I made a homebrew race that gives a +2 Wisdom and a +1 to any score. The problem is that one of my players found out they could add the +1 to Wisdom as well, and when they have a base of 15 that gives them an 18 Wisdom score. That's a +4 Wisdom modifier, and when he gets proficiency with abilities such as Insight, it gives him a +6. I have no idea of this is balanced or fair, and I'm asking if I should make it so he can't put his extra ability point to Wisdom. The class he is playing is a paladin, but I don't know if the same technique can be used on other classes.
Typically, floating scores aren't placed in the same stat as the fixed score. That said, I doubt it will be a problem. He's got a better wis, but he sacrificed another ability to do it, so it should balance itself. Frankly, he's probably made a not very good choice (at least from an optimization standpoint, from an RP standpoint, it could be very fun). A paladin would, in most builds, get more use out of a higher str or cha than they will wis.
If I had made up the homebrew race I'd have worded it "+2 to WIS, and +1 to any other score." It doesn't make sense to give a +2 and a +1, and then people just stack them for +3. The idea of it should be, conceptually, you are great at WIS, and a bit extra good at something other than WIS.
But assuming you're allowing it -- it's not a problem. I gave my players a betters starting array than the default (17, 15, 13, 12, 10, 8), and a couple of them started with an 18 or a 19. It hasn't broken anything.
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If I had made up the homebrew race I'd have worded it "+2 to WIS, and +1 to any other score." It doesn't make sense to give a +2 and a +1, and then people just stack them for +3. The idea of it should be, conceptually, you are great at WIS, and a bit extra good at something other than WIS.
I think we can assume it was intended to exclude the player from allowing them to put the floating +1 into WIS. The issue is that it's generally difficult to make the homebrew creator tool do such things if you aren't intimately familiar with how it works.
But there is precedent for allowing them to overlap, as well. The Changling race allows the player to put the floater into CHA, which the Changling race gives +2 to as well. It is the only official race that does that, but it is worded to allow it in the print versions of Eberron, as well as here on DnDB.
A +3 is clearly better than a +2 and a +1. Significantly better. That's why the point system makes it cost 2 points to go up from 13 to 14 and form 14 to 15, rather than 1.
No way would I allow a +2 in Wisdom to also add the +1(any) to Wisdom. If you wanted that, you should have allowed it on purpose, not by mistake.
Since you did not intend for the +3, only a +2/+1 combo, you should require the player to follow the rules as you intended, not the rules as written. A good player should understand this and comply without issue.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
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I made a homebrew race that gives a +2 Wisdom and a +1 to any score. The problem is that one of my players found out they could add the +1 to Wisdom as well, and when they have a base of 15 that gives them an 18 Wisdom score. That's a +4 Wisdom modifier, and when he gets proficiency with abilities such as Insight, it gives him a +6. I have no idea of this is balanced or fair, and I'm asking if I should make it so he can't put his extra ability point to Wisdom. The class he is playing is a paladin, but I don't know if the same technique can be used on other classes.
Typically, floating scores aren't placed in the same stat as the fixed score. That said, I doubt it will be a problem. He's got a better wis, but he sacrificed another ability to do it, so it should balance itself. Frankly, he's probably made a not very good choice (at least from an optimization standpoint, from an RP standpoint, it could be very fun). A paladin would, in most builds, get more use out of a higher str or cha than they will wis.
If I had made up the homebrew race I'd have worded it "+2 to WIS, and +1 to any other score." It doesn't make sense to give a +2 and a +1, and then people just stack them for +3. The idea of it should be, conceptually, you are great at WIS, and a bit extra good at something other than WIS.
But assuming you're allowing it -- it's not a problem. I gave my players a betters starting array than the default (17, 15, 13, 12, 10, 8), and a couple of them started with an 18 or a 19. It hasn't broken anything.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
I think we can assume it was intended to exclude the player from allowing them to put the floating +1 into WIS. The issue is that it's generally difficult to make the homebrew creator tool do such things if you aren't intimately familiar with how it works.
But there is precedent for allowing them to overlap, as well. The Changling race allows the player to put the floater into CHA, which the Changling race gives +2 to as well. It is the only official race that does that, but it is worded to allow it in the print versions of Eberron, as well as here on DnDB.
A +3 is clearly better than a +2 and a +1. Significantly better. That's why the point system makes it cost 2 points to go up from 13 to 14 and form 14 to 15, rather than 1.
No way would I allow a +2 in Wisdom to also add the +1(any) to Wisdom. If you wanted that, you should have allowed it on purpose, not by mistake.
Since you did not intend for the +3, only a +2/+1 combo, you should require the player to follow the rules as you intended, not the rules as written. A good player should understand this and comply without issue.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.