Awesome at being Mediocre

"That was a portal that connected this plane of existence to that of the Nine Hells. Closing such a portal requires intimate knowledge of the arcane runes used to open it. Any wrong step in the process could have opened it wide or even flung everything nearby into the Nine Hells. How on earth did YOU close it?" Fandor asked while pointing accusingly at the party bard, Milly.

Milly beamed proudly. "Well, to be honest I did get a bit lucky. The portal responded well to the beat of the Rashemen Tango. In C."

Fandor blinked. "What?"

Milly explained, "After I had tied-up the ends of the portal with the string of my lute, I tried drumming out a couple of tunes to see if the resonance would force the portal shut. Everything I tried didn't seem to work until I struck gold with the Rashemen Tango in C. Well, that was after I had mushed a tomato into..."

"STOP!" Fandor cried,"Stop. Just stop. I... I don't want to know anymore."

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Are you lacking in any talent relevant to adventuring, except maybe your singing voice? Do you want to play a high charisma character in a system that doesn't have a charisma ability score? Did you roll up your ability scores reaaaaally badly instead of using point buy?

No problem! The adventuring life is still within your reach. You can still be awesome!

Kind off.

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Design considerations:

I realized that all my numbers and calculations are balanced for players who use point buy. Folks who insist on rolling their stats for laughs but didn't manage to get at least one 16 are in a bit of trouble in my system. I kind of need a set of class features to make a PC viable even if all their ability scores are rather lacking. Sure, it's their own fault that they screwed up their own character, but I still need to design my system to compensate for folks screwing themselves over.

... yeah.

Anyway, I realized I should have some design features which allow PCs to be awesome even when, well, the PC is not particularly good at anything. Even better if it allows them to be awesome when their ability scores are really terrible. In other words, we need features which allow PCs to be Awesome at being Mediocre.

Yes, that's actually a thing in D&D. I didn't even invent the concept myself. We hide it under terms like "flexible" and "well-rounded".

Of course, I'm talking about the bard, the master of being awesome at being mediocre. No, really. That's what the bard is. He's the gish of the gish, having bits and pieces of each of the Big Four and ending up not being the best at anything (except maybe performing and interaction). This is why in many editions the bard is infamous for being really weak. In 5E, the bard is actually quite strong in spite not being the best at anything. The 5E bard's strength is *cough* flexibility and being *cough* well-rounded. No, really! The sum of her parts being worth more than any other class in the game. So while not particularly good at any one thing, the bard in 5E D&D is arguably the most powerful class in the game if you put together the worth of all her features.

Kind off.

Some folks are going to insist on playing a bard-type character anyway. Am I right or am I right? Yes, exactly. So I have to somehow include bardic class features in my setting which doesn't have charisma as an ability score.

(Anyway, whose bright idea was it to make bards a playable character in D&D? Yes, I know there is a Lord of the Rings character who is named Bard the bowman. He wasn't a bard in the D&D sense of the word though: a minstrel or performer. How is playing a tune relevant to any of the activities of adventuring? Epic poems have the bards as the folks telling the story of epic advanturers, not being the epic adventurer.)

Features which allow PCs with mediocre stats to shine have very interesting repercussions on a classless system. For example...

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Bardic spell-casting: (cost 5FP?) Bardic spell-casting are not keyed to any ability score. Instead it gets bonuses to cast as if the character had a spell-casting ability score of 14. (+2 ability score modifier). This pseudo ability score modifier will improve to +3 at character level 4 and +4 at  character level 8.

Of course, most of the spells won't have a saving throw or attack roll anyway (think Sleep, Fog Cloud or Magic Missile). Having one spell-casting option that is NOT keyed to any ability score at all makes for a very flexible and interesting option for folks who use point-buy. Just think of the possibilities! For folks who use rolled ability scores, bardic spell-casting will present a viable option to fall back on that allows them to remain relevant and helpful to the party.

On top of that, we can also introduce a host of support class features which are not dependent on ability scores. I could just use the 5E bardic inspiration, but why not make my own version?

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Encouragement (cost 2FP?): You can take the Help action to help your allies in an action as long as your ally can see and hear you clearly. Alternatively, you can use your action to grant disadvantage to a creature's next action as long as the creature can see and hear you clearly.

Normally you must meet certain prerequisites to be able to take the Help action, depending on context. The help action gives advantage to your friend's action, right? For attacks, you have to be next to the target. To help in ability checks, normally you've got to be either proficient in that skill or you can describe a practical way you can help. This feature allows you to help just by being close-by and visible/audible.

Also note that the wording of the feature don't necessarily suggest singing/performing. So you can use this for leader type character too.

Support features like these are especially useful if your own ability scores are very low. If you're not good at any form of combat, you can instead be the party cheerleader!

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Instead of a taking the default option of a background which determines which ability checks (skills) you are considered proficient in, this option is also available:

Improvisation: You are considered at least half proficient in all ability checks. Add half of your proficiency modifier to any such rolls if you are not proficient in that roll.

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Instead of expertise at a certain skill, you can have this:

Luck and pluck: For the purpose of all ability score checks, your ability score modifier is considered at least +2. This bonus cannot be increased in any way except by having Luck and Pluck 2 and 3.

At each new tier, normally the PC gets another expertise in a different skill. The Luck and Pluck ability score modifier can improve all the way to a +4 ability score modifier bonus.

This is the only way to get any ability score bonus in actions which are clearly not related to the default array of ability scores (Strength, Finesse, Intelligence, Will, Perception), such as singing and other performances.

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And there you go. With this, a PC who rolled a 3 in every ability score can still be quite useful to the party! You can still be awesome!

Kind off.