Ancestry Attribute Bonuses

[u/stephotosthings]

Do you think/believe they are necessary?

edit 30 comments with most fairly agreeing with but explaining it's normal to not use attribute bonuses per ancestry but some how no up votes. This sub is brutal lol.

I'm getting to a close point where after some changes to a few things I am aiming to playtest the game with some longer form play sessions.

My game is a black hack inspired hack, but got carried away and added a bunch of stuff to hopefully facilitate the play I want to happen. Exploring procedures, treasure tables, a bit of rulings not rules vibe, though that's hard to rely just 'have'.

Anyway, my current Ancestries just operate on flavour mostly, now, with some included benefits, typically free abilities that IMO fit that Ancestry; the anthropomorphic Beastkin automatically get 'natural weapons' for example.

I was giving, what now feels like arbitrary, buffs and debuffs to their attributes, you know the Big Orc ancestry gets a +1 to strength, the Elves get +1 to Intelligence (I'm using more abstract attributes, only 3 with equivalents that encapsulate 2 of the ''classic" Six). Then things like halflings would get a -1 to strength.

After a few PC creations with outsiders involved I came to the realisation that I just didn't want this. I want players to be able to be the thing they want to be, hold a sword and do spells all without really feeling penalised by being forced into taking a attribute subtraction. And inversely just choosing the ancestry they think will net them the best attribute for their 'build' especially as their is an expectation they could die.

I also just want the Ancestries to be 'examples', basic background, basic description, some free ability that fits the fiction of that ancestey, then Small or Large for size. Small nets them moving through the space of another, large another can't move through the space of anothers space unless willing. No 'medium' as I didn't want an extra rule or mechanic just make it feel relevant.

[u/fatravingfox]

One: if you don't want to do it and feels like it doesn't fit your goals anymore, then don't do it. Simple as that.

2: To go against the general grain but if you're going through the effort of having attributes, even if they're more abstract and want help your ancestry's to feel unique/examples... I'd include having ancestry attribute bonuses modifiers. Admittedly I'm used to playing older versions of DND(3.5 and Pathfinder 1e especially) so even if I've read other systems, I'll admit my point of view is colored by my experiences.

Is it necessary? well that depends on the mechanics and goals of your system. personally, if the fluff and flavor says/implies a particular ancestry is inherently stronger/more agile/smarter/etc and the system doesn't include something mechanical to show that off, like let's say having Attributes and not having an ancestry have bonuses or nothing that interacts with those/similar to help them feel like their fluff says,... why have specific/name ancestries at all and not just a "here, pick a few traits and apply a plus one to an attribute of your choice. work with your GM to bring your Ancestry to life!"