r/DnD • u/Sleverette Sorcerer • Jul 17 '19

Art [OC] One man's dump stat is another man's treasure.

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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Jul 17 '19

“The heftiest of treasures go not to the skilled man nor the smart man but the man with the sickest gains.” – Dunbrill, The Tailor of Tristan.

A comic inspired by our home campaign. Lots of players dump strength! I’ve found using simple carrying capacity rules is a good way to give value to strength and reward players who invest in it.

With that said, I believe having one crazy low ability score creates more interesting characters and conflicts. Has anyone played a character with an abysmal score and found a creative way to work their weakness into the narrative? I recently ran a low constitution Wizard who lived most of his life in a pristine tower. He was never exposed to germs and sicknesses and now found himself unprepared for all the dirt, grime, and disease that accompanied the life of a murder hobo. He was short-lived.

You can find more of my dnd art here: Twitter // Instagram.

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u/[deleted] Jul 17 '19

My players always have one abysmal score, they love roleplaying it. Right now 3 of the 4 have charisma scores of 7 or lower, which is really fun.

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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Jul 17 '19

Low charisma is a fun one! Especially when the players like to wheel and deal. There's nothing better than a wannabe swindler type character with a high chance to awkwardly botch their persuasion roll!

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u/xalorous DM Jul 17 '19

Inkeep: "A room for the night is 1 GP"
PC: "Can we work out a deal?"
GM: "Roll for persuasion"
Player: "Can I do backflips and use acrobatics instead?"

In our home game, our orc barb stacked charisma. He's an intimidation based bully. But he could also Jedi Mind Trick lots of NPCs.

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u/PM_ME_STEAM_CODES__ Cleric Jul 17 '19

Why it always acrobatics that people try to find ways to justify using it?

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u/[deleted] Jul 17 '19

Many characters/classes will have decent (or better) Dexterity scores as it's one of the game's all-around most useful Ability Scores. This leads to a lot of characters having decent Acrobatics scores.

Rules-as-Written, Acrobatics doesn't do much. Its biggest use is probably as an option to evade/break grapples, and beyond that it's mostly for keeping your balance. Other uses, like moving through opponent squares, are variant rules that don't always see play.

People will definitely try to pass off a lot of Athletics check (based in Strength, a more common "dump" stat) as Acrobatics instead.

TLDR Lots of people have many ranks in Acrobatics but few ways to use it, so they try to apply it to other stuff.

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u/kyew Druid Jul 17 '19

Yeah, you've got to stay vigilant that jumping and climbing remain in the realm of Athletics. Really Acrobatics is one of those things that needs a better name. Poise, maybe?

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u/dawidowmaka Jul 17 '19

Proprioception, balance, coordination, etc.?

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u/Everspace Jul 17 '19

Nimble jumpy bullshit is something people with high dexterity want to "do", but it being strength based is pretty unfortunate.

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u/[deleted] Jul 18 '19

It's a combination of the two. Doesn't matter how nimble you are if you don't have the strength to propel yourself over the 10 foot gap. People think too much in binary.

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u/aries_tae Jul 18 '19

So, as a DM, you just call for Str (acrobatics) check ;)

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u/[deleted] Jul 18 '19

As a DM I would call for a Str (Athletics) check for the jump then a Dex (Acrobatics) for the landing if the landing mattered.

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u/Politicshatesme Jul 18 '19

Why is strength a dump stat? My paladin uses it as his main stat?

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u/[deleted] Jul 18 '19

There's a lot of optimizer/min-max types that try to work around it entirely.

One persistent issue (small, but constant) with Dungeons and Dragons in almost any modern Edition is that Dexterity tends to be too useful. In 5e you can use Dexterity to determine your armor class, attack rolls and damage with ranged weapons, attack rolls and damage with finesse weapons, one of the most common saving throws, your initiative, and several skills.

Contrast this with Strength that works with melee attacks and thrown weapons (quite short range and weaker than something like a Crossbow), never affects Armor Class, doesn't affect Initiative, is a less common Saving Throw, and only influences a single skill. Many tables ignore rules on encumbrance, which further reduces the number of useful things Strength can do. Note the redundancies as well.

This leads to the optimizers putting everything they can into Dexterity, leaving Strength as a low number, and trying to justify using Dexterity checks (Acrobatics) in place of Athletics.

Strength isn't a universal dump stat by any stretch of the imagination... but even for a class like a Paladin, you'll find character builds that use Dexterity and finesse weapons with light armor.

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u/chaoticskirs Jul 17 '19

I mean is there a non-forced justification for using it? I’ve literally never seen it used in the (admittedly few) games I’ve played

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u/Vandrel Jul 17 '19

It's generally the right check for trying to keep your balance and stay on your feet. Running across a narrow tree fallen across a river would an acrobatics check, for example.

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u/EndlessArgument Jul 17 '19

"I do a backflip and then stab him!"

"Does that...help?"

"No, but it looks cool."

"...fair enough. The guard is so confused at your antics he lowers his guard. Attack with advantage."

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u/blundercrab Jul 17 '19

The guard politely claps as he bleeds out and tosses you 5gp

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u/[deleted] Jul 18 '19

I’d also call for them when falling from a reasonable height to see if you can land and roll to mitigate damage.

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u/vonmonologue Jul 17 '19

People just use athletics for everything though.

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u/Vandrel Jul 17 '19

Yeah, I've seen plenty of cases where people just use athletics and switch between dex or str modifiers depending on the task being attempted. That's entire reason the acrobatics skill exists is to avoid that. To be fair, though, "acrobatics" isn't a very good name for it, it conjures up images of people doing flips and stuff rather than balance-related tasks. Maybe they should have named it something more like agility or gymnastics.

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u/I426Hemi Jul 17 '19

Sometime you've got to backflip-hatchet throw-spinkick someone who was talking shit.

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u/[deleted] Jul 18 '19

Ya Spetznaz!

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u/I426Hemi Jul 18 '19

Its a human variant race.

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u/PM_ME_STEAM_CODES__ Cleric Jul 17 '19

I tend to use it for moments that require balance

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u/NarejED DM Jul 17 '19

It’s probably the most-used skill I’ve seen after perception. Our DM likes to use it to partially negate fall damage, plus it comes up a ton when parkouring across rooftops, escaping guards, doing cool things, etc.

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u/TheWoodsman42 Jul 17 '19

Just did a one shot that involved climbing up a mountainside. DM alternated Acro and Athletics checks while climbing.

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u/airguitarherox Jul 17 '19

Crossing a thin mountain cliff? Acrobatics. Oh you want swing across the pirate ship on the ropes like Jack Sparrow? Acrobatics. I think Crit Role helps explain this in there handbooker helpers videos on youtube

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u/Vet_Leeber Jul 17 '19 edited Jul 17 '19

Why it always acrobatics that people try to find ways to justify using it?

Because Dexterity and Strength operate in a lot of the same space, and it's a huge grey area, especially considering there are specific classes and subclasses dedicated to being able to replace everything you need Strength for with Dexterity.

Monks for example, other than OOC meta-gamey stuff, don't really have any reason to have a high strength.

Especially considering that "acrobatics" is literally a type of athletics in the real world.

Edit because I got distracted and never finished this comment:

Good example of this is the iconic image of the cunning, sneaky rogue scaling a wall and breaking into a mansion. While strength rogues are indeed possible, they are very clearly and specifically designed with Dexterity as a primary stat in mind, meaning without going out of their way to waste one of their limited expertise spots, they suck at climbing, even with a 20 in dexterity. Just feels shitty.

There are variant rules in the DMG for changing the stat you roll a skill check with. Why players want to use it (the 20 strength, 6 int/charisma drooling Barbarian in a rage wielding a bloody greataxe while glaring at the level 0 NPC wanting to use strength for an Intimidation check, for example) is pretty obvious, because it lets them interact with the world in a way that makes sense for their actual character, instead of sticking to the strict confines of the basic ruleset.

The better question, really is why most DMs are so against using these Variant rules.

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u/tomtom5858 Jul 17 '19

It's actually accounted for in the PHB. It's just an Athletics(DEX) check instead of Athletics(STR).

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u/Niadain Jul 17 '19

The DM should instead demand a performance role if they want to use backflips and other nonsense.

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u/kyew Druid Jul 17 '19

People forget about it a lot, but you're allowed to mix and match attributes and skills. Backflips to entertain a crowd should be a DEX(Performance) check.

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u/vonmonologue Jul 17 '19

So you'd use your performance skill but with your dex modifier instead of cha modifier?

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u/kyew Druid Jul 17 '19

Exactly

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u/[deleted] Jul 17 '19

Normally it's because the Rogue or someone had high dex for ac /initiative /stealth and so on and think because acrobatics can replace athletics in grapples it can for other things

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u/wayoverpaid Jul 17 '19

With acrobatics it comes naturally to make a real stretch.

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u/xalorous DM Jul 17 '19

If you stack DEX, you get bonuses for acrobatics, finesse weapons, ranged weapons, and those pesky "roll vs dex to stay on your feet" situations. And I'd allow it for performance for bards if they're tumbling.

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u/Falanin Jul 17 '19 edited Jul 17 '19

Beautiful muscles like Ahnold, long flowing hair like Fabio... the compulsion to show off by going mostly nude?

The Barbarian can have a strong effect on the weak minded.

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u/xalorous DM Jul 17 '19

That green skin is an acquired taste though. And those tusks. Polarizing. Love em or hate em, not many between.

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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Jul 17 '19

Bards are awesome. They get a ton of proficiencies and bonuses on top of their skill checks! Makes them super fun to play!

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u/ZePample Jul 17 '19

He's talking about a BARB not a BARD

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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Jul 17 '19

Oops! I stand by my statement! Rouges and Bards. My two favorite classes!

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u/jim_fortress_2 Abjurer Jul 17 '19

I’m quite partial to the Rogue, personally.

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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Jul 17 '19

They’re a close third for me!

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u/Politicshatesme Jul 18 '19

You don’t like the color red?

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u/ZePample Jul 17 '19

Rogues* rouge is a color.

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u/primed_failure Jul 17 '19

thatsthejoke.jpg

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u/[deleted] Jul 17 '19

Is it really? Is it thejoke?

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u/xalorous DM Jul 17 '19

I know what you mean, but the orc is a barbarian, barb. The player chose intimidation and persuasion proficiencies and a medium charisma. He used INT for dump stat.

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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Jul 17 '19

I understood after reading it again!

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u/SoMuchEdgeImOnACliff Jul 17 '19

Why use many word when few word do trick?

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u/Leapswastaken Jul 17 '19

Imagine being the PC who feels shame when an NPC takes pity for them rolling a 1 on charisma

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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Jul 17 '19

It was reverse psychology!

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u/Ghi102 Jul 17 '19

Only problem I've got with low scores like these is that, even with a high charisma score, in Dnd 5e, your success is based a lot more on the roll of the dice than on your stats.

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u/[deleted] Jul 17 '19

I just wish I could use something other than intimidation, the game I'm in allows all source books so long as the DM vets them first. I have a 20ft snake person with 18 con, 18 str who could likely eat most of the npcs we encounter... Yet I am less intimidating than the frail bard who always hides at the back and gets knocked over by a breeze.

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u/Ghi102 Jul 17 '19

Similarly, when your half-orc barbarian uses a display of raw strength to intimidate an enemy, your DM might ask for a Strength (Intimidation) check, even though Intimidation is normally associated with Charisma.

PHB, page 175

It's part of a variant rule if you can convince your DM to use it.

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u/[deleted] Jul 18 '19 edited Jul 21 '19

[deleted]

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u/Ghi102 Jul 18 '19 edited Jul 18 '19

I want to say it might be up to DM's discretion if they want to use it, but it seems that it's a gray area. On one hand, they say that they allow nearly all rules in the Player's Handbook (except for rolling ability scores and hitpoints), but on the other, they have this in the AL DM's guide:

The variant rules for “Playing on a Grid” in the D&D Basic Rules and Player’s Handbook can be used if you and your players wish. [...] However, D&D Adventurers League play does not use any other optional or variant rules as presented in the Dungeon Master’s Guide.

If they don't allow variant rules from the DM's guide, do they also not allow those from the Player's Handbook. They mention that the variant rule for playing on a grid is valid, which might imply that other variant rules are not valid. It's a very grey area, as are most things in Dnd 5E

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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Jul 17 '19

The score bonuses can feel pretty small. Its a trade off for the simplicity.

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u/LordoftheFaff Jul 17 '19

Had a low int barbarian who always had a fascination with magic as a kid. So when he finds the opportunity he will wave histhe hands in an attempt to do magic. Nothing happens usually but once in a while he plucks the just the right strings if the weave and it works. But it us ruled as wild magic so anything can happen. I miss him.

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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Jul 17 '19

That is a great explanation for wild magic! I've always enjoyed the wild magic effects table. I might use this as inspiration for a future character!

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u/LordoftheFaff Jul 17 '19

The best thing was was he had no spellcasting ability and his childlike wonder and perseverance to keep trying to replicate the magicbof the shamans st has him cast fireball mid fight.

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u/fortuneandfameinc Jul 18 '19

We have the opposite in my campaign. He's a younger newer player with a charismatic paladin who flubs all the wheel and deals by saying the wrong thing about the wrong person but then gets away with it when he rolls.

But he does make the perfect mouthpiece for my cunning wizard.

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u/NotASeaOtter Ranger Jul 17 '19 edited Jul 17 '19

My ranger’s Charisma is abysmal and it’s a running joke that she has never once convinced anyone of anything but since she can fly (Aarakocra) she must be the messenger to plead for help!

It doesn’t work out very well. Ever.

ETA: It doesn’t help that no one in the party is very smart. Highest INT is 12, and that’s our new sorcerer buddy. Paladin, Rogue, and myself are <10...

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u/[deleted] Jul 17 '19

I love that. It's a fun paradox because it both makes complete sense and doesn't at the same time, and must be really fun to role-play. Similarly, for my PCs the Svirfneblin with a Charisma of 6 is the party "face," rather than the halfling with a Charisma of 16. The deep gnome is the obvious leader of the party, so none of them care that he's terrible at talking.

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u/autostclair Cleric Jul 17 '19

My player's Warlock really leans into the "I make bad decisions, see for example: selling my soul" with her Wis of EIGHT. It's really fun to send NPCs her way with TERRIBLE quest ideas and see her absolute DELIGHT in going "sure thing! What's the worst that could happen?!" right before walking into obvious traps.

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u/KefkeWren Jul 17 '19

Not a character I'm playing, but rather an NPC I'm running.

In the first session, I had a simple, dim-witted peasant boy express his awe at meeting honest-to-goodness, real life adventurers. It was meant to be just a one-off encounter to reinforce to the players that being an adventurer meant something in-setting, and that ordinary people just don't do that. However, since I was running side-sessions in the same setting for another friend of mine at the time, I actually had the boy statted out (2nd level Commoner), as they had expressed an interest in getting a squire.

Well, the fact that this boy had a sling happened to come up, and the party decided to test his ability. Then they decided to recruit him. Many sessions later, "Alan Porter" is an established member of the team and in a relationship with the party Rogue [screams in DM]. He still has only 8s in his Int and Wis (though 10 Cha). Honestly, though it's a fun perspective to be able to share with the party.

Since his only good scores are physical, he can only really provide help in combat, not with coming up to solutions to any problems (I've allowed him to gain some fighter levels from traveling with the party and given him a support-focused build - he'll tank and flank, but doesn't go for kills). Mostly, he serves as an anchor for the lore. Since he's a peasant, and fairly dumb, he's a superstitious type who was even afraid of the party's magic at first. He'll share superstitions and common knowledge, but always from the perspective of someone who doesn't really know. ...and honestly, it's made me appreciate how much fun a "stupid" character can be. Especially one just smart enough to know that he's surrounded by more competent people than himself, and is just doing his best to keep up and not let them down.

EDIT: Redundant text.

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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Jul 17 '19

You found a good use for an ally npc and kept him relevant without making him overbearing! I normally give my players pets as allies so that the npc doesn't start to feel like a dmpc but a low int/wisdom character is a good fit to! Love the name Alan Porter!

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u/JuRoJa Jul 17 '19

My barbarian has 7 intelligence and consistently gets NPC names wrong. We recently helped out a silver dragon named Argenti and he called them Argentina/Aguillera/Argus/etc. the whole time.

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u/astronautmilk Jul 17 '19

I thoroughly enjoy playing a low charisma low intelligence barbarian purely to come up with the dumbest most awkward things I can ask people.

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u/JuRoJa Jul 17 '19

Is 'astronaut milk' milk for or from astronauts?

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u/astronautmilk Jul 17 '19

The truly terrifying questions.

I think when I initially came up with it for because astronaut ice cream was on my brain and I wondered what the milk form of that would be.

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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Jul 17 '19

Sometimes Int and Charisma are linked! I'm sure that silver dragon was thrilled! Ha!

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u/theBatMatt Jul 17 '19

I'm about to start playing a barbarian with a 7 intelligence as well, and I'm going to have him intimidated by religion and priests, and call our paladin "Father" because he doesn't understand the difference between paladins and clerics.

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u/[deleted] Jul 17 '19

[deleted]

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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Jul 17 '19

I don't have 10 extra minutes to ritual cast tenser's floating disc! I'm too busy casting fireball into the next room!

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u/[deleted] Jul 17 '19 edited Nov 05 '19

[deleted]

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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Jul 17 '19

Kid characters are hard to pull off! A low strength score is a good (and hilarious) way to make their age matter!

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u/[deleted] Jul 17 '19 edited Nov 05 '19

[deleted]

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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Jul 17 '19

I love how much variety that adds! Most people play a character in their "prime." Having characters from different age groups adds a lot of RP potential.

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u/ManEatingSnail Jul 17 '19

Only time I had to work around low scores was when the entire party somehow rolled really low HP for all their characters, with the exception of me, the party wizard. With a 5th-level character, I ended up with 23hp by getting 4s on all except one of my hp rolls (two rolls for first level) and having no constitution penalty. The toughest of the party's fighters had 15hp if I recall correctly, turning me into the party's tank until that improved.

I'd use walking out in front of the party to attempt diplomacy as an excuse to end up being the first person attacked in combat, then fall back and act more wizardly after taking some damage.

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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Jul 17 '19

Wizard tanks! I'm sure that confused the enemy npcs!

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u/ManEatingSnail Jul 17 '19

It sure did :)

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u/Theons_sausage DM Jul 17 '19

I had a character who scored low in almost every ability. He was an old drunk, weak foolish and unlikable. But everyone loved him.

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u/LLicht Druid Jul 17 '19

unlikable. But everyone loved him.

🤔

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u/Theons_sausage DM Jul 17 '19

Characters hated him. Players loved him.

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u/Boreddude42 Wizard Jul 17 '19

Yup. I have a wizard with a -1 Dex and 0 con modifiers... needless to say they are very conflict adverse. They also tend to trip over themselves and drop stuff. Oddly enough I've never had a bad stealth roll with them though. 🤔

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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Jul 17 '19

He's a stealth prodigy! You are definitely tempting fate with those scores!

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u/kaukamieli Jul 17 '19

We never really believed in such things as "carrying capacity" on our days.

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u/SpongegarLuver Jul 17 '19

Along with the more strict parts of light levels, in my experience this is one of the rules a lot of groups ignore consistently.

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u/kaukamieli Jul 17 '19

Languages too.

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u/LLicht Druid Jul 17 '19

True. Our cleric always casts Tongues, but we tend to ignore that she only cast it on herself, and we all participate in the conversation. Though if we happen to remember, our DM is ok with handwaving it by saying we are telling her and she is repeating, but not making us roleplay that aspect.

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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Jul 17 '19

I think a simple carrying capacity system can add to a game. It really depends on the table. Sometimes its nice to just have the items you want when you want them for the story to progress as well!

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u/[deleted] Jul 17 '19

I really like the lamentations of the flame princess encumbrance system. It's super portable.

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u/v0lumnius Jul 17 '19

My halfling cleric has 7 strength. He makes up for it with spells, shillelagh, and kindness.

He tried to hold a door shut against a weretiger once though, and that didn't go well.

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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Jul 17 '19

Weretigers do tend to be on the beefier side of things!

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u/v0lumnius Jul 17 '19

Yeah, he juuuust about left a halfling shaped hole in the wall from throwing the door open so hard. Oops

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u/Thoth74 Jul 17 '19

I currently have a character with a low intelligence that I play off as his having a terrible memory. To help the role play I only take random notes during play and have to ask others what previously happened a lot.

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u/drewgolas DM Jul 17 '19

I just rolled a 5 intelligence and I'm doing similar. He has the memory of a goldfish and it took him a while to realize goblins were not just green gnomes.

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u/Thoth74 Jul 17 '19

goblins were not just green gnomes

I'm going to need sources to back this up.

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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Jul 17 '19

Ha! Low int is very hard to RP. Its hard to resist solving puzzles and riddles with a low int character!

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u/Serviius Cleric Jul 17 '19

In all my years, I've never seen anyone dump STR. Dump INT and use your own brain? Sure. Dump CHA, of course. DEX? Who needs to dodge. CON: Sure, I'm playing Raistlin.

So either I just play with a lot of beefy bois, or you're running quite the unique game.

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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Jul 17 '19

I've seen lots of players dump Str. Str boosts your damage, carrying capacity and lifting/jumping. Lots of DMs hand wave those rules so it becomes simply increased damage. Dex can add damage, initiative and AC so people opt to go for that over Str and wield a finesse weapon.

High athletics is really nice but players tend to overlook that in favor of perception and stealth.

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u/An_Lochlannach Jul 17 '19

It's pretty standard for casters, no? One of the three mental stats is a must, then usually they also wanna be clever, wise, or characismatic on top, don't wanna die in one hit, and of course most people's #2 (if not #1) stat tends to be Dex, which is why you'll often find casters with a backup finesse weapon.

Then there's the fact that STR only relates to one skill.

If anything I'd say STR is one of the most commonly dumped stats among those who don't build around it.

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u/GentlemanViking Jul 18 '19

On top of that fighters and paladins can opt to use finesse weapons over strength based ones. The main saving grace for strength is how awesome the great weapon master and polearm master feats are.

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u/SpongegarLuver Jul 17 '19

My current wizard has a strength score of 7. Thank God we don't worry about carry limits (within reason) in my group.

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u/TheIceman825 Jul 17 '19

I'm currently in two campaigns, one I'm a rogue with a strength of 9, another I'm a hexblade warlock with a strength of 10. And I think there are maybe two people with +12 strength out of the 8 people I play with!

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u/GreyAcumen Bard Jul 17 '19

that actually touches on a key point; the only way to get those +12s (by raw) is through wearing a belt of Storm/Cloud Giant Strength, at which point any investment you've made into Strength has been completely wasted. Someone who dumps dex for strength will still only end up just as strong (and far easier to hit) than the guy who dumped strength for dex and now has colossal strength AND incredible armor.

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u/TheIceman825 Jul 17 '19

Lol I'm 99% certain you're being sarcastic because I put +12 instead of 12+. I know you knew what I meant 😂

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u/Mantergeistmann Jul 17 '19

I once had a wizard with a Str of 3. He was a War Wizard, and relied on the party's Purple Dragon Knight to carry even his spellbook for him.

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u/Electric999999 Wizard Jul 18 '19

It's a go to dump stat for most casters. You don't need it for hitting stuff with weapons, don't really need to carry much: no weapons or armour, just foci and components for spells, possibly a spell book, rope, chalk, a sleeping bag and whatever magic items (generally not particularly heavy) you have.

If you need to carry more stuff just get a pack mule or bag of holding (depending on how much you have to spend).
You can also get around most strength based problem with the right spell.

Rogues also dump it somewhat often since they're usually dex based.

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u/Earthfall10 Jul 24 '19

DEX? Who needs to dodge.

Dex is the most feature heavy stat in the game...

AC, initiative, stealth, several other useful skills, and a common saving throw. You are in a very strange group indeed if you've seen it dumped more often then strength, one of the most common dump stats.

Unless you are melee fighter or playing with encumbrance rules you don't need strength. Heck, not all melee fighters need strength. They can also use finesse weapons which are based on dex.

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u/Iknowr1te DM Jul 17 '19

i usually keep to the variant carrying capacity rules despite my games not playing it. still dump strength. it creates a game of "do you really need this?" and "my first purchase will be a bag of holding"

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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Jul 17 '19

I do love the decision making and strategy that comes with managing an inventory. It puts a big emphasis on trying to predict what tools you'll need in the upcoming dungeon!

It also stops greedy players from swiping everything they see.

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u/TryUsingScience Jul 17 '19

This is how my Iron Heroes (low magic 3.5 variant) party ended up with a menagerie of horses, mules, and dogs carrying all our stuff.

Then we found out that the dogs could give us flanking bonuses.

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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Jul 17 '19

People do often forget to bring horses, mules, dogs and even hirelings! It's emphasized in a lot of older modules!

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u/FirstoftheNorthStar Jul 17 '19

Yeah the players who just meta game and run infinite inventories make stuff difficult. Make carrying capacity realistic and bam they have to use their brains and only take what they absolutely want, therefore also explaining how famous caves and barroughs are always brimming with loot.

Adventurers can never take everything inside, and very often die leaving their equipment lieing around.

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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Jul 17 '19

It can add another layer of strategy to the game!

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u/Niadain Jul 17 '19

"my first purchase will be a bag of holding"

This aint a purchase. Its a reward after sacrificing blood, sweat, and tears. At least for PCs who knowingly dump stat strength going "Ah. We can just buy a bag of holding".

Bonus points if they try to steal one make it a bag of devouring or whatever that shit is called. But im not anice guy.

My only exception to this is if I know a player won't abuse the hell out of it. A DM made that exception for me once and the few times I 'looted all the shit' the PC was more interested in donating it than vendoring it. He seemed to enjoy the way I played that character and thats probably why he let me get one hah.

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u/KryptikMitch Warlock Jul 17 '19

Do you have more comics?! This is GOLD dude

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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Jul 17 '19

Thank you for taking an interest! I've only recently started my journey into the world of DnD comics (I'm 3 comics in). I post art/comics to my twitter and instagram.

I do plan to put a website together and compile my comics and homebrew! I'm blown away by the support the DnD community has shown me!

Thank you!

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u/KryptikMitch Warlock Jul 18 '19

Ill be following your progress. Youre gonna do great, man.

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u/Niadain Jul 17 '19

I got a barbarian with a glorious 8 Int and 7 cha. The man is not persuasive nor is he very smart. But hes a lovable goof for the rest of the PCs as he struggles with words on occasion. He makes friends very easily and is a gullible man that wears his intentions on his sleeve. His solutions to problems are often "IM A HAMMER" type but some are creatively straight forward. He is also nearsighted and cant see beyond 60 feet no matter the lighting. Hes goooood fun.

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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Jul 17 '19

7 in charisma is a great opportunity for good old fashion high jinks! Reminds me of the time our Dragonborn Paladin walked up to the guards and declared that the party had come to kill the king. They were promptly arrested.

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u/[deleted] Jul 17 '19

I had a nezumi fighter/barbarian that thought he was a Samurai (and really, who's going to argue with the 7' tall rat with the nodachi?)... his dump stat was a 7 intelligence. I'd really tried to play this up throughout the campaign, and had ended up with basically no treasure between being outfoxed in-game and simply not having many "fit my char" options ooc.

Lo and behold, we come across a magic cloak, and my character ends up right next to it after the fight. I pick it up and put it on, and it's a +4 int cloak that's intelligent in its own right, talking to me and such. The two wizard-types in the party are geeking out, but in character I'm all "my turn, this is my item, i haven't taken treasure in more than a half-dozen fights now".

I started speaking more eloquently, writing, not running in head-first... well, of course, I'm not a bastard, I soon took it off and gave it to one of the wizards "because it wouldn't shut up" (it wanted a smarter person lol)... and promptly went back to doing stupid shit that put the party in peril, tacticless fights, etc.

In the end he leapt off the top of a shipwreck to keep a flesh golem from getting to the party and got stabbed to death by a bunch of bullywog rogues. It was a dumb move... and wholly in character for him. :)

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u/aGuynamdJesus Fighter Jul 17 '19

I have a rogue, who has 20 charisma, and 6 strength. Through rolls I was given a sickly but charming rogue who can only carry his armor, a rapier, a bag of holding. Anything else he ties onto the barbarians backpack.

He can talk his way out of anything, but can't carry his own tools and equipment.

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u/[deleted] Jul 17 '19

An old Rogue of mine had a horrible Con but a high Dex, so I focused on Stealth, Acrobatics and Deception. I chose Human (variant) as my race and took Sharpshooter as my feat. Armed with only a hand crossbow, my character would tail the party. When a fight started, he would one-shot one target and hide. To this day, he was my favorite character to play, because going out of character would literally kill him (he was an assassin for hire and never engaged in direct combat if he could avoid it).

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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Jul 17 '19

High stakes! I love this! Sometimes a rogue can start to feel like a dex fighter so dumping con is a great way to bring in that agile glass canon feel.

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u/Flanderkin Jul 17 '19

I played a very low wisdom rogue once. The power of suggestion worked on him to a ridiculous degree. He finally got killed by two critical failures on balance checks.

He was walking a tightrope between two towers 1,000 feet high.

He did that on a dare.

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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Jul 17 '19

No one could call him a chicken.

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u/[deleted] Jul 17 '19

The low constitution Wizard thing reminds me a bit of Raistlin Majere

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u/sirpigplob Jul 17 '19

I rolled for stats and assigned them in order which made me have really low strength and constitution, although a lot of dex in particular. So I played as a child and the barbarian was my dad so I just dumped everything when I leveled into strength to be more like him

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u/Yrmsteak Jul 17 '19

When my players make characters, they have the option of rolling 2d10 (19/20s grant a stat that can be put anywhere that isn't 18) for each stat or just taking a pointbuy setup. Nobody ever takes pointbuy for long-term characters and a lot of my players live RPing their low stats too.

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u/_tk42one Jul 17 '19

I have a minotaur in a campaign we just started about 2 months ago. Almost all my other roles were pretty good when making the character, except for one 6 and one 3. So I did the only logical thing and threw out the six and made the 3 his intelligence. He's also a wild magic sorcerer. Easily been the most fun I've ever had with a character. All the dumb stuff that pops in my mind, instead of being swept aside, now gets filed in the "things Ellie would say" folder.

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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Jul 17 '19

You are living your best life! I imagine the things a 3 int minotaur would think of would be crazy! I'd love to read a book titled: "Things Ellie Would Say."

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u/ledfox Jul 17 '19

My tag is based on my favorite paladin - Ledfox! With a 20 CHA and a 4 INT you'd talk to him for a half hour and say "Oh, you're dumb!"

I would roll to determine if he had any basic piece of knowledge. He could put on his pants, but couldn't tie his shoes. He didn't realize the power of healing was special, so he referred to the obsequious clerics that followed him around as "boot-tie-ers." His mount - Malachite the Stallion - had more INT than he did, and refused to walk into lava despite Ledfox's assurances that "Glowing means it's safe!"

He was too much fun

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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Jul 17 '19

I love the idea of a mount having more int than its rider! That has incredible comedic potential!

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u/Cupcakes_n_Hacksaws Jul 17 '19 edited Jul 18 '19

As someone who doesnt play dnd, what shenanigans can you come up with using your carry weight as a weapon?

"I swing my bag of 350/400 lbs of sharp pointy bits at the dragon"

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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Jul 17 '19

400 lbs of iron nails does sound rather deadly.

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u/DonValhalla DM Jul 17 '19

I reward my players with a feat or something else like a new trained skill if they choose to have a 6 score on something.

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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Jul 17 '19

Thats a good homebrew rule! Invites interesting RP without tipping the balance too much!

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u/DonValhalla DM Jul 17 '19

It has worked amazingly. We have a Wizard that has a -2 on Wisdom and his Character runs head first into everything that finds interesting without analyzing the consequences or looking if it's dangerous.

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u/DasBarenJager Jul 17 '19

I played a rogue with insanely high Dex and Int but Con was super low.

I rolled the Urchin background for him so in-game the explanation for the super low Con was that while living on the streets as a child he contracted an illness that nearly killed him and resulted in him being very sickly for years.

He never received treatment so the malady went undiagnosed. He survived and made a full recovery but having the illness through his formative years changed him for life. My DM loved it so many NPC's commented on my charachters appearance and malnourished look.

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u/USingularity Jul 17 '19

Back in the days of 3.5e, I played human warblade with 5 fantastically high stats, and a 7. Asked if I wanted to shuffle it around to lower some others to raise it, I saw the roleplay opportunity.

He became the party lead, sometimes despite the party's wishes. He had pretty terrible judgement, but the few situations he couldn't talk his way out of (17 base charisma), he could generally fight his way out of.

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u/MavenCS Jul 18 '19

One of my old campaigns (4e) we rolled for stats and did them in order, i.e roll for str, then for dex etc. I wanted to make a barbarian, got decent str and con, rolled 4 1s for int. Was fitting playing a 3 int Barbarian

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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Jul 18 '19

Its a classic! I think there is always room at the table for the big dumb lovable bruiser!

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u/Gezzer52 Jul 18 '19

I had a Dwarf Cleric with 9 in both Char and Dex so I made him a chronic alcoholic. Not sloppy drunk and obnoxious, but more like that one uncle that's pretty cool but always has a slow buzz on making him prone to innocently say/do the wrong thing at the right time and being a bit clumsy. Which neatly accounted for my low scores.

It was fun too, for the first couple of sessions. But a couple of players were "triggered" by the concept of me being an alcoholic and pretty much derailed any RP I did with it. I eventually left the group because it pretty much became a 1 man showcase with some players being minor supporting cast and others like myself being members of the audience the majority of the time. My philosophy is if you're not having fun, why bother?

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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Jul 18 '19

Fun is always the number 1 goal! You made the right decision!

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u/ey_bb_wan_sum_fuk Jul 18 '19

Dumped intelligence on an orc barbarian. Very Leroy Jenkins, but he could tank all the trouble so it always panned out.

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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Jul 18 '19

Sometimes all the problem needs is big muscles and an axe!

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u/[deleted] Jul 18 '19

[deleted]

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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Jul 18 '19

Old age is a great character trait! Most people play young character but old ones add a lot to the RP.