D&D 5E Rolling for Stats

[SilverBulletKY]

I just started GM'ing and we have only played the first part of the starter set book. Everyone rolled for stats because that was the rule but now that I know more than I did, I would have used the point system. As it is now, my players have the equivalent of 37,30,45,43 from a point buy. Would you just let it ride or since the PHB is coming out, have everyone redo the stats with the point buy?

 

[Juriel]

Finish the current thing, do a fresh start once the PHB comes out.

Even if they continue with the same characters, you can say you're rebuilding them from scratch, now that you have all the options.

That guy with the 30 points, compared to the highest, ouch.

 

[Wolfskin]

I used to be a big fan of rolling for stats, and I think it still works for one-shot adventures, but I'm not running a campaign without players using the standard array or point buy.

I had far too many cases of Superman hanging out with a few Joe Averages and a Totally Useless Guy (whose player often got his character killed on purpose, asked to change it or dropped from the game, since it's not fun to play a chump)

 

[Paraxis]

I prefer point buy and array myself, one big issue I have is they made those options less optimal than rolling in 5e.

Average point cost of rolled stats is something like 31 points.
You can not purchase an ability score higher than 15.

With the above two facts, it is always better to roll for ability scores if the DM allows it. And some DM's let you do crazy things like reroll low scores, reroll 1's, roll multiple sets of ability scores and pick, roll away from the group so you can just cheat, all kinds of things.

When I run my second campaign, I plan on using some house rules this will be one of them. Characters start off with 30 points to purchase ability scores, and a 16 costs 12 points, a 17 costs 15 points, and an 18 costs 19 points. Or an array of 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10.

 

[NewJeffCT]

Just let it ride. IMHO, PCs should be a cut above the norm, so I don't see a big problem rewarding players for rolling well. Just remember, you might need to tweak the encounters at times to make them challenging.

FWIW, the time I rolled better than ever during character creation (I think 14 was my worst stat, and I had two 18s, before racial adjustments) , the PC ended up dying in the first encounter due to bad rolling on my part in the actual combat.

edited to add:
Also, FWIW, I think in the past, we would let somebody with really bad stats re-roll their PC until he or she was at a more comparable level to the other characters. There would still be differences, but nothing huge.

 

[delericho]

I prefer point buy and array myself, one big issue I have is they made those options less optimal than rolling in 5e.

Average point cost of rolled stats is something like 31 points.
You can not purchase an ability score higher than 15.

With the above two facts, it is always better to roll for ability scores if the DM allows it.

It does certainly look that way. What rolling doesn't allow, though, is careful optimisation of the scores - under point buy (at least in previous editions) it was common for a player to identify one or two dump stats and so save points there, or only assign even scores to maximise the bonuses. With rolling you don't have that control, so what on paper looks like a more powerful set of scores is quite likely to underperform.

When I run my second campaign, I plan on using some house rules this will be one of them. Characters start off with 30 points to purchase ability scores, and a 16 costs 12 points, a 17 costs 15 points, and an 18 costs 19 points. Or an array of 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10.

It does look like I'll be doing something similar. Though I think my array will be 16, 15, 13, 12, 10, 8, or spend 30 points. (The costs would be as you describe.)

That said, I do need to actually play the game a few times before settling on those values.

 

[doghead]

Average point cost of rolled stats is something like 31 points.
You can not purchase an ability score higher than 15.

With the above two facts, it is always better to roll for ability scores if the DM allows it.

No its not. If for no other reason than that outlined in by the OP.

Depending on the characters, the game and the players, I would consider one of the following:

1. Give the 30 point guy 7 points to spend on his characters stats. This will reduce the spread to 8 points, but doesn't take away from the other players good rolls.

2. Give the 30 point guy an extra level.

3. Play through to an appropriate stopping point then offer the players to rework their characters, create a new one etc based on what you have learnt so far.

thotd

 

[Tazawa]

What I like to do is have everybody roll stats but then let the players choose their stats from any of the rolls. That way you still get the random flavour of rolled stats but no one player has much worse or much better stats.

This does result in slightly higher average stats when using 4d6 drop 1, so I like to use the standard 3d6. For smaller groups of 2-3 people, 4d6-1 can work.

Happy gaming!

 

[CM]

I will probably be giving a set of 5 or 6 different arrays to choose from. Rolling is just too much potential for sturm und drang for me.

 

[Greg K]

It does certainly look that way. What rolling doesn't allow, though, is careful optimisation of the scores - under point buy (at least in previous editions) it was common for a player to identify one or two dump stats and so save points there, or only assign even scores to maximise the bonuses.

That is when you force the party to split up for any chance to succeed and hit the character in their dump stat(s).