D&D 5E About Rolling for Ability Scores

[CapnZapp]

Totally disagree. I use feats and use ONLY random rolls for stat generation in my campaign, and it's been a blast so far, with pcs of (a little, not really) widely differing stat levels all being fun to DM and for the players.

There's no reason to disagree.

I base my recommendation on the assumption you, the reader, values and likes character balance within the party.

Since you don't play under this assumption... well, you're simply not the reader I'm addressing

 

[CapnZapp]

We've had this discussion in every edition, yes.

But.

This is the first edition where I see value in pointing out the mechanical advantage of not simply combining random roll with feats.

Random rolls without feats, yes. And random rolls capped at 15 (somehow) with feats, sure.

All other aspects of this venerable discussion topic have stayed the same over the decades, so I prefer to say nothing else.

 

[Lord Vangarel]

In our current 5E game most characters have +7/+8 total modifiers however one character has a +18 modifier. This is a huge difference from random rolling! Strangely though by mid/high levels the differences have evened out in their primary abilities and the 3 fighter type characters (of which the +18 is one) all have exactly +10 to hit and +6 to damage!

 

[Wik]

In our current 5E game most characters have +7/+8 total modifiers however one character has a +18 modifier. This is a huge difference from random rolling! Strangely though by mid/high levels the differences have evened out in their primary abilities and the 3 fighter type characters (of which the +18 is one) all have exactly +10 to hit and +6 to damage!

+18!? You realize that, if a character had an 18 in all six ability scores, he'd have a +24? So, we're assuming the guy has an AVERAGE of 16 in every stat?

Wait. You're the guy who has the players that cheat, right?

 

[neobolts]

The preferred method for generating ability scores has been a topic of discussion in my group lately. Since we started playing 5e, I've mostly opted to use point-buy and allowed players to opt out and roll for their ability scores. In my next campaign, beginning this week, I've finally made the decision to outright ban random generation. I have some players upset with that, but I'm not moving back, and the group mostly supports my decision.

I think your original way of doing things was best. If some of your players appreciate the choice, why not let them roll? If you are worried about cheaters, enforce that they roll in your presence.

In my campaign the default is standard array/point buy variant in the PHB. If a player wants to roll their stats, they must do the default roll method in the PHB, in my (the DM's) presence, and accept the results no matter what happens. To date, no player has ever opted to roll.

A cautionary tale: I do know a player that played in a 2e game where it was 3d6 down the page. Their highest score was an 8. They played a timid farmer.

 

[Lord Vangarel]

+18!? You realize that, if a character had an 18 in all six ability scores, he'd have a +24? So, we're assuming the guy has an AVERAGE of 16 in every stat?

Wait. You're the guy who has the players that cheat, right?

+18 is absolutely mad and yes I'm the guy but it's only one player and his rolls make other players feel like they can't compete.

Anyway in my next campaign I'm pushing for point buy or stat array for ability scores. If the players really don't want that then everyone rolls and I'll let them choose the stats they want from all the sets of rolls.

 

[Giltonio_Santos]

I think your original way of doing things was best. If some of your players appreciate the choice, why not let them roll? If you are worried about cheaters, enforce that they roll in your presence.

I'm not worried about cheaters, I'm worried about someone ending up clearly better or worse than everybody else. Letting a player choose to roll, on the condition that he/she plays the character no matter how bad the roll turns out to be, doesn't solve the problem. Actually, I believe it gets worse, for reasons I've already stated in my blog post.

 

[Charles Rampant]

I allowed my players to choose from the default option in the PHB. Frankly, it is their call as to how they start their journey of fun, and the balance issues are going to be marginal in the long run anyway. The real source of power in D&D is the ability to roll 20s on command, not having high stats. Anyway, I had one player get really upset when he rolled a (distinctly average, but not actually bad) set of numbers; I had to tell him to accept it, since the whole point of rolling the dice is a gamble.

So I'd say to make sure that your players understand the nature of the dice roll option. And I wouldn't bother with any of the solutions offered in this thread: they all seem to be wildly overcomplicated solutions to a problem that barely exists in the first place. Let people choose whichever system they like. The moment that someone picks up a Girdle or other stat-boosting item the whole ranking of stat excellence will fall apart anyway, so why worry?

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

\
3) Similarly, you need to revisit you definition of 'sidekick'. Even with a low roll, the Wizard can put it into Str, or Cha...or even Wisdom. No need to put it into Dex or Con. Even a mediocre Dex isn't going to be a problem, 12 Dex gives a 14 AC, which is pretty darn comparable to many of the builds out there, and better than some.
There are *plenty* of ways to be a useful party member with "only" a 14 as a main stat. Nothing as minor as a +1 or +2 is going to make that much of a difference in a character.

If we accept the common pro-rolling argument that it benefits chargen by helping PCs to be "special", then we have to also accept that the dice will force some players to play "not special" PCs some of the time. Of course, any competent player can make someone "useful" from almost any stats. A good word for describing a "useful" character that is not "special" would be "sidekick".

Usefulness is not a counterargument to the sidekick question. Robin and Tonto and Sancho Panzo and Snails were all definitely useful. In fact, our beloved heroes would all have had drastically shorter careers if not for their efforts. But they are still sidekicks.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

4d6 by cards, no replacement

A dice technique that seems to hit a sweet spot between dice and point buy is "4d6 by cards, no replacement".

(1) Out of a deck of playing cards, pull out the 24 cars Ace(1) thru 6
(2) Shuffle and deal into 6 piles
(3) In order, reveal the piles, choosing 3 (you can choose low if you want )
(4) You may swap two numbers
(5) If you really do not like what you got, you may use standard array