Superhuman Stats
Context: the first campaign I ever DMed I said that if the players rolled 4 sixes on 4d6 (drop the lowest) for stat creation, I’d let them keep it. Thinking that I’ve NEVER rolled that high, and the odds are it’d never happen (I had 3 players, none of whom had ever played D&D before).
Lo and Behold, someone rolled a 24 in Strength. I’d already said he could keep it, so....I just gave the monsters a little HP boost. As a treat.
I was randomly thinking about this, years later, and realized there was another way to add interesting RP and light mechanical downsides to this super-boost. So, for future campaigns:
Strength: you have trouble picking things up or using items without breaking them. Non-magical weapons tend to shatter after you use them for a short time. (Bonus question: how did your character come across this superhuman ability?)
Dex: you’re hypermobile, which can be great for sneaking through small spaces (or being a contortionist). But your fingers don’t always do what you want them to do, and you bruise easily.
Con: you know that disorder where you don’t feel physical pain? That. You’re supernaturally hale and hearty, but it leads you to dismissing wounds that really ought to get looked at...you also severely underestimate dangerous situations, especially when trying to gauge them for your party members.
Int: you’ve surpassed intelligent and genius and headed straight to savant. You’ll happily info-dump about 1 topic of your choice, but tend to have difficulty expanding your horizons or connecting to other characters.
Wis: overstimulation! your impossibly boosted Perception and Sense Motive scores mean you’re hyper-aware of all the things, all the time. Your brain often has a hard time filtering things into relevant and irrelevant data.
Cha: you have clearly unnaturally beautiful features--in a world where magic exists, you are often assumed to be wearing an illusion (or straight up a monster). Yet people have a hard time saying no to you.