Racial Statistics
Ok, I have been thinking a lot about stats. Chiefly because I am frustrated by the fact that if you want to boost your prime ability score, it makes certain races less viable.
I don't know if I mentioned the new pathfinder system and the way they do stats. Basically, they start with like 10's across the board, then you add bonuses for race, class, background, and freebee (I think). Every step has one or two stats bonuses that are set and an allocatable bonus, but you cannot double bump at any given step. So, at the end, the most you can get is 18 of you bump the same stat at every phase (all bonuses come in +2's), and the other bonuses tend to get smattered around.
Here is how I would apply that to 5e. Start out with some standard array, like 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 8.
Then, for race, it is defined by whatever the bonuses already are, but if a race has a +2 to a stat, they instead get a +1 to that ability and a floating +1, but you cannot get more than +1 to any stat for race (or during any other step). It would look like this:
Dwarf +1 con, +1 any (other)
Hill +1 wis
Mountain +1 str, +1 any
Elf +1 Dex, +1 any
High +1 Int
Wood +1 Wis
Drow +1 Cha
Halfling +1 Dex, +1 any
Lightfoot +1 cha
Stout +1 con
Human +1 all
Variant +1 any, +1 any
Dragonborn +1 str, +1 any, +1 cha
Gnome +1 int, +1 any
Forest +1 dex
Rock +1 con
Half elf +1 cha, +1 any, +1 any, +1 any
Half orc +1 str, +1 any, +1 con
Tiefling +1 int, +1 cha, +1 any
Then, you get a bonus for class based on Primary ability:
Barbarian +1 str
Bard +1 cha
Cleric +1 wis
Druid +1 wis
Fighter +1 str or +1 dex
Monk +1 dex and +1 wis
Paladin +1 str and +1 cha
Ranger +1 dex and +1 wis
Rogue +1 dex
Sorcerer +1 cha
Warlock +1 cha
Wizard +1 int
Then, finally, you get a +1 to the two stats that relate to the skill proficiences you get for a given background:
Acolyte: +1 int or +1 wis, +1 any
Charlatan: +1 cha or +1 dex, +1 any
Criminal: +1 cha or +1 dex, +1 any
Entertainer: +1 dex or +1 cha, +1 any
Folk Hero: +1 wis, +1 any
Guild Artisan: +1 wis or +1 cha, +1 any
Hermit: +1 int or +1 wis, +1 any
Noble: +1 wis or +1 int, +1 any
Outlander: +1 str or +1 wis, +1 any
Sage: +1 int, +1 any
Sailor: +1 str or +1 wis, +1 any
Soldier: +1 str or +1 cha, +1 any
Urchin: +1 dex, +1 any
So, the most you can get to any stat is +3 for Race, Class, and Background, and because both race and background all get an "any" bonus, you can always get a +3 to your primary ability, of you want. Some races are still more flexible, and it makes for a world with more halfling wizards, or elven barbarians. If you choose a race with a set stat in the primary ability, you are rewarded with flexibility and because certain ones are still set, you still get races that are naturally good at certain stuff.
As far as the Monk, Paladin, Ranger incongruity, I went with exactly what the book said were primary abilities. Also, those classes are all what are referred to as MAD (multiple ability dependent), and I see no issue with have multiple bonuses for that reason (and others, which I won't get into).
If I were apply all this to the current character generation activities, I would propose an array like this:
15
13
11
10
10
9
Mostly because we can both easily get to 18, and 19 really, so the 15 in the array gets you up to 18 and then it drops down by 2's, has a couple 10's for averageness and features a lot of attractive odd numbers to tempt spreading stats around. You can end up with an overall +7 when adding all modifiers together after race, class, and background adjustments, and up to one with an 18. You can squeak out an overall of +8 with like an half-elf ranger. Comparing overall bonus is not a perfect science. to get that overall +7, all your stats end up even (in most cases, vanilla human always wins the overall stat game), which makes future increase more difficult and makes certain feats less attractive. Also, the magnitude of the bonus for each ability matters.
For reference, with the normal system, the stats I rolled get me to about an overall +9 with most races, or +10 with half-elf.
Adam can go anywhere from an overall +5 to a +8 (with vanilla human because of so many odd stats).
The standard array (15,14,13,12,10,8) from the book gets you to about +6 with most races, or +7 with half-elf, maximum of 17 in one stat.