re-rolling 1's

[ssampier]

Interesting thought that limits your attribute range from 6 to 18. I am not sure what does to the Bell Curve, though.

 

[Storyteller01]

No way! If you reroll ones, how will anyone ever have a score of 3 in anything??

Both as a player and as a dm, some of my favorite characters have been the ones with really low stats. I played a cha 3 doppelganger (2ed days) who was a barrel of fun, for instance.

My players cringe wildly on a 6. I don't need 20 year olds going into cardiac arrest.

 

[Tuzenbach]

I don't roll my ability scores, I decide my ability scores.

That way, it's extremely difficult for me to ever be dissatisfied with my stats. Afterall, I chose them, so I should be happy with them......no?

 

[Merkuri]

A player can accept their hit point roll or choose to take mine. (I roll in secret - they don't know what mine is.)

If they choose to take what I rolled - they are stuck with it.

Yeah, that's pretty much exactly what we do except the DM doesn't roll until the player decides if they want to keep their roll. The effect is exactly the same.

 

[Crothian]

I don't roll my ability scores, I decide my ability scores.

I'd imagine finding a DM that would go for that is not that simple

 

[AFGNCAAP]

Back before 3.X, I used to allow rerolling 1s on stat rolls and the like. Don't allow it now: then again, I usually enforce point-buy method (32 pt).

However, being generous, I do allow players to take average hit points for a level for their class (as per the DMG) whenever they roll horribly low for HP. Figure it'd only be fair to give `em a bit more of a fighting chance.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Nope -- if you want to roll, you get what the dice gods give you. If you fear 1s, use point buy.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

I have them re-roll 1's and 2's until everything is at least a 3, plus I allow 4d6 for each stat, take the best 3 of the 4. So 15 is the average/most common stat for PC's (and key NPC's) in my games.

As for HP's I use a graduated re-roll system.

d4 classes re-roll 1's until a 2 or better is rolled.

d6 and d8 classes re-roll on 1's and 2's until 3 or better is rolled

d10 classes re-roll 1-3's until a 4 or better is rolled.

d12 classes re-roll 1-4's until a 5 or better is rolled.

There are no whimpy PC's, or key bad guys, in my games.

I use the same system for hit points. I think it's patently unfair for a Barbarian and a Wizard to both operate under a "reroll 1's" system, or even worse, no rerolls.

For stat gen, I like to give a flat 80-90 points and divide as you like, with lower and upper limits of 5 and 18, before racial mods. If rolling, I like high-powered PCs and villains, so I find roll 5d6, drop the 2 lowest, 7 times, drop the worst score effective.

Some ideas other DMs have used that I found interesting: 1) Keep a running average of the total point value of each current player's starting stats, giving free points to the lower end to make up the difference. Complicated, but about as "fair" as rolling can get. 2) Bonus points for single-classed characters in a class that suffers from MAD (paladin, monk, etc...). Best for one-shots.

 

[arscott]

My on-haitus Dark•Matter game was non-random and non-forgiving: 25 point buy, average hp (round down).

If I ever run my Dark Sun game, I will be random and non-forgiving: 4d6 drop 1, will a reroll for really bad stats as specified in the phb, and rolled hitpoints with no rerolls.

I don't like using systems that increase character capability. All it does is shift the baseline, and that's just more tweaking I need to do to ensure that the party faces appropriately difficult challenges.

Another system I'm thinking of trying is a player-determined randomness:

instead of rolling dX for hitpoints, roll d(X-2Y)+Y

So a barbarian (d12 HD) can roll any of the following:

d12, d10+1, d8+2, d6+3, d4+4, d2+5, 6

All but the straight 6 average 6.5 hp.

 

[CalicoDave]

We don't re-roll 1's in character generation, but we do roll two sets of 6 numbers and take the better set.

For Hit Points we allow re-rolling of 1's until you don't get a 1. Or, the player can take the average without rolling.

We also re-roll 1's for all Cure Spells.