Three-Choice Rules for 1st Level ASI's

Introduction

The D&D community has been talking about character creation and how a first level ability score increase that is based entirely on race might not be the best option for customizability and choice. These rules are meant to provide a more open 1st level ASI while maintaining a sense of realism.

The +2 Ceiling

No ability score may be increased by more than 2 from these rules. In other words, the highest ability score a 1st level character can have is 17. This is to allow characters room to progress and grow, while also maintaining bounded accuracy at low levels.

ASI from Class

Once you have determined your ability scores from the standard array, point buy, rolling, or another method, and have chosen your race, class, and background, you may begin your 1st level ability score increase by considering your class or your background. It does not matter which one you choose to apply first, so long as you apply both your class and background's ability score increase before your race's.

You increase your class's primary ability score by 1. Your class's primary ability score is given in the following table.

Class Ability Score Increase

ASI from Background

The table below gives the ability scores associated with each background. Choose one of these to increase by 1.

While the scores listed for classes and races are mostly set in stone, the score increase from the backgrounds is less constrained. If a player has a good reason for how their background strengthened one ability score, then they should be allowed to increase that score by 1, regardless of whether that ability score is listed in the table below.

Race Ability Score Increase