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Point Buy vs Rolling for Stats
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<blockquote data-quote="Arial Black" data-source="post: 7234680" data-attributes="member: 6799649"><p>If you were to actually go to the trouble of generating the stats of every single NPC inhabitant of, say, a city (which is exactly what they did in The City State of the Invincible Overlord) then you'd get a realistic population with no stat limited by any other stat, some people being blessed with above average abilities across the board and other cursed with low abilities, reflecting that actual populations have this kind of variance.</p><p></p><p>After all, it would be a ridiculously unrealistic world where every single person had exactly the same Str, Dex, Con, Int, Wis and Cha. It would be just as absurd to have an entire population of tens of thousands of people whose ability scores added up to 27 points, implying that every person is equally blessed/cursed.</p><p></p><p>Yet if you were to attempt to generate the same population as above, but using point-buy instead of rolling, you get that totally unrealistic population. Like The Stepford Wives gone global!</p><p></p><p>To the point of 'is 3d6 the default/is it required'? Yes, the default <em>assumption</em> is that the population is such that their abilities were randomly generated on 3d6 in order. That is the background against which any ability score is judged as 'high' or 'low' or whatever. It gives context to, say, Wis 16. Is Wis 16 good or bad? Compare it the bell curve to find out.</p><p></p><p>However, it is not 'required' in the sense that the role-playing police are not going to arrest you if you use any other method to generate the ability scores of any particular NPC!</p><p></p><p>You can simply choose the scores that seem right for the needs of the scenario. You can use a pre-gen, like the one's that WotC have thoughtfully provided in the back of the MM. You can use an array, or point-buy, of 4d6k3, or even 3d6 in order. In fact, you don't even need to actually generate an NPC's ability scores <em>at all</em> if those ability scores are not going to be relevant to the game at that point. <em>This does not mean that such NPCs don't HAVE ability scores! It just means that you have no interest in what they are at this point.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>But these other methods are simply helpful DM shortcuts so that the DM doesn't have to roll up every single NPC in the universe before he starts play! The assumption is that every single NPC <strong>has</strong> been 'rolled up', and on 3d6 in order. The same is true for PCs; we use other methods not because they are a different species but in order to get generally better than average scores to reflect heroic characters.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>'If they haven't changed something, then it remains the same'. This is just as true for editions of D&D as it is for laws of the land. If they bring in a new law, it doesn't mean that previous laws <em>stop</em> applying! They continue to operate as they always did, unless the new law specifically says that certain other laws no longer apply.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Whether or not you can get an average of 10.5 using 1d20 or any other method than 3d6 is not the issue. The issue is that 3d6 was the stated default that models the population, <em>and it has not been replaced!</em></em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>In order to disprove that, you would need to find 5E text which says, 'this is how the population is generated'. If you did, then that would replace the ongoing 3d6 in order that has never been replaced.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>And no, 'not being bothered to roll them all' was never a replacement for that 3d6 bell curve assumption for the general population; it was always just a time-saver for the DM. The 5E text which says that you don't need to roll ability scores for NPCs is not a change in the 3d6 assumption, it is a statement which says you don't need to actually 'use 3d6 in order otherwise you are breaking the rules'. It doesn't change the 3d6 bell curve assumption.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>If it hasn't changed, then it stays the same.</em></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Arial Black, post: 7234680, member: 6799649"] If you were to actually go to the trouble of generating the stats of every single NPC inhabitant of, say, a city (which is exactly what they did in The City State of the Invincible Overlord) then you'd get a realistic population with no stat limited by any other stat, some people being blessed with above average abilities across the board and other cursed with low abilities, reflecting that actual populations have this kind of variance. After all, it would be a ridiculously unrealistic world where every single person had exactly the same Str, Dex, Con, Int, Wis and Cha. It would be just as absurd to have an entire population of tens of thousands of people whose ability scores added up to 27 points, implying that every person is equally blessed/cursed. Yet if you were to attempt to generate the same population as above, but using point-buy instead of rolling, you get that totally unrealistic population. Like The Stepford Wives gone global! To the point of 'is 3d6 the default/is it required'? Yes, the default [i]assumption[/i] is that the population is such that their abilities were randomly generated on 3d6 in order. That is the background against which any ability score is judged as 'high' or 'low' or whatever. It gives context to, say, Wis 16. Is Wis 16 good or bad? Compare it the bell curve to find out. However, it is not 'required' in the sense that the role-playing police are not going to arrest you if you use any other method to generate the ability scores of any particular NPC! You can simply choose the scores that seem right for the needs of the scenario. You can use a pre-gen, like the one's that WotC have thoughtfully provided in the back of the MM. You can use an array, or point-buy, of 4d6k3, or even 3d6 in order. In fact, you don't even need to actually generate an NPC's ability scores [i]at all[/i] if those ability scores are not going to be relevant to the game at that point. [i]This does not mean that such NPCs don't HAVE ability scores! It just means that you have no interest in what they are at this point. But these other methods are simply helpful DM shortcuts so that the DM doesn't have to roll up every single NPC in the universe before he starts play! The assumption is that every single NPC [b]has[/b] been 'rolled up', and on 3d6 in order. The same is true for PCs; we use other methods not because they are a different species but in order to get generally better than average scores to reflect heroic characters. 'If they haven't changed something, then it remains the same'. This is just as true for editions of D&D as it is for laws of the land. If they bring in a new law, it doesn't mean that previous laws [i]stop[/i] applying! They continue to operate as they always did, unless the new law specifically says that certain other laws no longer apply. Whether or not you can get an average of 10.5 using 1d20 or any other method than 3d6 is not the issue. The issue is that 3d6 was the stated default that models the population, [i]and it has not been replaced![/i] In order to disprove that, you would need to find 5E text which says, 'this is how the population is generated'. If you did, then that would replace the ongoing 3d6 in order that has never been replaced. And no, 'not being bothered to roll them all' was never a replacement for that 3d6 bell curve assumption for the general population; it was always just a time-saver for the DM. The 5E text which says that you don't need to roll ability scores for NPCs is not a change in the 3d6 assumption, it is a statement which says you don't need to actually 'use 3d6 in order otherwise you are breaking the rules'. It doesn't change the 3d6 bell curve assumption. If it hasn't changed, then it stays the same.[/i] [/QUOTE]
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