Quote Originally Posted by qube View Post
Like many, I don't like the way D&D 5e moved away from racial bonusses. I understand why: from a game-mechanicaly point, as long as there's a train of thought you should max out your main ability score ... then races not boosting said score simply won't be an option. And that's a bad thing.

Imagine you want to make Auroth, a brutal Orc Sorcerer.
Orcs don't get the sorcerer casting stat? too bad for you.

But I like to look at things from a narative point of view.

From a narative point, there's no problem with a half orc fighter and an eladrin fighter being equally capable - but it doesn't make sense they'd be equally strong. After all, while the half orc's mighty swings might cleave through armor, the elf's graceful strikes draws blood between the plates.

high elf fighter, orc fighter, gnome fighter ... STR20 the lot of them

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That's why I suggest something else
combat style scores

Auroth, Orc, Acolyte Sorcerer 1
Str 14 (+2) Dex 12 (+1) Con 16 (+3) Int 13 (+1) Wis 10 (+0) Cha 11 (+0)
Weapon 12(+1) Defense 13(+1) Toughness 16(+3) Mysticism 16 (+3)
Athletics (+3), Arcana (+3) Religion (+2) Insight Skill (+2) Intimidation (+2) Persuasion(+2)
AC: 11, hp: 9
Quarterstaff. +3 to hit, 1d6+1 damage.
Spells +5 to hit, DC 13


There are four combat style scores:
  • (WPN) weapon (attack & damage)
  • (DEF) defense (AC, initiative)
  • (THG) toughness (hit point)
  • (MYS) mysticism (magic, innate abilities, ...)

At character creation, you put 15, 14, 13, 12 in them. Then add a +2 to one and a +1 to another. Every time your ability scores increase, you may likewise pick these scores to boost.

(Dirty little secret : mechanically, combat style scores are just what your standard array abilty scores would be if optimized them. )

Your combat statistics are caclulated from those.
  • Your sword doesn't use PROF+STR, but PROF+WPN, and the damage is 1d8+WPN.
  • Your AC is not 10+DEX but 10+DEF
  • ...


Auroth Might be strong, he's not quite melee focussed, so isn't that good with his quarterstaff.
Quarterstaff. +[proficiency+weapon] to hit, 1d6+[weapon] damage. (instead of strength)
in Auroth's flavor he uses bloodmagic, he's ability to manifest powerful spells despite not being that charismatic.
spells use mysticism instead of charisma to cast spells

Most things are common sense, but it's important to note that sometimes classes fuse two fighting styles.
  • barbarians mix toughness & mysticism (their abilities work on CON)
  • monks & rogues & rangers mix weapon and defense (they attack and defend on DEX)
  • hexblades fuse weapon & mysticism (they attack on CHA)

while SAD classes might virtually not use certain abilities (ex. melee for wizards)

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Or would you rather have a halfling swashbuckler-style fighter who uses taunts and feints as defense? A sword wielding elf fighter (a slashing sword, not a rapier)? A strong smithy dwarf artificier, ... These, and much more options are now viable options - without having to trade in flavor for game mechanics.
Seems like a lot of effort to say "play my way or get out".


I think adventurers, heroes and villains, are assumed by the base game to be rare among most settings so having a player with a halfling that starts with a 16 or 18 Strength easily, fits right in with that idea.

It's not that every halfling can be that strong, but a PC halfling? Certainly.

Honestly, for years now, I've been thinking of just scrapping the idea of race/species and just letting it be a "pick X number of features, tell me what your race is".

Like, have three columns you get a racial feature from each of the columns so you can mix and match whatever you want.