D&D 5E Attribute Score Method

[loverdrive]

Point buy and/or Standard Array.

Not a fan of rolling, especially not a fan of rolling down the line (within the context of 5E, at least).
Outside of 5E, rolling and assigning is just kind of stupid half-measure and rolling down the line works better for "character randomization".

 

[loverdrive]

Also, I just thought: down the line rolling, like in older editions doesn't actually translate well into post 3E systems -- ability scores actually matter much and much more than they did back in the days.

 

[zarionofarabel]

Also, I just thought: down the line rolling, like in older editions doesn't actually translate well into post 3E systems -- ability scores actually matter much and much more than they did back in the days.

Really? I remember AD&D ability scores being extremely important. Many things a character could and couldn't do were tied directly to their scores. That changed in 3e as ability scores were divorced from directly affecting rolls and instead became proxy through skills and such.

 

[loverdrive]

Really? I remember AD&D ability scores being extremely important. Many things a character could and couldn't do were tied directly to their scores. That changed in 3e as ability scores were divorced from directly affecting rolls and instead became proxy through skills and such.

Hmmm maybe. I don't really want to pull out my AD&D books right now, but I remember for sure that in B/X ability scores barely mattered (is this a word? ok, this is a word now) and skills were just D6 rolls, sometimes influenced by ability modifiers (like Open was influenced by Strength and Stealth influenced by Dexterity).

 

[zarionofarabel]

Hmmm maybe. I don't really want to pull out my AD&D books right now, but I remember for sure that in B/X ability scores barely mattered (is this a word? ok, this is a word now) and skills were just D6 rolls, sometimes influenced by ability modifiers (like Open was influenced by Strength and Stealth influenced by Dexterity).

BECMI character sheets make it look like attributes have little effect on a characters ability to do things. The AD&D sheets are another story, attributes directly effect a whole slew of character abilities.

At least that's what the character sheets hint at from doing a quick Google search on them. I would have to read the rule books to be sure.

 

[Don Durito]

Gygax himself says in the AD&D books that a character without two 15s is not viable.

In 1e none of the overcomplicated suggestions for generating ability scores are 3d6 in order.

 

[tetrasodium]

Really? I remember AD&D ability scores being extremely important. Many things a character could and couldn't do were tied directly to their scores. That changed in 3e as ability scores were divorced from directly affecting rolls and instead became proxy through skills and such.

I too dont really want to dig through and books but my memory aligns with @loverdrive and I'll go one further by saying that they were easier to ring into the expected rNges with +n attribute skill weapon and armor along with a larger budget for them remaining reasonable while 5e is all =19(wtf?) And advantage
edit: regardless of what it was specifically in AD&D it was absolutely the case in 3.5

 

[ccs]

Hmmm maybe. I don't really want to pull out my AD&D books right now, but I remember for sure that in B/X ability scores barely mattered (is this a word? ok, this is a word now) and skills were just D6 rolls, sometimes influenced by ability modifiers (like Open was influenced by Strength and Stealth influenced by Dexterity).

Oh the scores absolutely mattered in AD&D.
There were minimums & maximums for races & stat requirements for classes.
And then you got into what each stat did.
Str? Mattered for melee hit/damage and bend bars/lift gates/open doors
Dex? AC, initiative, & ranged weapon to hit. Also added %s to thieving abilities
Con? +HP And it affected your odds for surviving System Shock & Resurrection success. Get your con high enough & you could actually start regenerating HP damage like a troll.
Int? # of Languages & if you were a Magic User (aka Wizard) how many & what lv of spells you could learn
Wis? Bonuses on some Saves & was important to Clerics/Druids spell casting as Int was to the Wizards
Cha? Reaction modifiers, how many henchmen & followers you could have & how loyal they were to you.

And once the non-weapon proficiencies (aka skills) were introduced, the higher your relevant stat the better.

There was more room between where the -/+ modifiers kicked in on the scale though in both AD&D and Basic.

 

[NaturalZero]

I've been in too many groups where i showed up with an average stat line and other people had "rolled" multiple 18s and 16s. Point buy, all the way.

 

[akr71]

I use a stat draft.

I have never heard of this before and I am intrigued. I poked around the link you posted (& followed others, which led back here) - how do you determine the scores to draft from? It didn't seem completely random which is what I was expecting.

I have contemplated, but never used 6+2d6. It bumps the low end to a palatable 8, while not messing with the average score too much.