Ive been mauling over the idea of running me next game and giving the players a slightly better standard array or more points for point buy to allow slightly better starting stats and either restricting ASI's to every other time such as at 8th and 16th levels or not allowing them at all an only allowing feats to be taken at ASI points. Has anyone else tried this? do you think it would be crippling to the characters or possibly something new and fun?

I just use a better starting array and then make the encounters / challenges a little harder.

35 total points, costs are

The standard array with that is: 16,15,14,12,11,8

The array I was thinking of using is: 17, 15, 13, 12, 10, 8

that way with racial ability increases people could have aN 18 or 19 in their main starting skill. 

Well, the main effect if you just eliminate the ability increases at 4 and 12 is that PCs will be noticeably more powerful at level 1-3, slightly more powerful at level 4-11, and slightly weaker at 12+; if you let people take feats they'll be more powerful at all levels. What are you after, though? What's your motivation to make this change?

Im after encouraging my players to concentrate on their characters, their personalities and the flavors of their character not their over all power or them getting hung up on numbers. This group is relatively new to role playing games in general and in the last campaign they were more murder hobos. They ever asked for me to make things more role play intensive and help steer them that direction. This is something I thought might help and make things interesting.

It feels like it messes with the fighter, but I’m not sure if it’s good, because they gets lots of opportunities for feats, or if it’s bad because you are, I don’t want to say giving other characters what they have, but kind of almost you do since fighters at least get a greater chance to get ASIs if they want, but now they can’t have them. I might be over reacting here, though. 

Quote from Jessebruffett >>

Im after encouraging my players to concentrate on their characters, their personalities and the flavors of their character not their over all power or them getting hung up on numbers. This group is relatively new to role playing games in general and in the last campaign they were more murder hobos. They ever asked for me to make things more role play intensive and help steer them that direction. This is something I thought might help and make things interesting.

Changing numbers like that will have zero effect on role playing.

Let me state what I mean in a different way, These players in the current game and the one previous one we've done seem to focus their characters on the numbers and perceived power more than developing the characters theme and overall concept they developed and in the beginning and seem to abandon. I just thought this would keep things interesting and nudge them to thinking more about their concept and development than numbers. 

I don't think adding a few bonuses to the numbers will make players focus on the numbers less.

I get what you're trying to do. You're trying to hammer in to the players stop worrying about power level! You'll be fine! Focus on making interesting characters! But you're trying to do that by changing the values of the numbers. And that's never going to work.

The thing is, there's nothing special about the current starting array, or about the level  you start at. If you start the characters at level 10, they'll be incredibly more powerful than level 1 characters! But will that make the players focus less on optimization? No, not really. People optimize because they want to be as powerful as they can get, not because there's some specific power level they're trying to reach. You can still spend just as much time optimizing if your starting stats are 18, 18, 16 12 12 10 as when they're 16, 16, 14, 10, 10, 8. If you disallow ASIs, players can just as easily optimize with Feats.

I think this is an out-of-game discussion to have with the players. You want them to focus more on the characters and less on the optimization. So tell them that!

In general the reason for people focusing on numbers is because they think the numbers are what matters. This is in part on the players, but the DM can do some things to modify it, by making sure the game rewards roleplaying. Some particular things you can do:

• Make sure that you can solve problems by non-combat methods, and receive appropriate rewards. This probably means a waypoint or quest based experience system, rather than giving experience for kills (a waypoint system levels you up every N accomplishments, a quest system gives XP for specific accomplishments no matter how you accomplish them).
• For those situations, either don't roll dice at all for solving problems, or be liberal in use of advantage/disadvantage based on how they describe what they're doing.
• For rewards for playing their character, tools are limited, but one standard is inspiration. I would use somewhat different inspiration rules, though; something like:
  • Inspiration is granted when playing your character causes you to take actions that are mechanically (significantly) suboptimal.
  • Inspiration may only be spent in a manner corresponding to your character.

Quote from Jessebruffett >>

Let me state what I mean in a different way, These players in the current game and the one previous one we've done seem to focus their characters on the numbers and perceived power more than developing the characters theme and overall concept they developed and in the beginning and seem to abandon. I just thought this would keep things interesting and nudge them to thinking more about their concept and development than numbers. 

Just like FTL said, this kind of approach is unlikely to actually work, and it has everything to do with human psychology. If your players are already focused on making their characters as powerful as they can (like most people, to some extent), further restricting their options is most likely going to make them focus even more on optimizing what is left.

I've heard of campaigns which did allow/use feats, but never ones which killed ASI's.

You can give them any "array" you like, my groups still use the same system we've been using since the OG Unearthed Arcana came out...  The average ability total tends to be in the mid 80's.  Because of this, less ASI's are used and more feats are taken, which makes each character more specialized in a way, thus more powerful in a way.  That's a bunch of stubborn old crotcheties for ya though...

One of the biggest things YOU as the DM can do is to make them feel "powerful" early on in the campaign, then ramp up the difficulty from there until the balance or "sweet spot" is found.  Throw in something every now and then they have to "run away" from to remind them of their mortality, but they should be able to defeat in a couple of levels of advancement.  (Don't throw BBEG who can't be defeated until 20th though, that's bad mojo)  Boosting their confidence early, creating/allowing downtime to engage in role playing instead of rolling should be rewarded in subtle ways, just noticeable enough to get the vibe of this is good, it is helping us in the long term.  

I've used higher arrays than standard, with the intention of encouraging more feats for similar reasons, and have ended up with more multi-classing than increased feat choices. If you want a decent mix of feats just use standard or point buy, and give them a free feat at 1st level, then another at 10th level. (Yes, this includes a vhuman getting two at 1st... it won't break the game.) I've had better luck encouraging feats by doing that than by bumping stats.

It will have an effect on characters who are built around the use of feats (Polearm Mastery, Sharpshooter etc.). It will have the most effect on Fighter because well, they get a ton of those - doesn't matter if your group doesn't have one (contrary to popular belief, not every house rule has to be balanced around the full PHB - if none of your players has a Fighter then you can nerf them into oblivion without much backlash).

It will have almost zero effect on casters because they chase levels for spell slots and higher spells, not for ASI.

Gotta chime in with the others and say fudging the numbers is not going to solve your problem and could possibly make it worse.

I want to point out that stat increases aren't the only type of power progression, and that roleplaying and power progression don't have to be mutually exclusive. It's fun to feel more powerful - that's why they're drawn to it. What you need to do is create roleplaying opportunities that convey that same feeling of progression:

• Forging alliances gives them the help they need to tackle problems they couldn't handle alone.
• Building relationships with NPCs could result in gold, magic item rewards, and information.
• Later that information they learned in a social encounter turns out to be vital to solving a pressing conflict.
• Deteriorating or antagonistic relationships could require separate adventures to smooth things out.
• Have a personal quest that carries significant emotional weight for each character. Reward them with loot for progressing through and overcoming those personal quests - or hell, give them the ASI's there instead of at fixed levels (just have those milestones at roughly the same time characters would get the increase).

Stat bonuses are like candy. You just need to give out candy with your roleplaying scenes too. Give them clear outcomes and consequences. Make them rewarding.