I would not start at 8, PCs are unusal. heroes. I would leave 8 for racial flaw.
a character with 18,18,18,8,8,8 would probably see himself killed well before 5th level.
Yeah, I'd prefer to have 10 be the base too, and leave 8 for extreme cases like racial flaws.
But I feel that if you have your system of boost to 14 = 1, 16 = 2, 18 = 3 it's too expensive to make a character with an 18, meaning the expected difference between the highest and lowest stat is +3.
The system I proposed wouldn't allow things like 18,18,18,8,8,8
Your Ancestry gives you two fixed boosts, two free boosts and one flaw, or three free boosts. No two boosts can be in the same ability score.
Your background give two fixed boosts, and two free boosts. No two boosts can be in the same ability score.
Your class gives a choice of one boost.This gives a total bonus of +8, with a max of only one stat being 16, and ensures at least four stats have a bonus.
Then you can use five boosts, but it costs two boosts to increase a stat from 16 to 18, or three boosts to increase a stat from 18 to 20.
The normal max stat you'll have is 18, because boosting a stat to 20 takes all of you free boosts so it's too expensive for most builds.
That gives you a normal spread of 18 as the highest stat and 10 as the lowest, for a difference of +4.
Point is that it is too expensive.
As usually it is to specialize in one thing over generalization.
And I would have point buy about 3E power curve and race and class bonuses that do not stack(13th age take on it).
And no background bonuses.
They you will have probably only one 18 and one 16(matching race and class bonuses).
I really like the bonuses like from race and class coming before the point buy, that gets rid of the problem of some races being unbalanced, while still keeping the bonuses and flaws.
I really like the bonuses like from race and class coming before the point buy, that gets rid of the problem of some races being unbalanced, while still keeping the bonuses and flaws.
If you make class and race bonuses non-stackable then you do not have problems with everyone getting their primary stat maxed, except when race has penalty in primary stat for a class. But they you should be able to boost secondary and tertiary stat for the class and still be ok.
I really like the bonuses like from race and class coming before the point buy, that gets rid of the problem of some races being unbalanced, while still keeping the bonuses and flaws.If you make class and race bonuses non-stackable then you do not have problems with everyone getting their primary stat maxed, except when race has penalty in primary stat for a class. But they you should be able to boost secondary and tertiary stat for the class and still be ok.
I don't think you're okay, for example:
A sorcerer with 14 Dex 14 con 18 cha vs a sorcerer with 16 Dex 16 con and 16 cha. That's better than what it would be with boosts after point buy, and it's still way worse (I guess that's also partially because sorcerers don't have important secondary stats).
I really like the bonuses like from race and class coming before the point buy, that gets rid of the problem of some races being unbalanced, while still keeping the bonuses and flaws.If you make class and race bonuses non-stackable then you do not have problems with everyone getting their primary stat maxed, except when race has penalty in primary stat for a class. But they you should be able to boost secondary and tertiary stat for the class and still be ok.
The thing about making Class and Race/Ancestry not stack is it results in weird things where the Ancestries that logically should be good at a thing (Intelligent Ancestries and Wizards, Dexterous Ancestries and Rogues, etc.) actually wind up weaker than an Ancestry with stats completely unrelated to their class, because they wind up shorted those couple points from the bonuses that don't stack.
The thing about making Class and Race/Ancestry not stack is it results in weird things where the Ancestries that logically should be good at a thing (Intelligent Ancestries and Wizards, Dexterous Ancestries and Rogues, etc.) actually wind up weaker than an Ancestry with stats completely unrelated to their class, because they wind up shorted those couple points from the bonuses that don't stack.I really like the bonuses like from race and class coming before the point buy, that gets rid of the problem of some races being unbalanced, while still keeping the bonuses and flaws.If you make class and race bonuses non-stackable then you do not have problems with everyone getting their primary stat maxed, except when race has penalty in primary stat for a class. But they you should be able to boost secondary and tertiary stat for the class and still be ok.
The systems with that (13th) have a choice, so an elf can boost Dex or int and a wizard can boost int or wis, but the boosts don't stack so you can't boost int twice
The thing about making Class and Race/Ancestry not stack is it results in weird things where the Ancestries that logically should be good at a thing (Intelligent Ancestries and Wizards, Dexterous Ancestries and Rogues, etc.) actually wind up weaker than an Ancestry with stats completely unrelated to their class, because they wind up shorted those couple points from the bonuses that don't stack.I really like the bonuses like from race and class coming before the point buy, that gets rid of the problem of some races being unbalanced, while still keeping the bonuses and flaws.If you make class and race bonuses non-stackable then you do not have problems with everyone getting their primary stat maxed, except when race has penalty in primary stat for a class. But they you should be able to boost secondary and tertiary stat for the class and still be ok.
System is tailored that it does not happen.
I.E. fighter could boost str, dex or con. Wizard con, int, wis. Rogue dex, int, cha. ranger str, dex or wis... etc...
Still means that the race that is supposedly good at it, isn't any better.The thing about making Class and Race/Ancestry not stack is it results in weird things where the Ancestries that logically should be good at a thing (Intelligent Ancestries and Wizards, Dexterous Ancestries and Rogues, etc.) actually wind up weaker than an Ancestry with stats completely unrelated to their class, because they wind up shorted those couple points from the bonuses that don't stack.I really like the bonuses like from race and class coming before the point buy, that gets rid of the problem of some races being unbalanced, while still keeping the bonuses and flaws.If you make class and race bonuses non-stackable then you do not have problems with everyone getting their primary stat maxed, except when race has penalty in primary stat for a class. But they you should be able to boost secondary and tertiary stat for the class and still be ok.
System is tailored that it does not happen.
I.E. fighter could boost str, dex or con. Wizard con, int, wis. Rogue dex, int, cha. ranger str, dex or wis... etc...
Yes, if a race was better at something that's pretty unbalanced, what about everyone else who wants to make wizard that's not an error, they aren't as good at it? A dwarf wizard will always be worse than an elf wizard because it's boosts aren't in the right places?
I like racial boosts coming before point but, any race can be a viable character, but the boosts and flaws change the minimum scores. All elves have at least 12 int and dex, only a race with a flaw like a dwarf can have an 8 cha.