D&D General You Were Rolling Up a New Character, and Just Rolled a 3. What Is Your Reaction?

[CleverNickName]

Though, I do remember an instance where a player thought it would be funny if they couldn't speak Common at all. They learned that not being able to talk at all got really old, really quickly. Some schticks are only funny for a bit.

This was my experience with playing a Kenku for the first time. I've heard that it can be a really enjoyable ancestry to play, with lots of rich roleplaying potential...but it wasn't for me.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I voted 'Gift', but it's really halfway between 'Gift' and 'Comic Potential' because it doesn't particularly actually matter to me all that much.

Cause here's the thing... a '3' doesn't mean anything to me. What actually has meaning is '-4', which is the modifier for the stat. And honestly the '-4' modifier doesn't actually mean much to me either... because what actually has meaning is '-3 to 16', which is what my stat ACTUALLY is... the 20 points of swing my stat can have once you take the d20 roll into account.

And is '-3 to 16' that a big deal? Eh... to me not especially. Not when I still have a 10% chance of passing any DC 15 check on the ability score alone, and a 35% chance of passing a DC 10. And this doesn't even take into account the additional 10% added from the proficiency bonus on skills where I have proficiency. So yeah... I won't be great at a lot of standard checks... but I'll know enough to deal.

And heck... even if the '3' got assigned to one of the more-difficult-to-work-around stats like Dexterity or Constitution... it still wouldn't be that massive a heartache. If it's DEX then I'm just playing a Heavy Armor warrior character that knows I'll be going late in most combats from a poor Initiative... but I've never found Initiative to be that much of a hurdle anyway. And if it's CON... I'd not only go Heavy Armor / Shield for the higher AC to avoid as many hits as I could... but also go with any set of abilities that could grant Temp HP as often as possible to use as a buffer.

 

[Charlaquin]

My initial reaction? It’s a disaster. But, I would probably get over that pretty quickly, especially if the rest of the spread was good, and I’d come up with an interesting way to incorporate that low stat into roleplaying the character. If the rest of the stats are middling to bad though, I would probably request a reroll.

 

[Shiroiken]

Having a singularly low ability score is fine, so long as you have some high ones to make up for it. This was why 3E had a "minimum value" for characters (which I've rolled and played before). It's not a lot of fun to just be weaker than everyone else.

Back in 1E I played a magic user with a 3 Str and 3 Con, but had an 18 Int and Dex to make up for it. It was part of a bet I made with the DM, who felt that a character like Raistalin would be unplayable. Knowing my limitations, I choose my spells and equipment to mitigate potential disaster. I wasn't a particularly helpful party member, but I survived to about 5 sessions when the DM deliberately murdered my character to avoid losing the bet (I still claim I won).

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

One still-famous character from our early days was played as a mute, the backstory being that his throat was so badly mangled and scarred in some fight or other that his speech had been reduced to - at best - very low monotonic grunts.

I thought about playing a mute character from time to time, but have always shied away from it. I know myself and that I enjoy interacting with NPCs and the world, frequently playing a face type.

This was my experience with playing a Kenku for the first time. I've heard that it can be a really enjoyable ancestry to play, with lots of rich roleplaying potential...but it wasn't for me.

It's a cool concept to be sure. But you really need to commit to it over time, and that's not always easy.

 

[Marc17]

I chose "gift" as it is not quite "hilarious" but it will certainly make things interesting and come to matter greatly in how the character ends up acting, no matter if the modifiers end up affecting things much or not.

 

[CleverNickName]

(i did read the OP first but still voting for i don't use rolled)

lol yeah, I knew I would need an option for all the point-buyers who never roll stats, but still want to participate in the discussion.

And later I can poke fun at them when I write up the summary. "...and six people didn't read the original post." So, win-win.

 

[Youshang]

I can't relate to any of the choices. I'd just think about what impact this would have on my character and his personality. It is an opportunity to give the character more depth but I wouldn't call it a gift.

 

[CleverNickName]

(Added a new option to the poll to reflect some recent comments. Change your votes if you wanna.)

 

[Deset Gled]

I thought about playing a mute character from time to time, but have always shied away from it. I know myself and that I enjoy interacting with NPCs and the world, frequently playing a face type.

I think this gimmick might work better over VTT play. You could, theoretically, type in chat to simulate writing messages on a board. And PM other players for sign language or other non-verbal communication.