Homebrew - Starting Abilities Variant
In case you’ve been living under a rock for the last week, Tasha's Cauldron of Everything has been announced for release in November for Dungeons & Dragons and it’s created quite a buzz. One of the major talking points about this book comes from this line (emphasis mine):
MORE CHARACTER OPTIONS. Delve into a collection of new class features and new feats, and customize your character’s origin using straightforward rules for modifying a character’s racial traits.
People from all over rose up. Some clutched their pearls screaming about how it’s always been this way and that some lineages should just suck more! Others got excited to min-max and powergame with different lineages, and still another group thought it might be pretty neat. Now they could play that Orc Wizard they always wanted too but couldn’t because the rules just made it a bad choice.
To be quite frank, all of those online discussions just annoyed me to no end. We hadn’t even seen the rules and yet everyone had decided exactly what those rules were and that it was going to destroy (or save) Dungeons & Dragons. I’ll be candid here, we’ve no idea what rules Tasha is going to have, so there is no point in us guessing how broken the system is going to be. WotC has created a fairly solid system that can take a lot of abuse before the designers personally come to your table and take away your rulebooks and character sheets.
Now, I’m writing about this, so I’m technically shoveling more non-sense onto this discussion, but I’m doing something that no one else has done yet. Instead of assuming what the rules are going to look like, and telling everyone who disagrees with me that they have no business playing RPGs, I’m going to present to you my idea as to what the rules could look like that is fairly balanced. I highly doubt that the rules will look like what I present, but maybe when TCoE comes out, some people might prefer my version of the rules. Below you can find my version, and if you go down just a bit more, I’ll explain my thought process and defend the new rules.
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Starting Abilities Variant
The Basics
To begin this bit of homebrew, let’s first discuss starting characters. Every starting character has to build out their stats by gathering up 6 numbers and assigning them into Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Wisdom, Intelligence, and Charisma. These scores are then subtracted from 10 and then divided by 2 to grant the Ability Modifier. This simply means if you have a 16 Strength, to determine your modifier, subtract 10, and then divide that number by 2, rounding down. 16 - 10 = 6 | 6 / 2 = 3.
Fairly basic. The real difficulty comes with how do you get those 6 numbers to be assigned. Some people like to do point buy where you buy ‘values’ in different Ability Scores, increasing them to a maximum of a 15 (+2) and a minimum of an 8 (-1). You can also use pre-selected numbers to throw into your ability scores known as the Standard Stat Array (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8).
Another popular method is rolling 4d6, dropping the lowest dice and adding them up. You then repeat five more times to come up with your six numbers needed. This means that you could have a minimum of 3 (-4) and a maximum of 18 (+4). This has the chance of creating a slightly stronger (or weaker) character, but the majority of the time, you’ll end up with an average of 12.24 (+1) in an ability. There is a 13% chance you’ll get a score above 15 (+2), and you have a 1.62% chance of getting an 18 (+4).
Building a Character
Let’s say you have your numbers and we will assume you went with Standard Stat Array because the average result is a 12 for an Ability Score, which that average isn’t that much lower than 4d6 drop lowest - weird, it’s almost like the designers designed the standard stat array for that… hmm…
Anyway, you have your scores and you want to make a Wizard and you know it’s important to get that as high as possible because you like the idea of being competent. You place your 15 (+2) in Intelligence, and then randomly disperse the other scores because you like to live dangerously. You now have to find what race (which will be calling lineage going forward from here) and decide to flip through the Player’s Handbook and find out that only a few options will work well with your class and provide at least a +1 bonus to your Intelligence to get it up to a 16 (+3) squeezing out an additional +1 to your Ability Modifier. Your options:
Lineage Increases
High elf (+1), Gnome (+2), Tiefling (+1), Human (+1)
Well, looks like you are playing Gnome. But you really wanted to play a dragonborn summoning the arcane arts of the dragon, but alas, it’s just not going to get you at least a +1 bonus to your Intelligence. You could go Tiefling, High Elf, or Human but those are all just Human with some horns glued on to your forehead or those plastic ear clip things.
And here is the problem… You are now stopped from making your original envisioning of a character. You saw that mechanically, you were going to take a penalty. While a +2 and +3 aren’t that big of a difference, it can feel like a huge difference during the game, especially when everyone else at the table has a +3 to their main ability score while yours is still low. Now, you can eventually that boost that 15 up to a 20 after you reach 12th level and get your third Ability Score Improvement, but that’s a long time to be behind the curve and, from my own assumptions, is not what the system intended.
My belief is that the designers assumed that players would put a 15 in their main ability and then take a lineage that would grant them either a +1 or a +2 to that ability to increase it to a 16 (+3) or 17 (+3) respectively. Then, at level 4, they would take their Ability Score Increase and pump that number up to 18 (+4) or 19 (+4) depending on where you started. At 8th level, they assumed you’d then pump that number up to a 20 (+5) because that is the maximum that you can increase it to and then that number will never be touched again unless you are lucky enough to get a magic item to further increase it to 22 (+6) or maybe become a barbarian at level 20 and get a 24 (+7) in Strength.
Dissecting the Character
Because lineages are pre-assigned certain Ability Scores, people think it means that gnomes can only ever be smart or that tieflings are always charming. It’s easy to look at a lineage and simply draw stereotypes about them and what classes they can be. When you see a lineage gets a +2 to Strength, you automatically assume that they are meant for Barbarians, Paladins, or Fighters. If you see a lineage with a +2 Wisdom, you assume that the lineage is only meant for Clerics, Druids, or Rangers. We draw assumptions about lineages based on what pre-assigned scores are for a lineage.
But what if I told you it doesn’t matter what lineage gets for their Ability Score bonus? If a lineage can be for any class, it doesn’t break the game. In fact, it further enhances the game. No one picks up an Orc and assumes it is going to be for a wizard, but it can be! Player Characters are not the stereotypes that are baked into this game, they break the mold. Not every creature in the world can be an adventurer, not every creature in the world can get sneak attack, not every creature in the world can cast spells.
But your Player Characters can. They are unique, they are different. They work outside the assumptions of the world because they are UNIQUE. From a mechanics standpoint, nothing is broken because a gnome no longer has a +2 to their Intelligence but rather has a +2 to their Strength. This gnome is going to rage because they are unique, they aren’t like the rest of the pansy gnomes allowing the kobolds to eat them all. They get by through strength and power, and they aren’t broken in the least.
WotC assumes that 1st level characters have a +3 in their Primary Ability. Moving the pre-assigned Ability Scores from the lineages to the class simply means that any lineage can be that class and they won’t feel like they made a poor decision. Player Characters are meant to survive and thrive in Dungeons & Dragons, not feel like they are holding the rest of the table back.
My System
I’ve talked enough, let’s get into what my system does that differentiates it from are normal assumptions about Player Characters and lineages.
Lineages & your Class
Lineages no longer have their Ability Score Increase feature, that feature is now spread out onto what class you pick and your Background. When you select a class, you gain a +2 bonus to your Primary Ability score. It doesn’t matter if you are an Orc Wizard or a Gnome Barabarian, you gain a bonus to your Primary Ability because the game assumes you are good at what you are doing. The game assumes you have a +3 modifier at level 1, and there is only one lineage that can let you break that and get a +4 (unless you are rolling), which is the Changeling. This also helps new players realize what is important for their class. If you pick up a Fighter you get the choice of Strength or Dexterity, new players may not realize that Dexterity can be used for Fighters! Or maybe you pick up Cleric and your choice is Strength or Wisdom, new players might not think of Clerics as brutal tanks that can deal melee damage.
Backgrounds
But wait! You might be saying, who knows. I can’t hear you. Don’t all lineages grant an additional +1 Ability Score bonus? And I’m glad you brought that up, most lineages are assumed to do such that! Only 1 lineage in all of Dungeons & Dragons doesn’t grant a secondary Ability Score bonus, and that’s the poor kobold.
Every other lineage either grants a +1 Ability Score increase, or in some rare cases may grant a +2 bonus or two +1 bonuses.
The +1 Ability Score bonus is accounted for in your Background. For too long Backgrounds have felt a bit… bleh. Background Features rarely come up and the best part of any Background are the 2 or 3 skill proficiencies it gives out. By having your Background grant your +1 Ability Score bonus, your past now has greater mechanical dictation over how you came to be you. If you pick a Background and give yourself a +1 Strength bonus, that means your past has been hard. You’ve had to work your muscles, do hard work, and your Background can now represent that.
The big thing about my system is that every Background offers three different Ability Scores that you can gain the +1 in, and then has the rule that that +1 bonus can not be applied to your Primary Ability increase that you got from your class. You can’t be a Barbarian and then decide to give yourself a further +1 bonus to your Strength, you have to pick something else based on what Background you are going for.
I can hear you. I can hear some people complaining about min-maxers and powergamers and how they are a blight on the perfect game of Dungeons & Dragons. Well, first off, no. If you find enjoyment in min-maxing and the DM is fine with it, do what you want to do. If you are trying to find ways to exploit the game for your own enjoyment, and the detriment of others, well then stop being an asshole. But I’m not here to police people how they play the game just like WotC isn’t here to police them. If a player wants to have specific Ability Score Increases, they are going to find a lineage that gives that to them. I can’t think of a single combination that isn’t represented in one way or the other for powergamers to latch on to.
Odd Lineages
Up next are the oddball lineages that don’t fit the assumptions that you get a +2 and a +1 bonus. Certain lineages offer additional bonuses based on what they do. These could adjust the Primary Ability, could grant an additional +1 bonus that can’t be stacked with your Primary Ability or Background, or some other combination. Each odd lineage is worked based on how it operates already written.
This is also why the Background only offers 3 different Ability Scores to choose from instead of all 6. Certain lineages grant a +1 increase to any Ability Score and by assigning certain Ability Scores to certain Backgrounds, you can still let those lineages feel special and unique in that regard.
Wrapping Up
There isn’t really much else to talk about this. It’s all pretty straightforward. Your class dictates what you are good at, your Background provides some augmentation, and your lineage is responsible for all the fun extras you get. If you look at this system and think that it just means a lineage is going to suck from now on, well… maybe that lineage sucked before this. I suspect that when Tasha comes out, a lot of players are going to get to play lineages that they wouldn’t normally get a chance too, and I think that’s great.
When you can empower the player with more options, it gives them the option to try new things and create a game that they want to play. For DMs, letting lineages choose their own Ability Score Increases isn’t a huge deal. It’s already assumed in the system that characters are going to be at certain power levels and you can’t increase your score above a 20 anyways so there is already a hard cap on it, and that hard cap is only a point or two away from a starting character’s journey, not that crazy. We only think it’s crazy because it is the cap and we automatically assume that it must be crazy powerful to have a 20 - it’s not that powerful. It’s assumed that by level 8 the characters will already be there, a level 4 or level 1 character with that already just means they can further customize their character with those rare and elusive ASIs/Feats.
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