D&D General How Did You Generate Your Most Recent Character's Stats?

[CleverNickName]

My other, light-hearted thread has brought something to my attention. While the Player's Handbook has a few methods for generating characters, some of y'all have very strong opinions about which one to use. So I thought I'd do a follow-up poll to measure the popularity of each method on EN World. (This poll has been done a couple of times before; I'm curious how it changes over time.)

Think back to the last D&D character you played. How did you generate that character's stats? Choose the best-fitting option, and then add any qualifiers, exceptions, and other nuance below.

 

[Marc17]

I have a heroic 4d6 system. Roll 4d6, drop lowest, then re-roll all ones until you have no more ones. This makes for a lowest level of 6. Then arrange how you want.

 

[payn]

Was confused the thread is D&D general and I play PF1 mostly with point buy. Though, if im going 5.14 or 5.24 id use array. Rolling is the last option to the point of not being an option.

 

[prabe]

I did something not included in your list--it's the system I've been using in the 5e/ToV games I've been running for years.

Pick your stats, in the range of 6-18. They must be half-even, half-odd, and you can't have three the same. The total bonuses must not be higher than x. Do not apply any bonuses for heritage/species/background/lineage/whatever. (My x is pretty generous, because that leads to the sort of game I enjoy; you could set it to whatever, to get the sorts of characters you want.)

 

[Shiroiken]

I haven't played in a while, but the last one I played was rolled. As a DM, in my current campaign I rolled up an array of options for the players to pick from. I made sure all the array options were pretty balanced against each other, and I may keep the same arrays for my next campaign.

 

[CleverNickName]

The last time I created a character, everyone rolled our stats using the 4d6 method as-written in the PHB.

When I'm in the DM chair, I let the player choose whichever method in the PHB that they want to use. Rolling is the clear favorite, but every now and then someone will pick the standard array. I've only ever seen someone use the Point Buy method once, and they used it to generate the standard array--I'm still scratching my head over that one.

And in 40+ years of playing D&D, across multiple editions, I've never once seen a player choose a pregen.

 

[AlViking]

I've used some variation of point buy since before there was an official point buy. I come up with the character concept first and then apply stats. I don't see why it should be any different than picking species, class or any of the other decisions we make.

 

[Charlaquin]

To answer the question in the title: I use whatever method the DM for that game says to use.

To answer the question in the opening post: The last character I played was made with point buy.

My preferred method when I’m DMing is 4d6, drop lowest, arrange to your liking. If you don’t like the full spread, discard them and roll a new set of 6. I like the random element, but I want the players to be happy with the character they’re playing. If that means throwing out 50 sets until they finally roll one with multiple 18s and nothing below a 10? So be it. That said, I allow the players to use any of the options presented in the PHB if they would prefer.

 

[prabe]

I don't see why it should be any different than picking species, class or any of the other decisions we make.

Neither do I, which is why I have constraints on the stat choice/s, so there are trade-offs, same as the other choices you mention.

 

[CleverNickName]

To answer the question in the title: I use whatever method the DM for that game says to use.

To answer the question in the opening post: The last character I played was made with point buy.

Ah, good catch. I've updated the thread title to be more consistent.