D&D 5E Rolled character stats higher than point buy?

JonnyP71 · Mar 30, 2016

Being a relic from Basic D&D days (3d6, in order!), I much prefer rolling. In fact everyone in all 3 of my groups chooses to roll. Characters are created with other players present, and we are sensible about it - we've had rerolls universally agreed if a player rolls really badly, but we've also had players refuse to take racial stat bonuses when they've rolled really well.

Our characters are not perfectly balanced, but it doesn't matter. 'Mature' players don't get all pouty pouty just because the player next to them rolled better stats!

Satyrn · Mar 30, 2016

lowkey13 said:
Which is why I only allow rolled characters when everyone is rolling in the open.

That is probably the easiest way to avoid wondering if someone cheated. Plus it has the extra benefit of being a fun part of the game when everyone rolls their characters together at the table.

It's what my group has always done since before I joined them.

thecasualoblivion · Mar 30, 2016

Celebrim said:
Also not proof of anything. I knew a couple of players back in the day that became pretty good dice hustlers just to cheat on their rolls. Method shown here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJbUwnnlIFQ

From what I hear, you can also get good results from baking dice in the oven so they come up 6 more often and 1 less often. A friend of mine has a set of D6s I'm almost positive he baked. He rolls 18s all the time with his dice, and can't match those results when DMs make him roll their dice.

lowkey13 · Mar 30, 2016

*Deleted by user*

neobolts · Mar 30, 2016

Bayonet said:
Rolled stats = "I made up these stats and will pout if you call me on it."

That flies? "Point buy or roll, your choice. If you opt to roll, you roll in front of the DM."

Jester David · Mar 30, 2016

FrogReaver said:
Why is it that rolled character stats are normally always higher than a character created through point buy? I pretty much never see someone post a rolled character with stats worse than point buy. Does anyone know why?

I imagine Umbran has the answer:

Umbran said:
I would imagine that few people are enforcing that one play such a character. If you roll 3 stats of 8, your GM is probably going to let you reroll.

Rolling generates stats that are either equal to or better than point buy, because if you roll terrible, you give the DM the puppy eyes until they let you roll again.

Umbran · Mar 30, 2016

Celebrim said:
I've been playing 30+ years.

Appeal to authority - as if there aren't others playing here just as long who have other experiences? Really?

Rolling stats is just DM approved cheating.

Way to be insulting, dude.

Sacrosanct · Mar 30, 2016

thecasualoblivion said:
As a powergamer, it's more important to me to be on an even playing field with the other players. As such, I hate hate hate rolling stats. If somebody rolls significantly better than me from pure chance, that bothers me.

I always view D&D as a team game, and I don't care at all if someone has a higher stat or rolls better at something. It's not a competition between players. And in 35 years, not once has someone with a higher rolled stat impacted how I want to play my character.

For the OP, the easy answer to why you NEVER see lower stats is cheating (usually starting over with a new set of stats if you don't get what you want). Yeah, you can get higher wth 4d6l rolled, but it seems like everyone forgets that you also get lower. Here's a sample size I did from a thread a while back:

lowkey13 · Mar 30, 2016

*Deleted by user*

FormerlyHemlock · Mar 30, 2016

thecasualoblivion said:
As a powergamer, it's more important to me to be on an even playing field with the other players. As such, I hate hate hate rolling stats. If somebody rolls significantly better than me from pure chance, that bothers me.

I think we are completely different kinds of powergamers then. I couldn't care less how I compare to the other players--I only care that I am making the most of what I'm given. I've played briefly at a Shadowrun table that frowned on optimizing point allocation, and I would have been fine if they'd said, "Okay, you're better at optimizing, so you only get 80 points to make your build instead of the normal 150, so that we all come out at the same level of effectiveness in the end." To me that's fine because I still get to do what I enjoy--constraint-solving.

Instead these tables expected you to deliberately make inefficient choices based on the same resources as the other players. To my mind, that constituted interference with my fun. I found that distasteful enough that I ceased playing with them.

I played at another table where I offered to roll 3d6 instead of 4d6 drop lowest. The DM turned down but I would have done it, and had fun with it and been very effective.

It sounds like you probably would hate the "you get less resources" approach but for me it is fully consistent with powergaming.

D&D 5E Rolled character stats higher than point buy?

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