Scotley's and Leif's Constables of the 14th Ward [3.5E D&D] [OOC 02]

[Maidhc O Casain]

That is cool. I'd say no reshuffling. You're guaranteed a 15 in your primary and a 13 in your secondary stats (with decent odds of a 16 in each). Even if your other rolls turn out higher, you've still got solid abilities in those two. Stronger abilities in other areas just makes for a stronger character.

And you can always take a different class at second level ("I always thought I wanted to be a Monk, but it seems the monastic life just isn't for me. Luckily, it turns out I've got a good head for learning magic!")

 

[Leif]

That is cool. I'd say no reshuffling. You're guaranteed a 15 in your primary and a 13 in your secondary stats (with decent odds of a 16 in each). Even if your other rolls turn out higher, you've still got solid abilities in those two. Stronger abilities in other areas just makes for a stronger character.

And you can always take a different class at second level ("I always thought I wanted to be a Monk, but it seems the monastic life just isn't for me. Luckily, it turns out I've got a good head for learning magic!")

Excellent points, all.

 

[Leif]

That is cool. I'd say no reshuffling. You're guaranteed a 15 in your primary and a 13 in your secondary stats (with decent odds of a 16 in each). Even if your other rolls turn out higher, you've still got solid abilities in those two. Stronger abilities in other areas just makes for a stronger character.

And you can always take a different class at second level ("I always thought I wanted to be a Monk, but it seems the monastic life just isn't for me. Luckily, it turns out I've got a good head for magic...

You also raise a good point about classes that have multiple ability score requirements, like monk and paladin? Might not be such an issue in Pfdr or 4E, but it sure would bite for us retro dudes playing 1e AD&D.

 

[Rhun]

You raise a good point -- what about classes that have multiple ability score requirements, like monk and paladin? Might not be such an issue in Pfdr or 4E, but it sure would bite for us retro dudes playing 1e AD&D.

In AD&D, Paladins and such were meant to be very rare, and only played by PCs who had extraordinary luck with their dice rolls. This changed with the introduction of Unearthed Arcanca and its whole roll 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4 dice ability generation method.

 

[Scotley]

You raise a good point -- what about classes that have multiple ability score requirements, like monk and paladin? Might not be such an issue in Pfdr or 4E, but it sure would bite for us retro dudes playing 1e AD&D.

That's why the later editions have worked to get rid of MAD (multiple ability dependance). But under this system your odds of getting decent stats in the required abilities are only slightly worse (because you roll in order) than they would be otherwise. In fact they may still work out better on average than the system you would have used under 1e in the rules as written.

You could modify the system for those who need three good scores to be 14+d4, 12+d6, 12+d6, then roll 3d6 for all the rest. That still sound fair?

 

[Rhun]

1. The player chooses a class, and then chooses 1 primary ability and 1 secondary ability.
2. For the primary ability, she rolls 14 + 1d4.
3. For the secondary ability, she rolls 12 + 1d6.
4. For the other four abilities, she rolls 4d6, drop the lowest, in order. That is, Str, Dex, Con, Int, Wis, Chr, skipping over her primary and secondary ability.

Rounding down the averages, this is the equivalent of 34-point buy, which is pretty high point buy for even a 3E game. It should be plenty to handle any MAD that comes with the selection of certain classes.

You could modify the system for those who need three good scores to be 14+d4, 12+d6, 12+d6, then roll 3d6 for all the rest. That still sound fair?

Again using averages and rounding down, this is actually a lower point-buy equivalent at 32. So I would say this is fair...since in exchange for an attempt at reducing any MAD, your overall ability scores would be slightly lower.

 

[Scotley]

Yeah I was thinking there should be a hit for getting increased flexibility. I initially wrote two at 3d6 and one at 4d6, but changed it thinking that was a little too generous and flexible as well as beginning to make the very simple system too complex.

 

[Leif]

So how do you guys want to handle bringing Andrew up to speed? It would probably be better to do it IC, specifying exactly what you tell him. That way, Scotley and I can see what the party remembers and what clues we need to re-emphasize. How 'bout it Scotley? Doing that will slow us down on IC action for at least a day or two, I expect....

 

[Lou]

There goes my idea of bringing JA up to speed over margaritas tomorrow night....

 

[J. Alexander]

Speaking of which lol where is dinner...and we cant bore the wife anymore than usual