D&D 5E Point Buy vs Rolling for Stats

[Tony Vargas]

. What happens after 1st level doesn't matter in this discussion.

Not your call 5o make, but you, yourself opened the door to the relevancy of the rest of the campaign quite a ways back.

it's pure white room and not really indicative of how things would play out in a real campaign.

 

[Maxperson]

Not your call 5o make, but you, yourself opened the door to the relevancy of the rest of the campaign quite a ways back.

Nah. That was in response to [MENTION=6801845]Oofta[/MENTION] creating a white room situation as "proof" of rolling being big bad wrong fun, and had no bearing on the main topic of stat generation. I didn't open the door to discussions about things past generating the PCs. Stat growth and other specials have no bearing whatsoever on the normal range of starting stats.

 

[Caliban]

In other news, it does look like die rolling is becoming a dying breed.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...hod-does-your-group-use&p=7275079#post7275079

Not really "dying", at least not from that poll. "Homebrew (everything else)" is probably various flavors of rolling, since the only method on the poll is 4d6k3. It also depends on how many people would have chosen "Standard Array" if it had been included in the poll - from the comments, that's several people.

But even with the flaws in the poll, it seems clear that Point Buy is at least slightly more popular with 55% of the total votes.

 

[Oofta]

Nah. That was in response to [MENTION=6801845]Oofta[/MENTION] creating a white room situation as "proof" of rolling being big bad wrong fun, and had no bearing on the main topic of stat generation. I didn't open the door to discussions about things past generating the PCs. Stat growth and other specials have no bearing whatsoever on the normal range of starting stats.

I did write a program to simulate combat that indicates that combat effectiveness between two builds whose only variance was starting ability scores is significant and has a continuous impact up to at least 12th level; I've never got around to higher levels.

That doesn't make rolling "wrong", it's just one of the reasons I prefer point buy. You like to gamble, I don't. You think rolling adds "realism", I don't and don't think it would matter even if it did.

I've never said you shouldn't use it if you enjoy it, quite the opposite. Do whatever turns your crank.

Stop lying about what I've said.

 

[Tony Vargas]

. I didn't open the door to discussions about things past generating the PCs. Stat growth and other specials have no bearing whatsoever on the normal range of starting stats.

I'd say 'have it your way,' but you can't seem to settle on just one.

But even with the flaws in the poll, it seems clear that Point Buy is at least slightly more popular with 55% of the total votes.

Not that popularity proves anything.

 

[Maxperson]

I'd say 'have it your way,' but you can't seem to settle on just one.

LOL

 

[Hussar]

Not really "dying", at least not from that poll. "Homebrew (everything else)" is probably various flavors of rolling, since the only method on the poll is 4d6k3. It also depends on how many people would have chosen "Standard Array" if it had been included in the poll - from the comments, that's several people.

But even with the flaws in the poll, it seems clear that Point Buy is at least slightly more popular with 55% of the total votes.

When you outnumber every other option by 2 or 3 to one, I’m not sure that counts as “slightly “.


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[Caliban]

When you outnumber every other option by 2 or 3 to one, I’m not sure that counts as “slightly “.


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I was lumping "4d6K3" and "Homebrew(other)" together as one, since they are most likely all variations on random roll. If you look at it that way, it's 55% point buy, and 45% random roll.

But it's still missing "Standard Array", so people that prefer that could either not vote, count it as a type of point buy, or as a type of homebrew. So the numbers are going to be skewed in some unknown fashion. Even then, it only represent the forum posters who felt like answering. No idea if we are actually "representative" of the general gaming populace or not.

 

[Maxperson]

When you outnumber every other option by 2 or 3 to one, I’m not sure that counts as “slightly “.

As much as it galls me to agree with the bully, he's right about this. The poll questions are flawed, and you will have many in the third category who roll, but in a fashion other than 4d6-L. The poll should have been...

1. Rolling stats by whichever rolling method you prefer.
2. Point buy.
3. Array.

That way you'd have a more accurate picture of what's going on.

 

[Hussar]

Meh. Again the point is that point but outnumbers every other option by a pretty broad margin. All your options would do is shift the bottom numbers around.


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