DM - Giving players a free ASI, Feat, and removing Multiclass stat prereqs

[Albert]

How game-breaking would this be to give players? This will let players customize themselves with a feat at level 1, max their primary attribute by level 4, and take levels in other classes more freely.

[nickl_2000]

Feat at level 1: This is a pretty common thing actually. It's not overpowered, but it will make the PCs more powerful in general. However, often people will have more fun because their build idea comes online sooner

removing Multiclass stat prereqs - This completely depends on the player. You could do some things that are pretty munkiny without the ability pre-reqs for muliclasses. I would not do this one and if the player comes to you with something specific you ca help the outl

[Psyren]

A free feat at level 1 is fine, lots of tables do this (and this appears to be the direction D&D is moving towards via the new Backgrounds anyway.)
A free ASI at level 1 is more powerful, but not overly so.
Getting both at level 1 is a bit wild, especially since you can get two feats right off the bat that way (three for VH/CL!)

The multiclass thing isn't a big deal by comparison, most of the good combinations have stat synergy anyway.

[meandean]

I don't think the potential issue is people taking an even split, or even one small dip. What'd be good... like, a Dexterity-based Paladin/Bladesinger? That sounds very good (and fun!), but no more so particularly than a Hexadin. The thing is that even if you weren't forced to multiclass between classes that share primary ability scores, there's still synergy in doing so, since you can spend one or two ASIs getting the main ability score up to 20 and then use the rest of them for better things. You wouldn't prefer to use all of your ASIs on ability scores.¹

My primary concern would that someone would take several good mini-dips and be e.g. a Hexblade with a Twilight Sanctuary, Rage, and Action Surge, in addition to primary progress in one of those classes. Is that crazy? I dunno. It feels like a character that has no describable archetype, which I think is the real reason they don't let you do it. Is it so overpowered as to make the game ridiculous? I bet probably not, considering that again, specialization itself has value. It's more powerful than RAW, but obviously that's what you're going for.

¹ Of course, that's assuming a system that forces some of your ability scores to be mediocre or bad. If you roll for stats and do amazing, then MAD vs. SAD isn't really a thing.

[kazaryu]

How game-breaking would this be to give players? This will let players customize themselves with a feat at level 1, max their primary attribute by level 4, and take levels in other classes more freely.
depends on what you mean by gamebreaking. this is, objectively, a significant boos in PC power. So encounter design will have to make up for that. However, its impossible to a buff that applies equally to all PC's to be 'game breaking' if the DM is willing to adjust their encounter generation to compensate. things that break the game tend to do so by making an individual PC MUCH more powerful than the rest.

That said, multiclass restrictions and the relatively low lvl 1 ability scores are a big part of what limits players abilities to make super cheesy builds. So, as people have pointed out, depending on your players this DOES open the door for even stronger optimized builds than before. And if you have 1 player in particular thats likely to go full munchkin, then it might be a problem.

[Keravath]

Modifications like this don't "break the game". They will change how the game is played, they change the capabilities of the characters, but the DM is running the game and any encounters are designed/developed/modified to be interesting/fun/challenging to the players as they ARE in the DMs campaign and not to some mythological baseline.

Giving everyone a free ASI, feat and removing multiclass requirements just lets characters be created with greater flexibility. The characters will be more powerful compared to ones created without those rules, but the world and campaign these characters play in will be similarly more dangerous and harder just to compensate for these changes. For exmaple, the dex based paladin/rogue stacking smite and sneak attack can dump strength, wear medium armor and max dex and charisma.

However, the DM will just face the party off against tougher monsters to balance it out. End result - no effect - except perhaps a bit more effort for the DM to create encounters and if the characters are more powerful without more hit points and facing tougher enemies as a result then their odds of dying also go up.

Does any of that "break the game" .. no.

In fact, there are very few things that "break the game" though infinite simulacrums are one way.

P.S. However, if you are running published content and not developing it yourself, then it is usually designed for an average baseline group of characters and with a party like this the encounters might need more modifications than they usually would.

[Kane0]

How game-breaking would this be to give players? This will let players customize themselves with a feat at level 1, max their primary attribute by level 4, and take levels in other classes more freely.

Its not gamebreaking, just powercreepy.
A free ASI is no worse than rolling better than average on stats
Removing MC stat requirements is a pretty small impact, its rare that one will want to MC into a class that doesnt use their prime or secondary stat already and with the above even less likely to be below 13 anyways.
A free feat is the big one. Some feats are quite strong. You may want to curate the list available to choose from or incur a tradeoff like giving up the free ASI or your racial stat bonus(es).

[Psyren]

Note that when I say a free ASI is more powerful, I'm assuming it's a full ASI, i.e. one you can trade in for yet another feat or half-feat. If the free ASI can only be used on ability scores then it's considerably less concerning

[animorte]

I have allowed this before, not all the time. At least the level 1 feat and removing multi class prerequisites.

As already mentioned, the feat just brings your ideal build online a bit sooner. That does bump up the power a little bit, nothing to worry about.

However, removing multi class stat prerequisites is essentially equivalent to the ASI for those who intend to multi class (Warlock/Paladin). For anybody else who has no intention of multi classing OR their different classes have the prerequisite they’re already maxing (Cleric/Druid), it makes no difference.

Honestly removing the prerequisite helps to make up a tiny bit for being however many levels behind in spell progression or extra attack, what-have-you. Some may not appreciate the imbalance there while others think it’s completely fair. So I still think it’s ok, and haven’t encountered any issues with my groups.

[Dr.Samurai]

How game-breaking would this be to give players? This will let players customize themselves with a feat at level 1, max their primary attribute by level 4, and take levels in other classes more freely.
How Albert, are you the DM?

It kind of depends on the players.

My group is low optimization. Our DM awarded us at level 8 with a free feat, and again at level 12, as a token of appreciation for playing the game over two years with little to no hiccups.

The ranger grabbed Sharpshooter, but also used his ASI to shore up his Int dump stat. This is essentially discarding the free feat lol.

I bumped my Con and grabbed Dual Wielder, forgoing my shield to wield a longsword with my spear. I dealt less damage (since I was forgoing my bonus action Polearm Master attack, which adds my Strength mod) and my AC was actually lower since I gave up my shield. But it was the route I wanted to go so I went with it.

Will these types of choices be likely for your players? Probably not.

The game anticipates that feat options or higher stats won't be available until higher levels, so you may find that by front-loading these options at level 1, your players will be having an easier time with encounters. Doubly so if they're really eking out maximum advantage from each option.

[RazorChain]

I generally give the PC's once feat at level 1 to customize their characters and it's not gamebreaking at all. Just bumps their power a little.

But then again I don't run monsters by the book either. The group doesn't face unarmored kobold rabble armed only with knives like they are represented in the monster manual at level 1.