D&D 5E 4d6 Drop the Lowest Etiquette

[Zardnaar]

A couple of weeks ago I joined a D&D group via a online group forming to meet IRL. Great bunch of players and the 1st time ever with a female DM. ANyway we were allowed to roll stats with some rerolls. I kept my 1st roll because I felt rerolling this was a bit excessive.

16
16
15
14
10
11

I chose an avenging Paladin sword and board human with the resilient and inspiring leader feats so I had 17,17 and 16 as my best 3 stats. DM houserule of everyone gets a bonus feat at level 1.

The Goliath Barbarian of course rocked on up with 19 strength and 18 con.

The other day another PC was rolled up for my home game with a different group. I saw the dice being rolled.

18
18
17
13
12
11

I haven't seen a PC like that since the 90's. I knew it was for a support character/healer (Life Cleric 1/Lore Bard 7 half elf) so I didn't care to much about high ability scores and it was for a replacement PC that died on Sunday. Her planned feats are resilient (con) and healer.

So it seems with really good rolls both of us are more inclined to build support PCs and keep the min maxing in check a bit as such. BOth of us could have built more powerful PCs as such with better feats but I don't really see the point and are having fun with it and at level 4 I have a double 18 to look forward to.

So basically how do you handle rolling for stats and what do you do if you roll very well or poorly?

 

[pukunui]

You are to be applauded for your self-restraint, Zard.

 

[Zardnaar]

You are to be applauded for your self-restraint, Zard.

Hows that? My Paladin is LG as well.

 

[Azurewraith]

I straight up tell them at the start if your rolling stats your rolling stats i dont care how many 9s you have you were given alternate routes of char gen but you wanted dice and you got them!

 

[GameDoc]

I let my players roll one set of stats and if they don't like the results, they can default to the standard array.

 

[The Human Target]

I rolled so highly for my character in my first 5e game I voluntarily lowered them and was paladins was still an absolute monster.

I handle it in my home games by not having had my players roll for stats in more than a decade.

 

[MostlyDm]

My favorite method is for everyone to roll a single set, and then each of those sets is an optional array that anyone can pick.

If one person rolls a clear best, everyone takes it and nobody gets overshadowed, but you still have the fun and unique qualities of random rolls. But even better is if 2 or more sets are roughly equivalent, e.g. If one set has an 18 but overall worse rolls than another set, some may choose one or the other.

In general I find it combines the fun of rolling with the inter party balance of using an array. I'm not overly worried if their array is a bit worse or better than the standard in the book

 

[Celtavian]

I always watch stats. I don't like people showing up with a set of stats. If you roll good in front of me, cool. Showing up with good stats that are unbelievable is asking for table trouble.

 

[Thymm]

I use the std point buy system.
Should my players absolutely want to roll their stats, they do it in front of me (not necesarrily in front of the whole group!).

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

Here's my take on ability scores:

The players can generate their ability scores however they want to, including picking them arbitrarily, so long as the scores fall within what is assumed to be possible by the game (so no going above 20 without the things which normally allow for that).