PC Creation: Pointbuy or Roll?

[blargney the second]

Here's a random but balanced method for rolling. Take an array of 6 six stats, every new character gets the same array. Roll d6, the first stat in the array goes to that ability position. Repeat for each stat - you can even change dice as you go if you want.

 

[Zimbel16]

Die rolling

My favorite die rolling method is still 3d6 straight (i.e. no re-arraingement). My primary problem with both 4d6 and standard point buy is that neither gives good chances for really low scores.

 

[sniffles]

Question:

When most folks reference rolling for ability scores, do you mean rolling just one set and sticking with it? Do you assign them in order or as desired? (okay, that's two questions)

I see a lot of remarks about poor results with rolling. While that can certainly happen sometimes, in the group I belong to we usually roll several times until we get a set we can live with. We also assign the results as desired. Our limitation on rolling is that once you've chosen to roll another set of results, you can't go back and select one of your previous sets. Not that anyone closely enforces this, though.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

I love to roll, but I prefer point-buy to make characters. As a DM, I just recently tried Buttercup and Crothian's method: let them have whatever scores they want. I did it for the following reasons:
1) So they can make exactly the character they want (even if it'd be suboptimal)
2) So they can give themselves a little "umph" since i warned them it would be dangerous (especially for the 3-player group).

Not surprisingly (for my groups), i ended up with super-characters (~40-50 pt-buy value). I think 1 character has a negative modifier :\

I don't mind, though. Their planning is often not so good, so they need the super-stats in order to have a chance to stay alive

AR

 

[Torpedo]

As a DM, I prefer point buy because I know that I can throw challenges at the players as written if I so desire without additional work. I'd rather spend my additional work on characters, story, history, etc. rather than adjusting stats to meet the character's power levels.

As a player, I prefer point buy because I believe D&D is about team play rather than individual accomplishment. Sure, everyone is going to have a chance to shine individually in certain situations and that is as it should be. But for an effective team, I like that everyone of the heroes is at the same power level.

But I did miss the randomness of dice. Thankfully Dragon Magazine #346 came along and brought randomness to the point buy method in the excellent article "Three Dragon Readings" pages 34-41. Now I use that all the time.

I've used it to make several characters for an upcoming delve into Rappan Athuk reloaded. I get the stats and then look at what class and race would go best with them. Plus the cards give you ideas / hooks for character backgrounds. I love it!

 

[Fishbone]

TheGM: You're breaking my heart. The reroll the ones is like getting on your hands and knees and begging for a cheesy 35+ point character.
Nobody thinks that has a real big effect on the game, but boy, it sure does.
I'm stuck in my ways, I guess. I would never even consider anything other than point buy unless the group absolutely was unfamiliar with it and hated it.
I'd always, ALWAYS, prefer point buy as a GM or player.
Edit:Unless the DM has a wonky way of rolling that produces 4 color superheros and I'll need every silly stat to survive encounters 2 or 3 CR over our levels I take the point buy. Okay, so I'm a bit of a "power gamer" in that regards.

 

[Lanefan]

Roll. The. Dice.

In our 1e-based game we use 5d6, drop two, rearrange to suit. Truly sucky characters are rare; truly outlandish ones just as rare, and we find their life expectancy doesn't seem to be all that closely tied to stats in any case.

In our 3e-based game, using 4d6 re-roll any single die once only then rearrange, my first two characters had wildly different rolled stats:
Gloramir - 18,16,15,13,12,12 (Fighter-Wizard)
Appppil - 15,12,11,10,10,7 (Illusionist)

Gloramir died a few adventures in, was brought back, repeated the same cycle, and has bounced in and out of the party since; not accomplishing very much. Appppil is still going, 5.5 years and 10 levels later...and under most point-buy systems, could not even exist! The 7 went to Wisdom, and that defined her entire character...

Just goes to show, stats don't make the character.

Lanefan

 

[Wik]

I like "organic" character creation - Roll 4d6 for your stats, IN ORDER (Str, Dex, Con, Int, Wis, Cha). Then, you can re-roll one stat (and keep the better result of the two), and switch two stat scores.

It usually creates characters that are *roughly* what you want them to be, without being totally optimized. You get mages with awesome strength scores... and the fighters often actually have a charisma score to speak of. If a character has less than a total stat modifier of +2, he gets to re-roll.

But then, I use this system in a post-apocalyptic RPG that already incorporates other random rolls - Roll for mutations, deficiencies, and special starting items - so the randomness of CharGen is just another factor.

In my D&D games, I use the typical roll 4d6, apply to stats as you wish. I just like it a lot more than point buy, which I think is bland.