D&D 5E Why I like to roll stats in order

[the Jester]

So I'm playing a character in a 5e game right now, which is a pretty rare thing for me; 98% of my D&D time is spent DMing. I've always preferred rolling stats in order, so I did, and I ended up with a character who is a perfect example of why I enjoy it so much: because sometimes you end up having to come up with a weird concept to fit the stats.

In this case, I rolled a pretty poor array. I had two 8s (Str and Wis), two 10s (Dex and Cha); a 12 (Int); and my high stat- a 16- was in Constitution.

"Wow!" I thought. "This is going to be pretty hard to make into something, but it should be interesting!" The rules for stat generation for the campaign don't stop you from rearranging stats to taste, but like I said, my personal preference is to keep them in order. So I thought about options. The obvious one- suggested by other players- was some kind of tank.

But no.

I ended up making Friendo the Mediocre Mage, a rock gnome. He's a personal fitness trainer whose favorite spell is Personal Lubrication (aka Grease). Until he hit 3rd level, his only damage-causing spell was Ray of Frost. He is all about long distance running: he might not have the strength to be many types of athlete, but he's got the endurance, oh yes, he's got the endurance. Also, he has a custom cantrip that lets him change gender; the other pcs, and players, aren't sure what his true gender is even after several sessions.

Now, I recognize that he's not the most combat-effective pc, but he's useful enough to not be a burden to the party, and he's entertaining enough to bring teh funney to the games he's in. He has also prevented some pc-on-pc conflict, defusing it by offering a free month's personal training (a 25 gp value!) to the pcs in question. And he's a blast to play. So I call him a win- and that is why I like rolling for stats, and doing it in order. Yes, it means you can't really go into the process with a concept at the start; instead, you end up developing very interesting characters to match what the dice have said.

 

[pukunui]

I've been toying with the idea of a campaign where the PCs are all randomly generated - roll for stats, race, class, background, traits, etc.

 

[Istbor]

Playing in one of those now (though it is not rolled stats in order). There has been a surprising amount of warlocks rolled, both at start and through various PC deaths.

Currently, we have a human fighter, half orc rogue, and two warlocks. One halfling, and one human.

The party previously had a human paladin, genasi sorcerer, and elf warlock.

I don't recall all of the backgounds, but it has been a lot of fun so far. This is all in a Princes of the Apocalypse campaign.

The DM also offers playing what race and class that you want but then you use point buy.

 

[Miladoon]

By the time you get animate objects you should have at least 10 silver marathon medals.

 

[ad_hoc]

I agree. I think if you're going to use some method to generate random stats you should do each stat randomly instead of just making 6 random numbers and then assigning them.

I see it as defeating the purpose of random stats.

 

[GSHamster]

Personally, I like a variant where you put your highest roll in your primary stat, and then assign the rest in order. This means that you can still play the class you want at a decent level, (ie all Wizards are smart) but the variance in the other stats makes them more interesting.

It's a nice balance between effectiveness and serendipity.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Gamma World (7E) had an interesting take on rolling stats. The way that characters worked is that they had two effective race/class type things, and you combined them to make a character. Each thing had a primary stat which is all that it cared about (because it was based on D&D 4E).

If both of your types used the same primary stat, then you started with an 18 in that stat and rolled randomly (in order) for all of your other stats. If they used different stats, then the first one was a 16 and the second one was a 14, and you rolled randomly (in order) for the rest of your stats.

Or something like that. It's been a while since I've read those rules. It could be adapted easily to 5E by simply giving an 18 to the primary stat for fighter/wizard/cleric/rogue and 16/14 to the primary/secondary stats for monk/paladin/barbarian/ranger.

 

[Shiroiken]

I've found it also depends on the kind of campaign. Most campaigns have players using 1 PC for the duration of the campaign (unless they die), and rolled in order doesn't work well for those kind of campaigns (usually the party is missing a standard element - tank, skill monkey, healer, or mage). Old School campaigns where players have several PCs and choose which one to use each adventure work great with this, because you can roll up a couple of characters and odds are good every need will be met between all the players and PCs.

Of course, it also depends on the player too. I knew a guy who designed his character before he rolled ability scores (in 3E), and the rolled scores just didn't work well for the character (he was captain mediocre). The DM strongly suggested he play something else and save the idea for a future campaign (or more likely after captain mediocre died), but the player pushed on... and died in the 2nd session.

I annoy those players, because I don't decide what I'm playing until I see the rolls. Some rolls are better for some characters, and I want to build a fun character that will perform well. Rolled in order works well for me, because like the OP, I will find the character hidden with the ability scores

 

[Blue]

I'm of two minds. I had a great decade playing AD&D 2ed where the rule was you roled up 3 sets of stats in order and played one of them. I loved how organic it was. Had a bard with an 18 Con (back then non-fighter-subclasses stopped getting extra HPs at +2) - ended up being the guy who'd drink people under the table.

On the other hand, I love the faustian bargain of ASI *OR* feat, and find rolled stats give too much variation between characters that some need those ASI while others give up nothing to get feats because they rolled well.

So I really like in order, but 5e isn't the system I'd do that with.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Or something like that. It's been a while since I've read those rules.

Prettymuch right. They were called Origins, and you got 18 primary, 16 secondary or 20 if they aligned, and your other stats were random (3d6!) in order (you also never gained stat points for leveling - nor from anything else, IIRC). CON still mattered for hps. STR/CON or DEX/INT for attacks, DEX/INT (or armor) for AC, and WIS for perceptions/etc & CHA for social. WIS & CHA Origins had issues because they lacked an effective basic attack (they'd still get an at-will, mostly, though some notoriously got a lackluster encounter, instead).

The fun bit was your stats were still random, because you rolled Origins. Captured the crazy of the original game pretty nicely.