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Point Buy vs Rolling for Stats
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<blockquote data-quote="Hriston" data-source="post: 7274072" data-attributes="member: 6787503"><p>I think we're in agreement on this. The end result of point-buy is you're picking one of sixty-five arrays of six numbers each, not that you're picking six specific numbers in isolation from one another. No method I know of lets you do that.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>But it isn't the character that's doing either the selecting or the rolling. It's you, the player at the table, so I don't see how one method can better represent reality than another. When you create your character, you aren't <em>playing</em> your character. Your character's backstory isn't that it created itself! Your character's backstory is that it was shaped by environmental factors into the person it is at level one. When you, the player, create your character, you are taking on the role of the environment that made your character what it is, playing God, so to speak. Alternate methods of ability score generation only represent reality inasmuch as they represent factors of the environment that determined those scores. Dice-rolling can represent a reality where the hand of fortune randomly deals out strengths and weaknesses to brave adventurers. Point-buy (or standard array) can represent a reality where the abilities of adventurers are predetermined by what fate has in store for them. Or the entire operation can be viewed as a non-representational method for determining some ability scores for your character. Neither approach is more or less valid, and neither representation of reality is more or less realistic.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>You keep saying this, even though it doesn't remotely respond to anything I've said.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Your claim is that the 4d6 drop lowest method is intended for use in all cases where a character's abilities are rolled. Correct? My counter-claim is that 4d6 drop lowest is only given as the rolling method for <strong>adventurers</strong> (including any NPC with an adventuring class), but can otherwise be used by a DM however he or she wishes, since no prohibition on its use for other purposes exists.</p><p></p><p>My claim is supported by the first sentence of the chapter in which the dice-rolling method is given, which says, "Your first step in playing an <strong>adventurer</strong> in the Dungeons & Dragons game is to imagine and create a character of your own." Further down the page, adventurers are again referenced in the first sentence of the second paragraph, which reads, "Before you dive into step 1 below, think about the kind of <strong>adventurer</strong> you want to play." This makes it clear that what's given in this chapter is a step-by-step method for the creation of characters that are adventurers, and that when the chapter subsequently refers to "your character" (as in the sentence "You generate your character's six ability scores randomly."), it is referring to an adventurer.</p><p></p><p>What textual basis do you have for your claim?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Hriston, post: 7274072, member: 6787503"] I think we're in agreement on this. The end result of point-buy is you're picking one of sixty-five arrays of six numbers each, not that you're picking six specific numbers in isolation from one another. No method I know of lets you do that. But it isn't the character that's doing either the selecting or the rolling. It's you, the player at the table, so I don't see how one method can better represent reality than another. When you create your character, you aren't [I]playing[/I] your character. Your character's backstory isn't that it created itself! Your character's backstory is that it was shaped by environmental factors into the person it is at level one. When you, the player, create your character, you are taking on the role of the environment that made your character what it is, playing God, so to speak. Alternate methods of ability score generation only represent reality inasmuch as they represent factors of the environment that determined those scores. Dice-rolling can represent a reality where the hand of fortune randomly deals out strengths and weaknesses to brave adventurers. Point-buy (or standard array) can represent a reality where the abilities of adventurers are predetermined by what fate has in store for them. Or the entire operation can be viewed as a non-representational method for determining some ability scores for your character. Neither approach is more or less valid, and neither representation of reality is more or less realistic. You keep saying this, even though it doesn't remotely respond to anything I've said. Your claim is that the 4d6 drop lowest method is intended for use in all cases where a character's abilities are rolled. Correct? My counter-claim is that 4d6 drop lowest is only given as the rolling method for [B]adventurers[/B] (including any NPC with an adventuring class), but can otherwise be used by a DM however he or she wishes, since no prohibition on its use for other purposes exists. My claim is supported by the first sentence of the chapter in which the dice-rolling method is given, which says, "Your first step in playing an [B]adventurer[/B] in the Dungeons & Dragons game is to imagine and create a character of your own." Further down the page, adventurers are again referenced in the first sentence of the second paragraph, which reads, "Before you dive into step 1 below, think about the kind of [B]adventurer[/B] you want to play." This makes it clear that what's given in this chapter is a step-by-step method for the creation of characters that are adventurers, and that when the chapter subsequently refers to "your character" (as in the sentence "You generate your character's six ability scores randomly."), it is referring to an adventurer. What textual basis do you have for your claim? [/QUOTE]
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