D&D 5E A Proper Ability Score Generation Preference Poll

Hussar said:

I've seen this claim before. [MENTION=6703052]SA[/MENTION]crosanct made the same claim. Funnily enough, he wouldn't take me up on the challenge though.

8th level standard human ranger, standard array, no ASI's (took Sharpshooter and Alert feats). So, what are my stats? Should be easy since I've got standard array+1.

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Because you would read what he wrote and then change it so you can be correct. But standard array with standard human leaves you with 16, 15, 14, 13, 11, 9.

SS means Dex is highest, that's the 16. You could actually make it lower since you took archery style, you would do that only for purposes of this post, no reasonable player would do that. They would max the attack stat that also is defense, initiative and saves.

15 or 13 will go into CON, so you can play for Resilient CON, I would choose 15 as you get HP also. You have space for 2 more feats but used a resilient spot already, so 14 into WIs

S
D 16
C 15
W 14
I
CHR

Leaving you a 13, 12 and an 8, where it doesn't matter what you do with them. I would suspect you would pick some odd places to put them just to be proven right, that's not the point.

You didn't specify subclass either. If you decide not to max out dex and use feats. I can see putting the 13 in STR to maybe take athlete or something later.


You could also for the purpose of "winning" this argument make some type of thrower build, putting the 16 in STR and using axes or something to throw. Someone said they made a dedicated javelin throw here, just to say they made one. I think its a lie but no matter, I have never seen one in 35+ years but I guess someone would do it if they had a DM that doesn't track ammo.

You can FORCE an odd build just to be correct, but that's all it would be. No one would make a build

S 11
D 9
C 13
I 15
W 14
Ch 16

Except to say "See I said you couldn't guess my build!!!! I win!!!!"


So you get the point. Anything else is just argument for the sake of argument.

Ancalagon said:

My favored method is, by far, Redrick Roller, with the stats re-ordered as you wish

http://aramis.hostman.us/dnd/RedrickRoller.html

The main properties of this is that it's a 27 point roll, with no score above 15, so it's "balanced". However, there is some randomness because the scores aren't exactly as you wished. So it combines the benefits of both methods, and it can be inspiring for character creation, and avoid "dump stats".

For example, I just rolled 10 13 11 11 15 13

Looking at this, I see a *lot* of odd scores, and a lot of +1 and +0 stats. If I took a standard human, the rolls become 11 14 12 12 16 14, which would be a great stat set for a MAD character - this would make a great paladin or monk for example

Re-rolling I got 10 14 9 12 15 12
Now this array would probably benefit more from another race (ie a +2 and a +1), and would make a solid foundation for a dwarven cleric or fighter, for example.

etc etc

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redrick said:

Ooh, so happy that this method is still getting love! I used this approach to create my all-time favorite 5e character — a halfling fighter with equal Dex and Str, and a low Intelligence and a reasonable charisma. I came in with no character concept whatsoever, and after rolling abilities this way, plus rolling for character race, I came up with a cheery but gullible halfling marsh dweller who could identify every kind of fish in his area, but couldn't really distinguish truth from fantasy. He operated mostly as a Dex fighter, but he used his reasonable strength scores to try to climb on any Large or greater monster. He also had an unshakable belief in the Fantasy Dream — if you work hard enough doing quests for the duly appointed nobility, you too will get a castle and a kingdom of your own.

Sorry for that "Let me tell you about my character" moment, but boy do I miss that guy.

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Hey, you've made something awesome and it was good of you to share it! You can take that the mean your ichthyologist halfling or your stat roller as you wish I suppose

Hussar said:

People always talk about the character maximums in AD&D but rarely talk about the other side of the screen. We're talking an edition where the largest monsters in the game have less than 100 HP. Ancient Huge Red dragon taps out at 96 HP in AD&D. And that's about as big as it gets (outside of unique individuals). This is an edition where you could meat Ancient Black Dragons at 5th level and expect to win that fight quite handily.

People tend to forget just how much nastier later edition monsters and challenges have become.

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Yes and no about the black dragon: yes he'll only 64 hp and no because the dragons breath weapon does 64 hp of damage or 32 on a save, so 5th characters in 1e and possibly 2e wouldn't have 64 hp or few would any ways.

And to me later edition became easier even though the monsters did get tougher compared to 1e/2e.

Of course just my opinion.

Oofta said:

As pointed out, odds are you're going to have at least 1 number below 10 (perhaps significantly below) with 4d6 drop lowest. Many, if not most, of my past characters built with point buy don't have any numbers below 10.

Unless of course you use a different variant.



Which is the equivalent of at least 2 12s.

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This is the way I look at it. In earlier editions +3 was generally the max bonus so +1 or 2 was pretty good. 5e the max is +5 so +1 or 2 is not all that good. this is of course with out magic.

Edit: added a missing word

redrick said:

I think if it's a seasoned group, there should be a lot of merit to this. At the end of the day, a disruptive player can be disruptive with any character, no matter how balanced or munchkined their character. This way, if I want to play the sidekick always getting in over their head, I can do that. If I want to play the unstoppable hero, the best in the world, I can do that. It would work with a group that, ultimately, thinks in terms of working together to have fun at the table, and not just one-upping each other in terms of kill counts and getting away with an uneven share of the treasure.

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It does work. We are starting up one with my friend as DM. We roll, he sent me over a lottery ticket, but I wanted to play an Human Variant Oath of Crown Paladin with Shield Master since I just started painting minis and I just started painting Mangu Timur from Reaper bones



I backed it off to 15, 15, 15, 13, 11, 10 and I was thinking about an Aasimar with a visor helmet to hide his eyes
since he has that helmet, but instead I kept the human and took away his face, his face is horribly scarred. The CHR score is strength of personality, like the King of Jerusalem in Kingdom of Heaven. Of course most people would be terrified to see his face without the helmet, so that will have repercussions in the future. He became a Paladin as only the priesthood would accept him, convincing him that this is a test of faith and strength.

Will take Shield Mastery and STR boost to use with Shield Mastery.

BTW, I cant figure out how to reorient the picture.

Yardiff said:

This is the way I look at it. In earlier editions +3 was generally the max bonus so +1 or 2 was pretty good. 5e the max is +5 so +1 or 2 is all that good. this is of course with out magic.

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Yes. Also, magic items set ability scores instead of adding on to it. Things like the amulet of health are just GREAT in this version, it tough to pump a lot of points into CON for some classes but is always useful. Gauntlets of Ogre Power are great also, but less so, as the classes that like the generally have good STR and will max them sooner rather then earlier.

It balances out though with bounded accuracy, squeezing every last + out isn't as important as it used to be, which is an improvement IMO.

kagayaku said:

Hey, you've made something awesome and it was good of you to share it! You can take that the mean your ichthyologist halfling or your stat roller as you wish I suppose

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Credit entirely due to [MENTION=6779310]aramis erak[/MENTION] for coding up that tool. He just gave me the nod in the name because it was based on a conversation we had on these forums a little while back.

With dex to damage (dumbest thing ever my opinion) the gauntlets become less useful. In 1e/2e the gauntlets were used by clerics and rogue and monks since they generally didn't have high str scores, fighter/rangers/paladins usually had high enough str scores that the gauntlets were not needed.

redrick said:

I think if it's a seasoned group, there should be a lot of merit to this. At the end of the day, a disruptive player can be disruptive with any character, no matter how balanced or munchkined their character. This way, if I want to play the sidekick always getting in over their head, I can do that. If I want to play the unstoppable hero, the best in the world, I can do that. It would work with a group that, ultimately, thinks in terms of working together to have fun at the table, and not just one-upping each other in terms of kill counts and getting away with an uneven share of the treasure.

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Question on this. How do you do treasure shares? In all the groups I played in cash was shared out evenly and magic items were given to whoever could get the most use out of it.

redrick said:

Credit entirely due to [MENTION=6779310]aramis erak[/MENTION] for coding up that tool. He just gave me the nod in the name because it was based on a conversation we had on these forums a little while back.

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Do you know how he coded it? There are only 64 options with point buy if he's hard coding it. If it's randomized, it would be easier to modify the numbers.