ability roll cheating

[clark411]

So my question to you all is: would you accept such a character when all your other players have a more reasonable set of stats?

No, I wouldn't.

If his dice are that magical, he can bring them and roll in front of you.

 

[Arbiter of Wyrms]

4d6, drop lowest

I use this method, too, but only because I want the PCs to seem insanely powerful. I want players to be thrilled with the stats they roll. Then I make all the monsters and NPCs more powerful, too.

If the players want to cheat, cheat along with them so that you can gear the challenges to the PCs abilities.

 

[S'mon]

This is silly. Use point buy or roll-in-front-of-GM. Otherwise you end up with some players having these silly stat arrays.

 

[Tuzenbach]

I stopped "rolling" my stats years ago. These days, I begin with the character concept as a piece of mental energy and assign numbers from there. Armed with the knowledge that a character with 6 "18s" would be dreadfully boring and 6 "3s" dreadfully useless, I simply think of appropriate numbers in between which would bring the character concept to life. I usually end up with 2 really good scores (17 or 18), 1 fairly good score (15-16), 2 average scores (9-14), and 1 below average score (6-8), as all characters have to be weak somewhere......don't they?

BTW, this concept actually backfired recently as I was tired of the stereotypical "tank" fighter with 18 strength. Instead, I assigned my tank the strength of 17 and (as this was 2E) had a significantly inefficient tank compared to those of the other players!

 

[Bront]

This is silly. Use point buy or roll-in-front-of-GM. Otherwise you end up with some players having these silly stat arrays.

You'll occasionaly end up with them anyway (I've had a perfectly legal 17,17,17,17,14,13, but it was for someone elses character ) but you at least can feel better about it, and the other players, while jealous, won't be resentfull and accusing you of cheating.

 

[EvilGM]

Way back in my early days of DMing I had this happen.
I've never understood why people feel the need to cheat in roleplaying games. It makes no sense. It's not like you can "win" the game.

Once I found out they were cheating I killed the character off and made them roll a new one in front of me. That stopped the cheating.

If you feel compelled to cheat in D&D, you have a problem.

 

[delericho]

If my DM decided to change my character's stats after having allowed them for two sessions, I'd fight him on it too. Frankly, I think you're stuck with that character.

Now, to fix the problem next time, there are a few suggestions:

1) Point-buy. This guarantees balanced stats.

2) Roll in front of the DM. To guarantee legit stats, you should get a cup or other container, and require all players to roll the dice (thoroughly) using the cup. Dice that don't lie flat are re-rolled. Oh, and all four dice need to be rolled together - when a die needs to be rerolled, any dice that have landed flat count as they are, even if the rerolled dice knocks them over. Also, using the rolling method, I recommend you allow rerolls only as allowed in the PHB - nothing over 13, or total adjustment of +0 or lower.

You could even offer your players a choice of the two options, but don't allow random rolls you can't see occurring, because it really sucks having to call someone on cheating, and especially if you have no actual proof.

I recommend that you actually use the first session of your campaign for character generation, to give you plenty of time to check character sheets, guide the process, and so on. If this is not a possibility, you should instruct your players to submit their characters before the game, preferably with a deadline of 48 hours before (or more, if you're very busy). Offer a 1,000 XP bonus to players who provide their characters on time, to be awarded at the end of the first session - that'll motivate them.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I don't use point buy because I'm afraid my players will cheat. However, using point buy does solve the problem anyway. It's also more fair in a group with more than one player (eg the vast majority of play groups).

 

[S'mon]

You'll occasionaly end up with them anyway (I've had a perfectly legal 17,17,17,17,14,13, but it was for someone elses character ) but you at least can feel better about it, and the other players, while jealous, won't be resentfull and accusing you of cheating.

That's true. These days for non-disposable PCs in a long-term game I tend to think a point buy approach is best, with PC PB slightly better than elite NPCs - eg 28 PB PCs to 24 PB NPCs, and fixed hit points by level. An array (like 18 16 14 12 10 8) also works well.

 

[Aus_Snow]

STR 17
DEX 18
CON 17
INT 17
WIS 16
CHA 16

I think this player is testing me. Has this happened to you and how did you deal with it? I stupidly let him play this character without giving his sheet a full once-over and I can already tell he is going to fight me on this if I try to modify his stats.

You are the GM. Sure, he can sulk childishly all he llikes - so what? Get him to roll them again in front of you, and change all the relevant things on the character sheet accordingly. Then it's over with. Done.

As to whether it's ever happened to me? No. I'm actually pretty kind and open-minded as a GM, but if anyone tried to pull this kind of stunt, there'd be Trouble.

Is it best to just let this slide as long as the other players are having fun?

NO. They can still have fun after the stats are legit. No problem.


(All IMO, etc.)