Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 darfy Apr 28, 2009 17:32:00	So, I want to DM a game, but I don't know how game breaking this might be. I want to allow my players to pick their race and then allow them to increase any two ability scores that they want, rather than the two racial scores that the books give. Will this break my game, or make humans too overpowered? thanks
#2 Maxperson Apr 28, 2009 17:42:19	So, I want to DM a game, but I don't know how game breaking this might be. I want to allow my players to pick their race and then allow them to increase any two ability scores that they want, rather than the two racial scores that the books give. Will this break my game, or make humans too overpowered? thanks The +1 bonus from the stat increases won't make or break the game, but it will lead in some cases to slightly more optimized characters than would otherwise be the case.
#3 Novacat Apr 28, 2009 17:56:45	This house-rule will also reduce the number of humans you see in the game, since one of their better features will be a weaker version of what everyone else now gets.
#4 _radagast__dup Apr 28, 2009 18:03:21	Give humans a +2 to one stat and a +1 to two others.
#5 darfy Apr 28, 2009 18:08:05	Give humans a +2 to one stat and a +1 to two others. Ooh. Good Idea, I've seen a lot of threads lately talking about the horrors of having an odd ability score, and this could be a nice little addition. I just think it seems like a fun idea to have a dex/int dwarf or a buff little Str/Con Halfling running around
#6 Mad_Jack Apr 28, 2009 18:16:09	Yeah, a +1 won't hugely unbalance the game - although it will noticeably affect the characters if they put it in a stat that's both important to their class and to one or more of their defences, such as a ranger pumping their Dex, it's not all that much different from just playing a race that normally gets a bounus to that stat... I may be missing something, but off the top of my head I can't think of any situation where characters being able to cherry-pick their stat bonuses would interact with anyone's racial abilities in any really powerful ways... Like Maxperson said, you may find one or two class/race combos that benefit more from it than others. You might want to consider restricting humans to just their standard one-stat bonus, as they already get the choice of picking which one it goes to, and their racial abilities are balanced for them just having one stat bonus. Edit: In light of the point Novacat brought up, I'd suggest possibly giving humans a second extra trained skill to compensate.
#7 daidojitaidoru Apr 28, 2009 18:26:21	Elves will become insanely good at everything, Dwarves will be even better fighters. A lot of feats designed to make races better at archetypes they didn't have stat boosts to will become unbalancing. On the other side, being able to swap stats so that you can't use your racial powers well at all is entirely possible so it increases the low as well. I see this coming around and biting you at some point. You're tweaking a whole lot of things that connect to a lot of hard to define areas in order to remove something that really isn't that big a deal.
#8 Stafir_Ortnev Apr 28, 2009 18:34:20	Its hard to tell from just my first impression..so this can easily be wrong but..looks to be a bad idea to me. Number one..those races that get a defense bonus because their stats both add to the same bonus..get buffed. It's already been mentioned the shoring up feets would be nasty. this also makes certain races much more..favorable. Elven re-roll..with any stat as your good stat? A con/str dwarf fighter? Heck..anything halfelf...being capable of choosing the perfect stat combo for dilitante goodness? So yeah..I think among anyone who tries to optimize..even just a little..you'll see a definate source of imbalance.
#9 LFK Apr 28, 2009 18:42:37	I see this coming around and biting you at some point. You're tweaking a whole lot of things that connect to a lot of hard to define areas in order to remove something that really isn't that big a deal. I agree, but I wonder if it'll bite hard enough to really be felt/identified. At worst I see it becoming a case where the party becomes as difficult to challenge as a heavily optimized party of heavily optimized characters, but more realistically I think it'll still fall in the "noise zone" so long as the party doesn't end up being 5 Elves.
#10 darfy Apr 28, 2009 18:45:14	Its hard to tell from just my first impression..so this can easily be wrong but..looks to be a bad idea to me. Number one..those races that get a defense bonus because their stats both add to the same bonus..get buffed. It's already been mentioned the shoring up feets would be nasty. this also makes certain races much more..favorable. Elven re-roll..with any stat as your good stat? A con/str dwarf fighter? Heck..anything halfelf...being capable of choosing the perfect stat combo for dilitante goodness? So yeah..I think among anyone who tries to optimize..even just a little..you'll see a definate source of imbalance. Yeah, I think you are right. The half-elf thing is a pretty big deal, and everyone brings up some pretty good points. I suppose the Devs did some of these things for a reason and I'm just looking for ways to mess them up :D . Though you gotta admit: Barbarian Str/Con Kobold sounds pretty awesome
#11 daidojitaidoru Apr 28, 2009 18:48:22	I agree, but I wonder if it'll bite hard enough to really be felt/identified. At worst I see it becoming a case where the party becomes as difficult to challenge as a heavily optimized party of heavily optimized characters, but more realistically I think it'll still fall in the "noise zone" so long as the party doesn't end up being 5 Elves. It's really hard to say, and it'll also depend on how good your PCs are at optimizing. If they're bad enough I could see this actually decreasing their effectiveness. I just don't think the benefits are worth the risk at this point. Someone with a better grasp on the rules would have to take a good long look at it before I'd even consider suggesting it.