The Boringness of D&D's Ability Scores
With the release of 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons, the game's ability scores have become almost entirely vestigial. That is, more and more they serve minimal function in meaningfully differentiating characters. A number of factors have contributed to this. Almost all of them stem from a shift in ability scores' purpose in the game, from descriptive to prescriptive. In the latest edition of the game, Fifth Edition, the shrinking of level-based bonuses (representing training and experience), to achieve the game's intended "bounded accuracy," made ability scores perhaps more important than ever before. In a game where a +1 bonus can be very important, where a fighter's attack bonus barely increases relative to previous editions (an average of +5 at level 1 to +11 to +14 at level 20, compared to D&D 3.5 where from levels 1 to 20 it often spanned between +4 and +35 or more). As a result, ability scores matter more than ever in 5e. Yet they also matter