D&D 5E Point Buy vs Rolling for Stats

[Lanefan]

The average rolls from a player using 4d6 drop the lowest, will be roughly equal to the standard array. So the two official methods for generating characters more often then not gives you the standard array. The game is balanced on this assumption. This means that anything below the standard array is underpowered for what the content is fine tuned for, and anything above the standard array is overpowered for what the content is fine tuned for.

Er...I thought, from all the hype leading up to its release, that one of the main things with 5e was that it is not so finely tuned as the last few editions, thus allowing for and accommodating much more variance in PCs, class choices, party size, opponents, etc. etc. without falling apart at the seams.

Rolling for stats is simply a hold over from older versions of D&D when the game was newish and before game designers had learned from previous mistakes.

So rolling for stats is a design mistake.

Nice.

If you play a character that is above the standard array, or worse yet, if you have a party of players that are above the standard array, you are not getting the true experience the D&D5e designers intended when they balanced the monsters that you will be fighting. Everything will be less dangerous. There will be more work for the DM to adjust encounters upwards as the books suggestions will be off by however much your characters stats are off from the standard array.

But very very few encounters are "finely balanced" in the first place. Some are supposed to be pushover-easy. Some are supposed to be deadly-hard. A lot are in the middle; and any slight easing of any of those via higher (or lower) party stats will be obliterated by the much greater differences caused by good/bad player/PC tactics, good/bad class choices and party lineup, good/bad scouting and information gathering and patience beforehand, and most of all by the luck of the dice.

Lan-"and how does your fine-tuning work when the party consists of 7 PCs plus a couple of henches"-efan

 

[Oofta]

Lan-"and how does your fine-tuning work when the party consists of 7 PCs plus a couple of henches"-efan

I read that and thought it said 7 PCs plus a couple of benches

I was like, what, now we have to start taking into consideration furniture? Next thing you know you'll be demanding shrubbery!

 

[Krachek]

123 pages about rolling Stats!
It is really time for Xanathar guide to go out.

 

[Arial Black]

I read that and thought it said 7 PCs plus a couple of benches

I was like, what, now we have to start taking into consideration furniture? Next thing you know you'll be demanding shrubbery!

Unlike people, benches are manufactured. Therefore, it is perfectly appropriate to use point-buy to generate stats for benches.

[/deadpan]

 

[Oofta]

Unlike people, benches are manufactured. Therefore, it is perfectly appropriate to use point-buy to generate stats for benches.

[/deadpan]

Yes, but they're probably built buy IKEA. Dang scandihoovian instructions.

 

[Harzel]

Whelp the DMG encounter chapter actually says 3-5 PCs.

OMG, I have 8. I must find a way to kill three immediately to make sure we are having fun.

 

[Arial Black]

Although I was joking, thinking about it, point-buy = manufactured, rolling = born.

That's what it feels like. That's one reason I like rolling, because it feels like I'm making the best of what nature gave me, knowing that some people are more naturally gifted than others.

For me, the game is about pretending to be an inhabitant of an imaginary but realistic world (in terms of internally consistent). Rolling fits in there. Point-buy would fit in there if my PC as created by a mad scientist; designed rather than born. Especially if the mad scientist made a group of them, it would not break my suspension of disbelief that they all added up to exactly 27 points in a way that just feels wrong for a group of realistic people who were born rather than manufactured.

 

[Yardiff]

OMG, I have 8. I must find a way to kill three immediately to make sure we are having fun.

You should get right on that!

 

[Caliban]

Although I was joking, thinking about it, point-buy = manufactured, rolling = born.

Or to look at it another way: point buy = skill, rolling = gambling (better lucky than good!)

That's why I like point buy. Success or failure depends on my choices and my skill at creating a character. I can understand why people who are less skilled might prefer rolling.

(Just to prove you can be super biased no matter which side of the debate you are on. )

 

[Oofta]

Although I was joking, thinking about it, point-buy = manufactured, rolling = born.

That's what it feels like. That's one reason I like rolling, because it feels like I'm making the best of what nature gave me, knowing that some people are more naturally gifted than others.

For me, the game is about pretending to be an inhabitant of an imaginary but realistic world (in terms of internally consistent). Rolling fits in there. Point-buy would fit in there if my PC as created by a mad scientist; designed rather than born. Especially if the mad scientist made a group of them, it would not break my suspension of disbelief that they all added up to exactly 27 points in a way that just feels wrong for a group of realistic people who were born rather than manufactured.

Meh. Just like every ogre has a 19 strength?

For me the numbers don't define the character. I define the character based on how he responds and acts. The numbers? The D20 rolls to hit or save? Always hitting or missing 5% of the time my character swings a sword? Those are just rules I have to use to enable a vision. Having a set number for ability scores is no more unrealistic than having to pick a class.