent people from hitting 20 in their primary stat, it was to slow that down a bit and give more of an opportunity to boost other stats. In retrospect, I messed up and failed.