Quote Originally Posted by deadman1204 View Post
counter point - dex shouldn't increase damage. The basic concept of weapon finesse is totally flawed and only exists to allow min maxing.
I think the main goal of D&D5e is to balance the oppressive crunch of 3.5e and keep things as simple as possible. Not that 5e is a rules light game.

In my own homebrew TTRPG system I simplified the thing by making strength always the damage stat and agility always the hit stat. And detached the impact absorbing element from armor from the impact invading element from agility.
So you have both a defense stat and a damage absorption stat.
Weapons have a damage dice, a hit bonus and armor penetration stats.
Armor increases damage absorption, not defense.
To hit someone with a weapon you roll 2d10 + your total hit bonus, if you equal or exceed the defense stat you hit.
If you hit you roll damage, damage dice + strength (if melee weapon) + other mod + accuracy bonus - (damage absorption - armor piercing) (min 0).
Accuracy bonus is this: how much you exceed the targets defenses divided by 10. If it's a melee weapon accuracy bonus is applied to damage, otherwise it's applied to armor piercing)

(other mod can come from various sources, like weapon quality, perks, various perks can add damage and hit rate depending on situation)
Your defense also has three levels. First is base, depends on your size, this is basically your profile, use if a character is standing still not expecting to be hit. Second is passive, this is base + agility, only the targets own actions can make this the defense they use. Third is your active defense, it's passive + acrobatics skill or combat skill (whichever is higher). In combat use this.
Certain actions can force you to switch from active to passive, passive to base. For example you can dash at 2x speed no problem, at 3x speed but use passive, 4x speed but use only base (at that point you are running in a straight predictable line at constant speed)

It's a lot more crunchy than 5e, but I try to ensure that all math can be done in advance, so you just determine the situation, roll the dice and add a static number. Both for hitting and causing damage.