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<blockquote data-quote="Intense_Interest" data-source="post: 4209821" data-attributes="member: 65904">3d6 and other random or semi-random systems are only suited when your players have an overall equality of ability: not only in the overall bonus, but in having at least one character with a good enough &quot;power stat&quot; to be a full time Cleric/Wizard/etc.When I played my (AD&amp;D) campaign with the 3d6 method, I found that characters gravitated towards the high-end of stats and &quot;preferred&quot; stats simply because bad characters tended to get re-rolled rather than raised.&nbsp; I usually was running a semi-lethal campaign with a less-than-nominal cost to be raised (the PCs usually got in buddy-buddy thick-as-thieves with the local churches/Clerics), so &quot;heroic&quot; PCs with fairly nice stats and balanced parties were common after a fairly rough start-up period.&nbsp; Many <s>Bothans</s> character-sheets died to bring us this information.During 3rd Edition my group decided to run with the 4d6 single-swap method, which resulted in a softer run-up within the campaign, but I saw that when characters had bad-overall rolls, they got very outclassed by the always prevalent 18+ Int Wizard and did not see much changing of classes over the campaign- Player 1 plays the Fighter, Player 2 plays the Wizard, etc.I started experimenting late in 3.5 edition with the &quot;4d6 draft&quot; mechanic upon start up for characters, in which each player rolled 6 4d6s in order + 1 &quot;wild card&quot; and then the players snake-drafted for their stats.&nbsp; This only worked after a TPK or new campaign, of course, but I saw a lot more &quot;odd stat&quot; characters.&nbsp; (I found out about this from lurking on EnWorld)Personally, I hate most printed point buy systems because they are woefully overpowered.&nbsp; Even assuming a normal 4d6 as your &quot;power&quot; and a base stat of 8, you should be paying 77 &quot;points&quot; to raise a stat to 18 when compared to get a stat to 9, and somewhere between 98 and 115 points to swing around.&nbsp; Anything better and you might as well start having your Ogres be Goblins wearing masks in combat.[code]Ability&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Point Cost (Assumed Statistical Outcome)Score6&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; -18&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 09&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 110&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 311&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 712&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 1313&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 2114&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 3015&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 4216&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 5317&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 6518&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 77[/code]</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Intense_Interest, post: 4209821, member: 65904"] 3d6 and other random or semi-random systems are only suited when your players have an overall equality of ability: not only in the overall bonus, but in having at least one character with a good enough "power stat" to be a full time Cleric/Wizard/etc. When I played my (AD&D) campaign with the 3d6 method, I found that characters gravitated towards the high-end of stats and "preferred" stats simply because bad characters tended to get re-rolled rather than raised. I usually was running a semi-lethal campaign with a less-than-nominal cost to be raised (the PCs usually got in buddy-buddy thick-as-thieves with the local churches/Clerics), so "heroic" PCs with fairly nice stats and balanced parties were common after a fairly rough start-up period. Many [S]Bothans[/S] character-sheets died to bring us this information. During 3rd Edition my group decided to run with the 4d6 single-swap method, which resulted in a softer run-up within the campaign, but I saw that when characters had bad-overall rolls, they got very outclassed by the always prevalent 18+ Int Wizard and did not see much changing of classes over the campaign- Player 1 plays the Fighter, Player 2 plays the Wizard, etc. I started experimenting late in 3.5 edition with the "4d6 draft" mechanic upon start up for characters, in which each player rolled 6 4d6s in order + 1 "wild card" and then the players snake-drafted for their stats. This only worked after a TPK or new campaign, of course, but I saw a lot more "odd stat" characters. (I found out about this from lurking on EnWorld) Personally, I hate most printed point buy systems because they are woefully overpowered. Even assuming a normal 4d6 as your "power" and a base stat of 8, you should be paying 77 "points" to raise a stat to 18 when compared to get a stat to 9, and somewhere between 98 and 115 points to swing around. Anything better and you might as well start having your Ogres be Goblins wearing masks in combat. [code] Ability Point Cost (Assumed Statistical Outcome) Score 6 -1 8 0 9 1 10 3 11 7 12 13 13 21 14 30 15 42 16 53 17 65 18 77 [/code] [/QUOTE]

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