My paladin is now level 4 and has 19 strength and 15 charisma. I know it is probably better to take the ability score increase and get another +1 on the majority of rolls I’ll be making but that’s just so boring!
I’m taking Shield Master instead.
Does anyone else have this conflict?
Most people seem to be misunderstanding. I don’t mind having to make “tough choices” in general, only when the obviously correct choice is boring and the suboptimal one is the cool fun one.
I don’t mind having to make “tough choices” in general, only when the obviously correct choice is boring and the suboptimal one is the cool fun one.
This perfectly sums it up. The problem is that increasing your scores needs to be pretty darn strong, strong enough to compete with a feat…but as you said, it’s usually pretty boring. A couple of +1s certainly add up and make your character more powerful on average, but a feat that grants entirely new functionality just feels so much more impactful and fun.
I would have preferred them to entirely separate stat growth and feat selection, but the OneDnD method of just making most (all?) feats into “half feats” is acceptable as well.
I hate how rarely you get ASI’s and feats. Plus with the reliance on half feats, it’s so much work to figure out what to do. I think that all feats should change to half feats, lose the built in ASI, and then every even level you get a choice of a +1 in a stat of your choice or one of these ASI-less half feats.
It’s a very anti-fun design decision. But then again, feats are an optional rule for some reason so it would be hard to have it a different way.
The designers are really kidding themselves by calling them optional still.
I do know someone who doesn’t allow feats at their table because they feel feats are overpowered.
My table gets a free feat at lvl 1.
I think feats are one of the coolest aspects of D&D character customization, so it’s always a pain when it’s stifled in favor of number-go-up. Depending on how high I plan to go, I give my players a feat every level or every other level. They end up with more than they know what to do with and end up taking RP feats, which are sorely underutilized because of the opportunity cost of obtaining them.
Yes, the PCs get more powerful, but that just means I rebalance enemies.
Something Something pf2e
I have grown to accept +4 as a perfectly cromulant ability modifier and only aim to pop it to +5 if there’s no feat that stands out to me so you’re not alone. Unless I am a spellcaster, then I ignore feats until I get that sweet sweet 20.
That is exactly the reason I allways play songle Ability characters. I just dont have room for ASI. All the int increase on my wizard comes from half feats.
Cries in paladin
I cant really imagine ever taking an ASI. I’d have to be pretty far into a game and playing a class that gets a LOT of feats. even then those classes kinda suck for class features so…
5e is weirdly stingy with ASIs and feats. It is kinda weird
I’m not a fan. But I need to stop playing D&D because, among other reasons, I find class+level too coarsely grained. I’d rather be able to spend xp directly on stuff like in cofd, fate, many other games I know less well.
i’ve personally (as DM) let players have both a feat and an ASI at the appropriate levels. Honestly doesn’t hurt balance that much overall, just makes for slightly more powerful PCs.
I heard one DM say that they let the players choose, either they get to pick a feat, or they pick an ASI and the DM chooses a feat for them. The reason being that it means that the player has the chance to pick one of the big power spike feats (GWM, PAM, Sentinel, War caster) or get an ASI and get something thats not quite as big an impact mechanically, but helps develop the flavor of their character ( think like actor, charger, heavily armored). I haven’t tried it, but I want to give it a shot some time.
I feel it provides a decent balance, making you choose between raw ability and specialization
It just sucks when the correct choice is boring and the fun choice is wrong.
although with a 19 you should definitely look into the half feats
19 STR and 15 CHA.
Take +1 to both.
That’s a good point!
That’s the point. If you want everything right away just start with max level characters. Congratulations, no more leveling up means no more agonizing choices.
And no, having a more powerful character at level X doesn’t change this. It just means that either your DM starts throwing comparably more powerful enemies at you or everything gets easier. In the first case you’re accomplishing nothing because everybody involved is just adding some extra numbers to their rolls. And if you want everything to be easier you might as well just assume you always succeed on every check and get max damage on every attack. For that matter don’t bother even pretending to be interested in dice, begin every combat by just describing how you massacre your foes. Then type up a description of it and you’re writing a book instead of actually playing a game.
Most people have (including me), it’s designed that way.
Unpopular opinion: This is a good thing. Having to make meaningful choices with a cost (even if it’s just an opportunity cost) is a core part of what makes this an actual game.
I agree with you. The small bump to things like attack rolls, damage rolls, and save DCs from hitting levels that bump your modifier are noticeable, and playing as a wizard in the campaign I’m in right now I can tell you I’m champing at the bit to get my spell DC that one little bit higher because it’s the difference between some of my spells having no effect or outright changing the flow of combat. Getting that boost and also some of the big-hitter feats like Tough or War Caster would be a bit much. It gets even worse if you’re getting the benefit of the 2 points ASI as well as one from the half-feats.
On the other hand, though, there’s a huge gap in the power level between feats, and I’m not sure I’d necessarily feel the same way if the feat chosen was Shield Master, which is one of the weaker of the full feats. I might also be more inclined to set aside a list of the more flavourful feats like Chef that the players could just get for free without the associated ability boost and let the players just pick one for free as character building.
On the other hand, though, there’s a huge gap in the power level between feats, and I’m not sure I’d necessarily feel the same way if the feat chosen was Shield Master, which is one of the weaker of the full feats. I might also be more inclined to set aside a list of the more flavourful feats like Chef that the players could just get for free without the associated ability boost and let the players just pick one for free as character building.
On that, I agree and I’ve explicitly done exactly that. In hindsight, the option to boost a main stat with a “Ribbon” half feat to 18 was still a tad too strong, but that can be easily house ruled along the lines of
At character creation, every PC can choose a feat from (list). If a half feat is chosen, it’s Ability Score Increase can’t be used to achieve a total character creation Ability Score Increase of more than +2.
I don’t mind choosing between two fun things or two boring things. Just between a fun thing that is suboptimal and a boring thing that is optimal.
