Rolling for BALANCED ability scores

[Max1mus]

Here's a new character generation house rule that I thought of. Please forgive me if this has been posted/thought of before.

My current gaming group likes the idea of randomly generated ability scores. Unfortunately that seems to include one player rolling really well and others rolling really bad. We inevitably have a player who will roll something that absolutely cripples his character. I know that stats shouldn't be the most important thing in the game and the famous anecdote about Raistlin and his horrible CON score. But I would like everyone in my game to be virtually balanced and happy with their characters, so I thought up a method that involves randomness AND balance:

Roll 3 6-sided dice and compare the total to the table. The table is based on pages 17-18 of the PHB.

3 - 14 13 13 13 13 13
4 - 14 14 13 13 13 11
5 - 14 14 14 12 12 11
6 - 14 14 14 14 12 8
7 - 15 14 13 12 12 11
8 - 15 15 13 12 11 10
9 - 16 15 12 11 11 10
10 - 16 14 14 12 11 8
11 - 16 14 13 12 11 10
12 - 16 16 12 10 10 10
13 - 16 16 12 11 11 8
14 - 17 15 12 11 10 8
15 - 17 14 12 11 10 10
16 - 18 13 13 10 10 8
17 - 18 14 11 10 10 8
18 - 18 12 12 10 10 10

Now everyone has a random score that is balanced based on the point-buy system. This also helps alleviate the temptation to munchkin one's scores perfectly. I like that aspect and it gives your character more of a feeling that you work with what life gave you.

Variant 1: Obviously scores will more often fall around 9-12 so you could always make cards with a different score on each. Have players draw a card from the deck. This makes the 3 and 18 much more possible.

Variant 2: Roll four 6-sided dice and drop 1. This will let players have more of a choice. Higher scores will result in more Min-Max and lower means more even. Letting them look at the table to figure out exactly what they will get is up to you.

Tell me what you think or if you have heard of this before.

 

[the Jester]

No offense, but... yuck.

The whole point of rolling stats is that it isn't point buy.

Your chart utterly fails to address what may be my primary concern about point buy- nobody ever has a poor stat. One of my favorite characters ever had a Charisma of 3, and several of my favorite pcs from other players had low stats (a kobold with a Strength of 1, a bard with a Wisdom of 1).

That said, for what you are looking for, this seems serviceable. It's just not for me; it is highly unsuited to my playstyle.

 

[bbjore]

If you're looking for a little randomness in what people get for abilities, I think this is a pretty good system while keeping everyone with fairly balanced abilities, especially since you're group seems to like the idea. But I wouldn't use the standard arrays, some of them are just absolutely terrible. Instead of having someone unhappy because their character is crippled by bad dice rolls, they'll still feel crippled by the fact that they have a terrible array. Some of the standard arrays are pretty much unplayable (see the ones with only 14 & 13s), and others are really boring (nothing less than 10 or one where almost all the stats are only 1 point apart).

Perhaps your group could set up your own arrays using point buys, ones that seem unique and interesting to you, but still have at least one 16 in it. Maybe even include some with a six balanced by something cool like an 18. That way everyone is ensured a playable and interesting array, but still has to deal with what the dice give them.

 

[UHF]

I'd go about that differently. I quite liked Gamma World. What I would do is give an 18 to the primary, a 16 to the secondary, and a 14 to the tertiary or anywhere if there isn't one... then I'd roll 3D6 for the rest.

I kind of like those odd Gumps that get rolled up. I like heroes... as well. This lets you have some suck with that awesomeness.

 

[LostSoul]

My system, which I've been using for a while, has you roll 3d6 in order. Then you can change one stat to 16; everything lower than 8 is raised to 8. I've seen some bad rolls (highest in the set was 10) and good rolls (last game, 16 16 14 13 11 10). One other thing about my game is that it's easier to raise/lower scores through play; one PC (a Fighter) had her STR dropped to 3, then "acquired" a set of old-school Gauntlets of Ogre Power (STR 18).

I think that if you get unlucky and roll low on this table you're going to be forced to pick a specific race/class combination... which I like. I could see playing an Elf Ranger with some of those lower stats. You can't come to the table with a build in mind, you have to work with what you've got.

 

[the Jester]

...everything lower than 8 is raised to 8.

Aargh!!!

 

[LostSoul]

Yeah. I went with that because... at the time I convinced myself there were no rules for lower than 8, but really, I was just timid.