Hussar
Legend
On the notion of character clones.
I'm rather baffled by this actually. Ok, Standard Array means that every character has the same 6 stats, arranged differently. And, to be fair, similar classes will have pretty similar stats. Not exact, mind you, but probably close.
But, so what? Two fighters, for example, are identical in all other ways and that doesn't seem to cause any issues. Same HP, same saving throws, and all characters with the same stats have identical skill bonuses. Why doesn't that blow your mind?
Why is every fighter proficient in the same selection of skills? Why do they all have identical good saves? Why all the same hit dice? No one ever learns skills faster than anyone else? My fighter's proficiency bonus is the same as yours after all. Why doesn't that bother you? If it's all about your interpretation of realism and how the characters should be natural, then why is it only stats that seem to break your suspension of disbelief?
After all, why can't my fighter be proficient in, say, Religion? No fighter (granted I'm ignoring backgrounds for the moment here, just class) can ever learn about the gods? How is that "realistic"? How is it realistic that every fighter will have d10 HP and know how to use every suit of armor and weapons?
I guess I just have a real problem with the level of cherry picking people seem to do when justifying their preference. I prefer standard array (and grudgingly allow point buy) simply because it makes sense to me. It means that everyone starts from the same baseline and no one is gaining advantages or disadvantages purely through the luck of the dice. I wouldn't tell the groups to all roll a d20 and the person with the highest roll gains a level either. That's just as fair as die rolling characters but, it wouldn't be any fun for me or my group. To me, standard array makes the game run the most smoothly, so, I prefer it.
I'm rather baffled by this actually. Ok, Standard Array means that every character has the same 6 stats, arranged differently. And, to be fair, similar classes will have pretty similar stats. Not exact, mind you, but probably close.
But, so what? Two fighters, for example, are identical in all other ways and that doesn't seem to cause any issues. Same HP, same saving throws, and all characters with the same stats have identical skill bonuses. Why doesn't that blow your mind?
Why is every fighter proficient in the same selection of skills? Why do they all have identical good saves? Why all the same hit dice? No one ever learns skills faster than anyone else? My fighter's proficiency bonus is the same as yours after all. Why doesn't that bother you? If it's all about your interpretation of realism and how the characters should be natural, then why is it only stats that seem to break your suspension of disbelief?
After all, why can't my fighter be proficient in, say, Religion? No fighter (granted I'm ignoring backgrounds for the moment here, just class) can ever learn about the gods? How is that "realistic"? How is it realistic that every fighter will have d10 HP and know how to use every suit of armor and weapons?
I guess I just have a real problem with the level of cherry picking people seem to do when justifying their preference. I prefer standard array (and grudgingly allow point buy) simply because it makes sense to me. It means that everyone starts from the same baseline and no one is gaining advantages or disadvantages purely through the luck of the dice. I wouldn't tell the groups to all roll a d20 and the person with the highest roll gains a level either. That's just as fair as die rolling characters but, it wouldn't be any fun for me or my group. To me, standard array makes the game run the most smoothly, so, I prefer it.