D&D 5E Point Buy vs Rolling for Stats

[cbwjm]

I can see how my Creative Heroic Enhanced Attribute Template acronym* might have been misinterpreted, but all I've ever stated is that I prefer point buy and why.

I do take exception to people telling me that if I were a real role player I'd roll for stats, and be happy with what the dice gods hath wrought.

Or when they make blatantly false statements like "stats don't matter". They may or may not affect your personal enjoyment of the game, but it's obvious that stats have an effect on how effective a character will be from a statistical standpoint.

*How about Fantasy Updated Dice Generation Enhancement (F.U.D.G.E.) instead?

I was actually in agreement with you but expanding it to include that both sides seem to have people who say their method is better when really the only good reason why anyone should prefer one method over another is "I like X method for stat generation". That's pretty much it.

 

[Lanefan]

Hm. I'm pretty sure any real life D&D group you find will be better off without you.
Have you tried things like Roll d20 etc?

But then he'll just end up punching his computer screen in the face; and that'll get expensive after a while.

Well I personally don't agree with "roll in order" rules because if your third roll is a 7... fine you are stuck with a 7, but it's cruel to force that 7 to be con...

In my game the third stat is Wisdom, and Wisdom 7 characters are THE BEST!

Lanefan

 

[Lanefan]

If the total modifier is +0 or less, or the highest attribute is 13 or less, the player is entitled to re-roll all six stats. This is the method used in the 3.5 Player's Handbook.

Which is almost exactly what I do (and have done since lo-ong before 3.5e came out!); except as I don't use the same modifier system it's "if the average of the six rolls is 10.0 or less, or the highest roll is 13 or less, you may start over."

Second, each player has an active stable of five PCs. Each adventure, players choose among their PCs which they would like to play. Players are free to retire a PC at any time, and retired PCs may become active PCs at any time.

Do you find that those characters tend to meld into four or five mostly-unified parties, such that it ends up with the players largely deciding which party to play with little turnover of individual characters from party to party?

Lanefan

 

[Lanefan]

I think random results are inherently unfair. Life is not fair

And that right there is the best argument of all in favour of random rolling - it's realistic!

 

[Maxperson]

And that right there is the best argument of all in favour of random rolling - it's realistic!

This. I'll walk out of a game before I use an array. I've only used an array once in my life, and that was because a good friend was DMing and we rolled the array.

 

[Oofta]

And that right there is the best argument of all in favour of random rolling - it's realistic!

I'm glad you'd have fun playing Joe the Janitor. Honest. Personally I'd rather play someone heroic. Because, you know, it's a game. To each his own.

 

[Lanefan]

I'm glad you'd have fun playing Joe the Janitor. Honest. Personally I'd rather play someone heroic.

Where I'd rather do both...with the same character!...as Joe the Janitor slowly works his way up through being Joe: Saviour of Hamletville to Joe the Trollslayer to Joe Demonbane and eventually Earl Joe, Lord of Althasia.

Lan-"I ain't no ordinary Joe"-efan

 

[Jacob Marley]

Do you find that those characters tend to meld into four or five mostly-unified parties, such that it ends up with the players largely deciding which party to play with little turnover of individual characters from party to party?

Yes and no. The campaign is set in the World of Greyhawk, specifically in the areas surrounding the Empire of Iuz. The party has a base of operations in a small keep overlooking the Ritensa River. From this base the players usually send out two-to-three adventuring parties on various missions. These missions typically last anywhere from a few days to a about a month in-game time. The rest of the characters remain at the keep. There are some cliques that have formed among the characters due to tactical cohesion or aligned character goals. These characters tend to adventure together more often than not, however, the parties are by no means static.

There is one group of characters that is fairly static, however. This group of adventurers focuses their exploring activities on the Vesve Forest, Howling Hills, and the Lands of the Wolf Nomads. This region is significantly farther from the keep than the other regions the party adventures in. This group formed initially for role-playing reasons and have largely stuck together due to role-playing reasons.

So, basically, I have one group that has little-to-no turnover, and another that has significant amounts of turnover.

 

[Hussar]

For me, and this is just for me, it's all about cost/benefit analysis. And, to me, the costs of die rolling - forcing players to play characters they may not want to play, mechanical issues, balance issues, and frankly the fact that pretty much every die roll generation system gives higher than standard array characters most of the time - far, far outweighs any notion of "realism" or "organic character building".

See, because my first D&D was Moldvay Basic/Expert. And even there you didn't do 3d6 in order. You did 3d6 in order, but, then you can spend and buy stats at 2:1 to raise stats. Meaning that pretty much every fighter had an 18 strength, every cleric an 18 wisdom and so forth.

I like point buy because it does away with all the balance issues PLUS it makes the game about the "everyman". None of these 18 percentile strength gods with every fighter.

Like I said, you can play what you like. Fair enough. But, for me, the costs are just too much.

 

[cbwjm]

The RC had that system. From memory, stats couldn't be reduced below 9 and only certain stats could be reduced. You'd have to have a decent prime requisite or rolled really well in the stats you could reduce to bump your prime up to an 18.