D&D 5E Why no 16-18s allowed in Point Buy?

[billd91]

Right, so people will reroll until they get the character they like with an 18 or two and no body would ever use point buy thus defeating the idea that no one starts with high scores.

Is this different from other editions? What stopped the players from rolling and re rolling until they got their most obnoxious results? The DM, same as now.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

Okay, stupid question: Where is the point buy table, anyway? I've searched the Basic pdf, and I can't find it.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

Is this different from other editions? What stopped the players from rolling and re rolling until they got their most obnoxious results? The DM, same as now.

And, as has been true since the dawn of our hobby, there's a relatively simple way to get around 'You must keep your stat rolls!'

 

[Abstruse]

Okay, stupid question: Where is the point buy table, anyway? I've searched the Basic pdf, and I can't find it.

p. 9, first column, at the bottom. It's the badly placed table I talked about in my review, since it's a page and a half away from the rules for it.

 

[mach1.9pants]

Can a math person tell me what chance you have of rolling a 16-17-18 at least once in your 4d6 drop lowest?

I like the idea, makes high stats a goal rather than the base. 4E especially was bad for this, predicated on an 18 and a 14 or two 16s.

I'll stick with my 4d6 in order, swap two and re-roll one if wished.

 

[CM]

Most of my players have been playing D&D for 20 years or more. They like to reminisce about that old-school bastard DM they used to have back in the day who made people roll 3d6 and take them in order. I don't think any of the 15 or so gamers I know would want to go back to any method of stat rolling for any long-term game, as our games tend to run for 3-5 years and permanent character death is rare.

I'm glad for the lower starting stats and 20 caps. It makes feat vs. stat a bit more of a significant choice. This is a change I'd consider making to 4e if it didn't screw up a lot of the higher-level game math.

 

[GSHamster]

I think it's a good attempt at risk-reward. You can maintain absolute control with point-buy, but you can't get the very best stats. Or you can try for the best stats, but you have less control over the outcome.

Of course, people can reroll or whatever, but when you come down to it, there's nothing stopping a player from putting all 18s in all her stats in any edition. It's always been against the rules, but rerolling is also against the rules. Either people follow the rules or they don't. It doesn't seem worth it to me to worry about people who break the rules.

To me, 5E seems very "optimize for the common case" and leave edge cases alone or up to the DM's judgment.

 

[Abstruse]

Can a math person tell me what chance you have of rolling a 16-17-18 at least once in your 4d6 drop lowest?

A little higher than 9% of getting an 18, a .38% chance of getting two 18s. Don't know the rest, but someone did a detailed analysis here.

 

[mach1.9pants]

Thanks, looks like you have a 27% chance of having on 16 or higher. ‘You've got to ask yourself one question. Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?’

 

[Abstruse]

Thanks, looks like you have a 27% chance of having on 16 or higher. ‘You've got to ask yourself one question. Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?’

56.76% actually based on the table at the bottom:

Highest at least	One	Two	Three
18	9.34%	0.38%	0.01%
17	30.07%	4.03%	0.34%
16	56.76%	17.85%	3.26%
15	79.40%	42.16%	14.13%
14	92.80%	69.01%	36.29%