D&D attributes out! Alternative Stats for our games

homebrew

#41

Thanks. I removed wisdom as a stat and for use as an attempt roll and instead moved that element of the game into character tags for role playing.

So a player might have NATURALIST as a tag, which gives him EASY on investigation rolls regarding nature, landscape and creatures. This is taking the place of a WISDOM check.


#42

Because we play more Critical Role style and with an emphasis on taking time and not ripping through the adventure… battles are few and espionage, political puzzle solving and such are more at the front of how I run my sessions… I have found the players often want to test out their skills and make their builds differently than the guy next to them. If you have 5 fighters for example… they might each want to be extremely different than the next fighter at the table by perhaps being able to have more intimidation with a high Charisma or the ability to be stealthy and learned how to pick locks and cutpurse stuff when they were a teen maybe which makes them more of a cross class (rogue/fighter) kind of thing. The adding of skills starts to enter into this multi-class concept basically. Another fighter at the table might have grown up spending tons of time hunting with his father and is a very skilled woodsman… with tracking abilities and navigation by the stars… commune with animals maybe so a druid/fighter. The more skills you have the more you can take 5 fighters and turn them into something completely unique compared to one another which in a game which is heavily focused on the rp aspect… they often rely on each others skills to accomplish the tasks set upon them rather than it being a simple all 5 fighters rage and hack and slash kind of game. Yeah… what started out as an ICRPG hack became very much a new version of original D&D but with little bits from all the games I have played and things I have experienced in 30 yrs of GM’ing. Not much ICRPG exists. I love coming here though as it still inspires so much and I have Hank to thank for that. He re-lit my GM’ing fire which was starting to flare out.


#43

Recently I have just let the player say what they want to do and justify how a stat could be used. As long as they can justify it logically for their character then I will let it pass. Otherwise I will stick a HARD onto it.

Let the player justify, rather than have a prewritten set of rationales.


#44

Very true. All but one of my players is new to d&d so they still barely understand half the rules I made for them so instead, they often just ask if they can and I worry about the rules and try to say yes as often as I possibly can or if it’s a no… find a way to turn it into a maybe if they perhaps do something a bit differently. You are totally touching on the golden rule of being a GM I think… try to always say Yes.


#45

An example came up of a chase scene, where players role played using strength or dexterity rolls to jump over things or smash through things.

The player playing a bard said his character looked back and was so scared that he used his charisma to scream and run faster, overtaking everyone. It was such a creative reason that it was allowed and we all had a good chuckle of the mental image of him doing it.

This character also has never been involved in any combat and instead the only weapon he has is a kitchen sieve.


#46

Great idea. I would have went with a constitution check to get an adrenaline boost with advantage (EASY) due to such thinking. Roll success and get to run FAR X 2. Love when players are creative like that. It allows the GM to have to improvise and be creative also which is the real fun in being the GM. An alternative would have been a sanity check via Wisdom as well. Fail that and trip and stumble due to the adrenaline/fear coursing through you. Roll Hard for next two turns. Depends on if you want to be mean or generous. lol


#47

The CHA things was clutch!
Force of will! That’s great. CHA needs some love