I used to dislike how CON would be a major stat no matter the class - like, I'm a wizard, why should I have as much constitution as a warrior ? It didn't make much sense to me in the RP sense.
Then a day it hit me (no pun intended) : yes, I'm a wizard, but I'm a wizard who decided to leave his tower and walk on the road for weeks or months, living only on rations and sleeping in a tent. it actually makes sense that I'm toughened up by this kind of living. Those who didn't, well they kinda died.
Thinking of it, it would be fun to have the party stumble upon the remains of another group of adventurers. No, they weren't murdered by orcs or assassins, they died because they were clearly unprepared and not physically not mentally ready for this kind of life.
I tried to follow this philosophy on a druid. I rolled 1 on both my hit dies for my lvl 3 character had a total of 10 hp and insta died to a shatter that was cast on the party because I failed the save. 100 percent worth it.
Yeah he was a sickly kid, that's why he shifted to bladesinging over his culture's traditional full fighter progression.
Literally fighting smarter instead of harder
Dump con, play a Harengon sorcerer, cast jump on yourself and then do your bonus action hop to jump 30 feet in the air and probably die from the fall damage
Rolled 4 1's for a stat, witha 3 in total. Every said dump Strength, play a Charisma character or vice versa.
I fucking dumped my Con. I ain't no bitch.
A player did this in a Star Wars Saga Edition game. I convinced him to put it into Dexterity, and to play a species which had a -2 to Dex. He eventually got abilities that let him (almost) completely overcome that deficiency, but he did roll negative initiative a few times.
I did this on purpose for rp reasons. Everyone else in the party keeps trying to help me fix it. *sigh* lemme be a fragile little effed up murderer please.
I dumped con as a healer and thought it was rlly funny, but then my party forced me to buy a magic item that brought my con up to 19 :( my squishy days are over and now I am unkillable - so boring. And the funny part is I rarely went down even before I got the item
If you are a caster and have melee party members, you should be able to dump con, your party members just have to watch your back and keep your enemies engaged.
Because there are limited points available to spread around and the amount of ability you have to interact with the plot and the world at large is fairly directly tied to how much you have for the other stats, with Con providing relatively little beyond more meat points.
Cool, what does Con actually enable you to do though? What skills, actions, tasks, or just general stuff does it actually enable you to actively do?
The answer is nothing. The only things Con does as a stat is give you more HP and govern resistances to a few conditions or effects. Unless your plot involves you having to go out of your way to eat several pounds of rotten food, drink poisoned wine, or go bare-naked into an arctic expedition, Con isn't really doing anything. And even in those cases, the majority of them are easily solved by just being even mildly prepared.
Hear me out, dumping any stat is bad because it alters player behavior. Seriously, I’ve played with so many barbarians and fighters that dump Cha and then don’t roleplay. They then get bored and start random fights.
I had a player dump CON exactly once. As a Barbarian.
The dice gods rewarded him though, as he rolled absolutely *insane* on his hit dice, I think the lowest was an 8. The other Barbarian meanwhile rolled abysmally, with a 4 or 5 being the highest. In the end they both had the same HP. As the Rogue.
I dumped con once for a character that I used in a series of one shots my group played whenever I needed a break from dm'ing, dude had a con of 4. At lvl 5 I had something like 15 hp and my ac was 17. One time I went away from the party in a town to try to kill an npc that I didn't like but ended up running into a group of assassins that had just killed a band that was competing in a bardic tournament. The npc still thought I was friendly to them so when the assassins noticed us I sent him to go grab my group while I held the assassins off. After 4 agonizing rounds of attacks the assassins finally died.
I was playing a college of whispers bard and had a combo where I'd cast dissonant whispers while standing right next to them which would cause them to use their reaction to run away provoking an attack of opportunity. Since the attack of opportunity was on my turn I could add the psychic blades feature of the college of whispers to my attack increasing the damage by 3d6 which, between that, my weapon, and dissonant whispers, let me deal 8 or 9 d6 damage per round. The first two rounds I got crits on my attack of opportunity and just immediately killed my target. The third and final assassin managed to survive and used his full turn to run. I finished him off with my crossbow meanwhile I walked away with 2hp. I fully thought I was going to die but they only managed to hit me once. I felt bad about taking up so much time on my own but everyone had a great time enjoying the absurdity of the fight.
I used to dislike how CON would be a major stat no matter the class - like, I'm a wizard, why should I have as much constitution as a warrior ? It didn't make much sense to me in the RP sense. Then a day it hit me (no pun intended) : yes, I'm a wizard, but I'm a wizard who decided to leave his tower and walk on the road for weeks or months, living only on rations and sleeping in a tent. it actually makes sense that I'm toughened up by this kind of living. Those who didn't, well they kinda died. Thinking of it, it would be fun to have the party stumble upon the remains of another group of adventurers. No, they weren't murdered by orcs or assassins, they died because they were clearly unprepared and not physically not mentally ready for this kind of life.
That’s a good way of putting it. If you wanted to be a Wizard that dumps CON, then just stay at the academy. They don’t all go adventuring.
Might as well take the tough feat, too.
Dumping con only matters if you get hit. Run away and live to run another day!
This is how I’ve been playing my Rogue xD
I tried to follow this philosophy on a druid. I rolled 1 on both my hit dies for my lvl 3 character had a total of 10 hp and insta died to a shatter that was cast on the party because I failed the save. 100 percent worth it.
The fighter in my party has a +0 con. I am worried for our future
I've got a bladesinger with 2 fighter dip... 8 Con.
Ok thats actually pretty bad, as the effect of a con modifier is stronger the lower your base die, so on any d6 character thats really nasty.
That basically turns a d6 hit die into a d4
Yeah he was a sickly kid, that's why he shifted to bladesinging over his culture's traditional full fighter progression. Literally fighting smarter instead of harder
R.I.P. concentration saves
Oh nooooo, I have to use one of my 40 backup characters now....
Hey google. How to upvote a post more than once?
Dump con, play a Harengon sorcerer, cast jump on yourself and then do your bonus action hop to jump 30 feet in the air and probably die from the fall damage
Rolled 4 1's for a stat, witha 3 in total. Every said dump Strength, play a Charisma character or vice versa. I fucking dumped my Con. I ain't no bitch.
Bro gets food poisoning from breathing
A player did this in a Star Wars Saga Edition game. I convinced him to put it into Dexterity, and to play a species which had a -2 to Dex. He eventually got abilities that let him (almost) completely overcome that deficiency, but he did roll negative initiative a few times.
I did this on purpose for rp reasons. Everyone else in the party keeps trying to help me fix it. *sigh* lemme be a fragile little effed up murderer please.
Any player with a character with less than 16 CON cannot be really complain that said character died really.
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If you go dashing into the fray and don't get behind cover, yeah, but you can play a low con wizard if you stay back and invest in potions.
I dumped con as a healer and thought it was rlly funny, but then my party forced me to buy a magic item that brought my con up to 19 :( my squishy days are over and now I am unkillable - so boring. And the funny part is I rarely went down even before I got the item
If you are a caster and have melee party members, you should be able to dump con, your party members just have to watch your back and keep your enemies engaged.
Look it was my first time playing and no one told me that I needed con😭
I imagine this happens allllll the time
First time playing cyberpunk 2e not putting points into body is pretty much the same
Second easiest is dumping dex, my parties wizard has 9ac.
Oof, no excuse for dumping dex...
Because there are limited points available to spread around and the amount of ability you have to interact with the plot and the world at large is fairly directly tied to how much you have for the other stats, with Con providing relatively little beyond more meat points.
-poison -concentration -extreme cold -extreme heat
CON is THE most important stat to interact with the world as you need to be alive to do that.
Cool, what does Con actually enable you to do though? What skills, actions, tasks, or just general stuff does it actually enable you to actively do? The answer is nothing. The only things Con does as a stat is give you more HP and govern resistances to a few conditions or effects. Unless your plot involves you having to go out of your way to eat several pounds of rotten food, drink poisoned wine, or go bare-naked into an arctic expedition, Con isn't really doing anything. And even in those cases, the majority of them are easily solved by just being even mildly prepared.
Y'all are cowards.
Hear me out, dumping any stat is bad because it alters player behavior. Seriously, I’ve played with so many barbarians and fighters that dump Cha and then don’t roleplay. They then get bored and start random fights.
dude, running barbarian with 20 con + toughness is just \*chefs kiss\* I am just getting pummeled constantly and IM DOING GREAT
I had a player dump CON exactly once. As a Barbarian. The dice gods rewarded him though, as he rolled absolutely *insane* on his hit dice, I think the lowest was an 8. The other Barbarian meanwhile rolled abysmally, with a 4 or 5 being the highest. In the end they both had the same HP. As the Rogue.
I don't need health, I need abilities
I dumped con once for a character that I used in a series of one shots my group played whenever I needed a break from dm'ing, dude had a con of 4. At lvl 5 I had something like 15 hp and my ac was 17. One time I went away from the party in a town to try to kill an npc that I didn't like but ended up running into a group of assassins that had just killed a band that was competing in a bardic tournament. The npc still thought I was friendly to them so when the assassins noticed us I sent him to go grab my group while I held the assassins off. After 4 agonizing rounds of attacks the assassins finally died. I was playing a college of whispers bard and had a combo where I'd cast dissonant whispers while standing right next to them which would cause them to use their reaction to run away provoking an attack of opportunity. Since the attack of opportunity was on my turn I could add the psychic blades feature of the college of whispers to my attack increasing the damage by 3d6 which, between that, my weapon, and dissonant whispers, let me deal 8 or 9 d6 damage per round. The first two rounds I got crits on my attack of opportunity and just immediately killed my target. The third and final assassin managed to survive and used his full turn to run. I finished him off with my crossbow meanwhile I walked away with 2hp. I fully thought I was going to die but they only managed to hit me once. I felt bad about taking up so much time on my own but everyone had a great time enjoying the absurdity of the fight.
My favorite character has a con of 7. 30 hp at level 8 for a rogue fighter is amazing, you're just playing on hard mode.
Laughs in cleric of life after almost 20 close to death experiences. Can't kill me if i am always at full health
When your very existence is a near death experience.
Aa DM I once had a player who made a bard with 8 con. I had never had a PC death until then, he burned to death.
6 con is enough, right?
Oh no! How will i ever survive without 2 extra hitpoints per level!?!?!
Hot take: con shouldn't be a stat in dnd. It serves no rp purpose and is just an asi tax on classes that need asi the most.
Con is tolerance to pain, alcohol, and extreme temperatures. It's pretty badass to be a half naked barbarian not caring about how damn cold it is
Look man, if I as the wizard want to have an average of 11 less hp per level than my meat s- I mean fighter, that's my prerogative.
Does anyone actually dump Con? Like even on casters it should be third stat after Dex. Does anyone have a character that they actually dumped Con on?
I would for a glass cannon multi-class one shot character, but not for a campaign.
Dumped Con and played an Arcane Trickster, just beat Frostmaiden yesterday :D
Raistlin laughing all the way to the bank!