The BEST Attribute System | Learn to Play DC20 (Alpha 0.6)

Jakin shows off how attributes work in the brand new TTRPG, DC20!
🟣 Get Alpha access to DC20 here ➡️ tinyurl.com/5n8sm85c
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⏰ Timecodes ⏰
00:00 - DC20 Got a Rules Update!
00:23 - The Attributes of DC20
00:37 - Physical and Mental Attributes
00:46 - Might
01:10 - Agility
01:29 - Charisma
02:07 - Intelligence
02:27 - Attribute Values
03:00 - The Prime Attribute
03:44 - Outro
#dc20 #dnd #pathfinder #fantasy
About:
After the OGL (Open Gaming License) scandal of 2023, Jakin decided to try TTRPGS (Tabletop Roleplaying Games) other than D&D (Dungeons & Dragons). He tried Pathfinder 2e (Second Edition) and even streamed it with his friends. After a few sessions, it was clear the game wasn't for him. He enjoyed being a player, but not running the game. Later that year, he attended GenCon with the OSQ (One Shot Questers) crew and got to play test the Dungeon Coach's DC20. Ever since then, Jakin has been obsessed with game. He quickly convinced all of his current D&D home games to convert to the DC20 system and he hasn't looked back. In this video, Jakin explain how attributes work in DC20. He starts with the four main attributes: Might, Agility, Charisma, and Intelligence. He goes on to explain how Might is tied to your health, Agility boosts your PD (Physical Defense), Charisma give you Grit Points, and Intelligence gives you more skills in the Knowledge category as well as aids you in Language Checks. He then wraps up the video by going over a secret, fifth attribute... The Prime Modifier! He goes on to explain that Prime represents how heroic and adventurous you are in the game. Prime is tied to your spell checks, attack checks, martial checks, and so much more!

[@swordplaysorcery]

🟣 Get Alpha access to DC20 here ➡ tinyurl.com/5n8sm85c

[@Liethen]

Never played dc20, but I’ve been using these same four stats for home brew games ever since I played a rts series called Warlords Battlecry.

[@swordplaysorcery]

DC20 has been a blast to play and is now my favorite TTRPG! I’ll have to check out Warlords Battlecry. That sounds pretty cool!

[@thomasscott7937]

DC20 has a class called warlord! Pretty badass.

[@swordplaysorcery]

@@thomasscott7937 one of my players is playing a Warlord!

[@MagiofAsura]

To be fair, the very definition of constitution in terms of health is a person's physical state with regard to vitality, health, and strength.

[@swordplaysorcery]

A fair point. I wish it was reflected a little better in D&D. I think Pathfinder 2e greatly improves upon that idea

[@ChristianTheNorwegian]

The ting I really love about the DC20 attribute system, is the fact that every Attribute gives good buffs. MIGHT = Bonus HP AGILITY = Bonus AC (PD in DC20) CHARISMA = GRIT Points! (Give ADV on saving throw for you or an ally, really strong) INTELLIGENCE = Bonus skill-points! Who does not want more skill-points!?! No matter what character I'm making, I really want ALL attributes. In a normal D&D character creation, some attributes are more "mhe" especially for some classes. A D&D Barbarian really don't need INT or CHA. A DC20 Barbarian would really like some CHA for the Grit points, and some bonus skill-points from INT is always nice to have.

[@swordplaysorcery]

Exactly! You aren’t limited by weird class requirements in DC20! My players have been loving the evolution of using grit points!

[@ChristianTheNorwegian]

Grit points does sooo much for staying active even on someone else's turn. (Are you playing a high CHA Ranger hanging a bit back with your bow, and the front-line Fighter needs to make a save? Give him one of your Grit points! It really inspires more teamwork :)

[@ramblingryan6466]

I absolutely LOVE Coach's enthusiasm for his own game, and his "TIME OUT!" and tangential info ... But boy, have you gotten the "summary of DC20" down pat. I see you rollin' in all his live streams, you are a great ambassador for DC20. Keep it up.

[@swordplaysorcery]

Yo, that means the WORLD to me. Genuinely, this comment is the highlight of my day. Thank you!

[@DOntTouCHmYPaNDa]

Awesome video, cant wait for more!

[@swordplaysorcery]

Thank you! Hoping to get new videos weekly!

[@YoungFox78]

Love Swordplay & Sorcery. Keep up the good word of DC20. Love how simple he attribute system is.

[@swordplaysorcery]

Super easy to grasp! Next week I’m going over the skills of DC20!

[@simeonsnow6742]

Love DC20 content!

[@GrandOldDwarf]

Loving it!

[@swordplaysorcery]

Thank you!

[@Umbra_Canine]

I think the important difference between dc20 and other rulesets is the Action Points system. Im not sure if i would make a other Vide first so that Actions points will be better understood but i think it would be the best if you focus this video series in this direction.

[@swordplaysorcery]

We’ll be getting to Action Points soon. The next video will be covering the skills!

[@XanderHarris1023]

In the system I am playing now you get a Major Action and Minor Action and get an additional Minor Action at level 5 and 9 until you get to a max of three. Minor Actions are primarily used for movement and follow up attacks (some spells are also minor action spells) and your Major Action is mainly used for your primary attack (you can also convert your major action into a minor action for extra movement or spells). What are the rules for using Action Points for your primary attack? Pathfinder gets around this with their Multi Attack Penalty, CBA (the system I am playing) makes you use your one and only Major Action.

[@commonviewer2488]

Religion and Arcana being the same (Occultism) is a small but notable detail

[@swordplaysorcery]

We’ll be covering skills next week!

[@JainaSoloB312]

I like some things that DC20 is doing, but a lot of it seems like very odd design to me? I dunno if anyone else agrees but, Deception and Persuasion are very different skills in different contexts with different challenges, making them a single Influence stat makes no sense to me. You wouldn't group Diplomacy and Intimidation, but Deception and Persuasion can be just as different depending on the context. We have a bunch of unique weapons for combat, are we really cutting down social conflict mechanics even further than 5e? The Prime modifier is a cool idea but it discourages certain builds by virtue of incentivizing players to level up 1 attribute as much as they can to get a bigger Prime. So like, if I wanna do a 2 INT 2 MIGHT Paladin, I'm severely weakening myself compared to if I went 3 INT 1 MIGHT, or 1 INT 3 MIGHT, because I'll have a Prime of 2 rather than 3. Even if my 2 and 2 build gives me more options, it's going to be roughly equal to the other builds overall, and inherently weaker due to the lower Prime. Which is why in 5e the equivalent to Prime (Proficiency Bonus) is tied to your level and not to your Attributes. I don't understand why you say this means your class doesn't have to be tied down to certain Attributes, the opposite is true, this yields less build variety from what I can see. Might being both health and physical damage seems really weird, possibly more "realistic" but a very odd choice for game balance and creative character building. I really want to like this new system but every time I see more of it I have less confidence that it's been well-designed. If anyone knows the reasoning behind these choices or anything else I might be missing, please let me know, I don't want to hate on this game I just don't understand it

[@swordplaysorcery]

Thank you for the well thought out comment! I have a few theories/answers that MIGHT (get it??) help lol. 1) Influence: Though Deception and Persuasion CAN be very different skills, it’s often one of the most debated things at a table. Again, there are very clear uses for both of those skills, but admittedly, there are grey areas. The idea of the Influence skill is to use it to negotiate with another creature, mislead others with false claims, and convince others to do what you want with truths or lies. To me, this adds more to the social pillar. It’s removed a LOT of confusion at DC20 tables including mine! 2) Prime: Your points about Prime were a heavily debated (albeit a small portion) in the Dungeon Coach server early in the Alpha. A majority of people love the Prime attribute and some want it to do more. The main opposition came from more “min/max” players, which isn’t a problem! Because of this, Coach added a Variant Rule update in Alpha 0.5 that allowed Prime to always reflect what the Prime Table says and NOT be tied to your highest attribute. For example, if at level one your Prime is supposed to be 3, your highest Attribute does NOT have to be 3. The Coach has included the variant rule in the game, but wants to stress that’s not REALLY how the game is meant to be played. The game is designed for Heroic Fantasy, not so much “almost heroic fantasy” as he once put it. 3) Might: In the latest update, he actually changed the HP formula to no longer include Agility. This was done to balance out Agility and Might, as Might was overshadowing the latter. I hope this answers any questions and if you have more I’d love to chat more about it!

[@thomasscott7937]

1. I don’t think that deception and persuasion are too different of skills. In real life I’m pretty sure that those who can persuade can also deceive. I can’t imagine someone who could easily win over a room full of people with truth but fail to do the same with lies. PLUS there is the bonus of relieving awkwardness and uncertainty at the table by mixing the two as he already said. Another example of this is tying the awareness stat to your prime modifier. This allows players to not feel that they must spec into awareness as they already have a decent score. There’s also rules to stop players from making infinite awareness checks or giving unlimited adv. 2. Might doesn’t affect physical damage and health. It only affects health and strength. Strength doesn’t equate to more damage in DC20 it only equates to your ability to perform athletics and your ability to move physical objects around you. 3. I understand your worry about the prime modifier, but I don’t think it happens the way you’re thinking in practice. Because each stat is so strong on its own and because there is an attribute limit. You can’t really get one stat that high especially at the beginning of the game and you will really feel the bonuses of having multiple high stats. So if you can maintain one max stat, while you’re waiting to reach a level that raises your attribute limit you can spec into whatever other attributes that you want. You can get attribute increases very often if you choose and can maintain a well balanced build that has several decent stats. Even if a stat does fall below the highest available prime stat value you will still be reaping the rewards from having several decent stats and I don’t think the nerf would be that hard.

[@nonenone-hv5iq]

Oh?

[@nonenone-hv5iq]

Constitution and strength being somewhat fused is honestly something I’ve done with dnd for the longest. I like it. The prime modifier system is also interesting.

[@swordplaysorcery]

👀

[@swordplaysorcery]

@@nonenone-hv5iq Oh Snap! I would love to hear about how you pulled it off in D&D! I would imagine it wasn’t easy

[@nonenone-hv5iq]

@@swordplaysorcery nah It’s just as easy as “if something would call for constitution or strength, it instead calls for brawn” and then replace strength and constitution with brawn. Which does a few things I liked: Strength martials are tangibly durable, which is kinda what you’d expect for a big brute in fantasy. It frees up stat choices a bit for strength builds as well, which helps make the stat less underpowered. Though, one thing I did do was keep strength and con save proficiencies seperate, just both call for brawn.