D&D General What Method(s) did you use to roll ability score when you first started D&D?

Lanefan · Jun 30, 2019

I must be the odd one out here: when I first started we used 5d6 drop-lowest-two* six times, then arrange to suit. If no stat is higher than 13, start again. (which in 1e where bonuses start at 15 works pretty well)

Still use it today.

* in case anyone's wondering, if memory serves 5d6-drop-2 gives an average of a bit less than a point higher than 4d6-drop-one - 13-point-something instead of 12-point-something.

Maxperson · Jun 30, 2019

I started with 4d6 drop the lowest, in order. If someone rolled terribly, his character usually walked to a nearby bridge carrying a large rock. We were 13!

Giltonio_Santos · Jun 30, 2019

3d6 in order, but you could take 2 points from one ability to increase any other by 1 as many times as you wanted. We got some seriously crippled characters by abusing that.

Doc_Klueless · Jun 30, 2019

3d6. In order. No moving, mixing, adjusting. Came up with a very capable if unlikable fighter. But that was Basic D&D Fighter, so a Strength of 16 was awesome! A Charisma of 8, not so much.

I've been accused before of making my Charisma a dump stat because it was an 8. Those people don't quite grok what "3d6. In order. No moving, mixing, adjusting" means.

Azzy · Jun 30, 2019

3d6 in order, then 4d6 when we moved to AD&D.

Shiroiken · Jun 30, 2019

(1E) - started with only myself and my brother, plus several DM PCs to fill out as needed, and we rolled 3d6 in order. As our characters died and other players joined the game, they took over existing PCs owned by the DM, who had around 5 or 6 dozen characters of varying levels (most in the Lv 3-9 range) so that we didn't have to restart or have a wide level range between us.

Worst method I've used: 1E UA variant, where you rolled a number of d6s based on your class, which generally resulted in uber-characters. In addition, since your class was chosen, if you didn't reach the minimum requirement for the class, you automatically raised your abilities up to meet it.

Strangest method I've used: dice draft, where everyone (including the DM) rolled 1d6. Then in a snake draft method, everyone picked a die and assigned it to an ability score. The DM alternated between taking out the highest die and the lowest die. You could use any number of dice on an ability score, but couldn't go above 18 and had to have at least a 3. If you failed to get a 3, the DM lowered your highest ability score by the amount needed to get your 3, but this didn't happen.

Zardnaar · Jun 30, 2019

3d6 or 4d6 drop the lowest assign how you like.

akr71 · Jun 30, 2019

jaelis said:
We rolled 3d6, in order, and then lied about what we got.

Yep, its amazing how many Fighters/Rangers/Paladins there were walking around with 18/00 Strength.

We typically did about 4 to 6 arrays of stats and chose the one we liked.

Once Unearthed Arcana was published we switched to the quick build system there. I may have even had the Dragon magazine it was first published in. Choose the class and then roll different # of d6's for the ability scores, so that had a better chance of meeting the ability pre-requisites for the class.

Gilladian · Jun 30, 2019

The method I still prefer to use today when creating stats as a group is 4d6, drop the lowest, arrange as you like. Then, if your character sucks, my husband gets to reroll for you once or twice. His dice are magic, for him only.

Ralif Redhammer · Jul 1, 2019

Same, pretty much. We were all of 9-10 years old at that point, in our defense.

One thing that I never noticed before, is that the Red Box has a whole system for adjusting your stats. That as far as I know we never used, because, well, see above.