D&D 5E About Ability Scores...

[Phazonfish]

After reading some discussion about the perks of being a non-variant human I was curious: how often is an odd ability score more useful than if the score were one lower? Let's see how many we can name.

• 13 in an ability score is better than 12 because multiclass requirements

I believe at least a few formulae run off of score rather than modifier, but none come to mind, so there is a hint for someone else.

 

[Lanliss]

The distance you can jump with a 10 foot run is based on your Strength Score, so a 13 is 1 foot more than a 12, instead of the same.

 

[Phazonfish]

@Laniliss
Bonus points for our first answer.
To clarify the topic is about odd vs. even scores in general, not specifically 13 vs. 12, that was just my example because multiclassing runs exclusively off 13's.

 

[Hriston]

For each point of Strength you can carry 15 more pounds and push, drag, or lift 30 more pounds.

If you are using the Encumbrance variant, each point of Strength lets you carry 5 more pounds before you are encumbered, and 10 more pounds before you are heavily encumbered.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

There is also a minor benefit to having multiple odd scores when it comes to Ability Score Improvement, since odd scores enable improvement of two modifiers at once instead of only one (i.e. you can make a 15 and a 13 into a 16 and a 14, which is a little better than making either a 14 a 16 or a 12 a 14).

 

[Phazonfish]

@Hriston
Ah, another good one, and another point in favor of strength. I almost regret making it the dump stat of every char I ever make.

@AaronOfBarbaria
True, 110% true, but I'm not sure how I feel about saying odd scores are good because you can use an ASI to get rid of them easier.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

It's a thing you can do with odd scores that you can't with even scores, so it felt worth mentioning.

 

[Phazonfish]

I agree, sorry if I came off as trying to mitigate the significance of your answer.

 

[Lucas Blackstone]

Along the same lines as Aaron's reply in regards to ASI's, the 1 ability point feats are much better when coupled with an odd stat then an even stat. In games that we use standard array ( 15 14 13 12 10 8 ) for instance, I often will play a standard human, put the 15 as primary stat, 14 as con ( which I often value as second most important overall ), take resilient con feat , and end up with 2 16's.

 

[Horwath]

There is little benefit in 13 over 12. Mostly is cheaper to get 14 from 12 rather than from 12.
But in 19 out of 20 scenarios it's better to have 14-12 than 13-13 or 14-14 than 15-13.

In 5e they should have really got rid of "two points of ability value per one point of ability modifier" and just went for 1-for-1.

If average score is 10 with ability modifier of +0, then 11 should be +1 modifier and 12 should be +2, etc...

also then a score of 1(with -9 modifier to d20) would be great in description of really low scores and their probability value on d20.

I.E. strength of a beetle or intelligence of a worm.


But this way, ASI boost should then only be +1 for one ability and "half-feats" should be bumped up in strength to "full-feat" value.

Also there is ability array problem.

If we then keep standard array of abilities; rolled values from 3-18 or fixed array of 15,14,13,12,10,8 we get double the value of modifiers in that case.

Or reduce standard humanoid ability array to 6-14(-4 to +4 modifiers before racials) or fixed array at 13,12,11,11,10,9 and cap the abilities at 15.