D&D General How Do You "Roll Up" Ability Scores?

[cbwjm]

I've found in the games I've played in that difference in ability scores doesn't stop everyone's enjoyment of the game and even you have these god-tier stats, it doesn't mean you'll be the one to survive. Had one player in a game, with far and away the best stats, end up getting annihilated while the rest of us survived.

 

[Retros_x]

Point buy always. I used my houseruled point buy for my current campaign, but the important part is that no randomness is involved. And same with the HP, those are just the average too.

I really find it bizarre that people are fine with randomising the character power. Makes all those balance threads seem a bit silly, as it seems the first thing most players do is to intentionally throw the balance out of the window when they start creating a character...

Crazy idea, but the people arguing about class balances might be not a 100% intersection with the people who like to roll stats.

In general me and many others enjoy randomising the character power because its fun to have not every character be the exact same statwise. I do the rolling even in order, before I am choosing the class. Sometimes you get lucky and get an OP character, sometimes you have some big weaknesses that you need to play around. I am just currently playing a character with -3 STR mod, and it is just fun and gives a lot of roleplaying opportunites and you surprise yourself.

I understand that not everyone likes that and other prefer to have everything normalized, but personally find it bizarre that you find it bizarre that people enjoy randomness.

 

[R_J_K75]

As a DM I let the players roll (2) sets of 4d6 drop the lowest arrange as they like, select which ever set they like. Or if they want they can roll a third set but must keep it.

As a player I just cheat, show up with a pre-made PC, 18, 18, 18, 17, 16, 10 (for good measure)

 

[jmartkdr2]

Past couple of characters have both been the standard 4d6 and place method. It tends to be a little stronger than point buy, which I like these days because it makes more options feel viable.

Logically, point buy is the fairest method, but I haven't seen rolling cause any of the potential problems.

If I dm again I'm probably going to go with "just pick what fits" because I think most players worth playing with wouldn't abuse it - that wouldn't be as much fun.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

There’s really no reward for unlucky rolls. You might get a Mulligan, but it’s just a reroll under the same parameters as the player who had average rolls. That isn’t really a reward. And if their net bonuses are greater than +3 after the reroll because they got really lucky, so what? The game tolerates variation in PCs.

Not exactly. The person who rolled low with their first set, gets to reroll. Sure, they could wind up rolling average the second time, maybe. But effectively, they wind up playing a character with the BEST OF TWO SETS. Telling me that is not an advantage is like telling me that Advantage (the 5e mechanic) has no benefit, because you could roll just as poorly on the 2nd d20.

 

[billd91]

Not exactly. The person who rolled low with their first set, gets to reroll. Sure, they could wind up rolling average the second time, maybe. But effectively, they wind up playing a character with the BEST OF TWO SETS. Telling me that is not an advantage is like telling me that Advantage (the 5e mechanic) has no benefit, because you could roll just as poorly on the 2nd d20.

They don't compared that easily, actually. Getting a stat reroll, in this instance, involves a set of results, each of which already trends toward the mean. And that's much more complicated (and likely to also push toward a mean result) than a second flat distribution roll.

 

[ichabod]

Not exactly. The person who rolled low with their first set, gets to reroll. Sure, they could wind up rolling average the second time, maybe. But effectively, they wind up playing a character with the BEST OF TWO SETS. Telling me that is not an advantage is like telling me that Advantage (the 5e mechanic) has no benefit, because you could roll just as poorly on the 2nd d20.

Re-rolling after a bad roll isn't the same as advantage, which is making two rolls and choosing the better one.

Consider rolling 1d6, but you get to re-roll 1s. If you don't get a 1, you will average 3 with an even chance of 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6. If you do get a 1, you will average 3 with an even chance of 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6. Exactly the same.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Re-rolling after a bad roll isn't the same as advantage, which is making two rolls and choosing the better one.

Consider rolling 1d6, but you get to re-roll 1s. If you don't get a 1, you will average 3 with an even chance of 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6. If you do get a 1, you will average 3 with an even chance of 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6. Exactly the same.

Right, but if you get a garbage character AGAIN, you get to reroll AGAIN. I'm not saying that the math is exactly the same as Advantage, I'm saying that if one player gets to roll multiple times for their character, and another does not... it's not equal.

Look, I'm not trying to say that it is a super big deal or that anyone who plays that way is doing anything wrong. I played that way for decades. I just noticed the inequality (on multiple occasions, but one stood out as particularly uneven). So I don't do it that way anymore. Based on all the various ways people have shown that they roll (or don't roll) here, I can see that I am not alone.

 

[not-so-newguy]

I use the Purple Sorcerer Tools for generating 1st level DCC characters. I use randomly generated characters except that I select the option to "Re-roll low rolls for the two most important stats for each class."

 

[ichabod]

Right, but if you get a garbage character AGAIN, you get to reroll AGAIN. I'm not saying that the math is exactly the same as Advantage, I'm saying that if one player gets to roll multiple times for their character, and another does not... it's not equal.

No. If they both have the same chance to re-roll when they get a bad roll, it is equal. The odds and averages are exactly equal.