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

[CleverNickName]

Another rolled two 7s and basically threatened to throw a tantrum and disrupt the game if a check or save was failed because of it. Granted, I'm glad the player was being honest about what could happen so we could then discuss the issue and come to the realization they weren't a good fit for our table.

That's a bummer....but yeah, it sounds like those ability scores weren't really the problem.

 

[CreamCloud0]

I remember reading a paper or something about games of chance, and how people square randomness with reward. The gist of it was that people don't necessarily want random results; they want good results that feel random. They are trying to capture the feeling that a higher power, the universe, the Fates, whatever, is smiling upon them personally.

That's why rolling up stats and getting an 18 feels so much better than point-buying an 18, or selecting an 18 from an array. It's still the same 18, but how you came to get that 18 matters. It can make a big difference for some folks.

sure, i'm just considering that there feels like a difference for considering poll results between accepting true random rolled stat generation for your character and wanting good 'randomly generated' rolls

 

[Swarmkeeper]

For some future campaign, I'd like to try the following:

• 5x 3d6+1d8, drop lowest and reserve that die
• Take those 5 lowest reserved dice and combine any 3 of them for one final stat

So there'd be some chance at starting out, before any ASI bonuses were added, with an 18, 19, or even a 20. And there'd be almost assuredly one pretty low stat.

I might feel compelled to offer up some kind of compensation for anyone getting (or choosing!) a 3 or a 4 with those 5 reserved dice. Maybe they'd start with an extra skill proficiency and/or a low level magic item.

 

[payn]

I figured we were talking about D&D.

I guess I include derivatives in “D&D general.” Though, the comment stands. If I’m playing TSR D&D then I’ll roll but WotC era I’m not rolling.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

The last D&D character I played was with point buy, the last Pathfinder character was whatever Pathfinder uses with its background, class and race attributes bonuses. And for Shadowrun 6 I spent the build points I was allowed to spend according to my chosen priorities.

 

[Parmandur]

Rolled. Never seen anybody use ot even express interest in using array or point buy in my 20 years of playing.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

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.

But, when I’m DMing I allow re-rolls because, like I said, I want my players to be happy with the characters they’re playing. Some players (let’s be honest, a lot of players), will not be happy with a character who has below average stats, and may not even be happy with a character who has average stats. And the last thing I want is a player to have a bad time because they chose to roll randomly but got immediate buyer’s remorse when they got middling results.

Then why this charade? Just let the players to assign whatever scores they want. That is what you're effectively doing, so no point in wasting time and pretending that it is random.

 

[Charlaquin]

Then why this charade? Just let the players to assign whatever scores they want. That is what you're effectively doing, so no point in wasting time and pretending that it is random.

Two answers: first, it’s not literally assigning whatever scores you want. You roll in sets of 6 and have to either keep or discard the whole set, which means a full set of 18s just ain’t gonna happen, and anything more specific than like, “an average of +2 or better” is very unlikely.

Second answer, I’m not hovering over the player’s shoulder to make sure they’re rolling what they say they’re rolling, and I’m not going to question whatever results they report. If you decide to give yourself a spread of two 18s, two 14s, a 16, and a 12 to be happy with the character, and that’s important enough to you to fudge your rolls for, who am I to force you to play a character you’re not going to like playing? So, yeah, in that sense my players can basically just pick whatever stats they want.

Why roll in that case? Some people will want to. It doesn’t have to be any more complicated than that.

 

[Lanefan]

Roll roll roll the dice
Gently down the board...

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Why roll in that case? Some people will want to. It doesn’t have to be any more complicated than that.

Yes, this is my understanding of most people who want to roll stats. They just want to roll, for no discernible reason, but they do not actually want randomness.

No random, only roll!