Alternate ability score generation system

[Trainz]

Do you guys remember the old 1st edition Unearthed Arcana alternate ability score generation system ?

Well, I redid it for 3.5 classes. Keep in mind that this system works best for single class characters, because if you intend to multiclass, you often want one of your high abilities to be in a different spot then the ones for your basic class:

Alternate ability score generation system:
.................Str.....Dex.....Con.....Int.....Wis.....Cha
Barbarian.....8d6....7d6.....6d6.....3d6....5d6.....4d6
Bard...........6d6....7d6.....4d6.....5d6....3d6.....8d6
Cleric..........5d6....4d6.....6d6.....3d6....8d6.....7d6
Druid...........6d6....7d6.....5d6.....3d6....8d6.....4d6
Fighter........8d6....6d6.....7d6.....5d6....4d6.....3d6
Monk..........6d6.....7d6.....5d6.....4d6....8d6.....3d6
Paladin........7d6....4d6.....5d6......3d6....6d6.....8d6
Ranger........7d6.....8d6.....5d6.....3d6....6d6.....4d6
Rogue.........6d6.....8d6.....3d6.....7d6....4d6.....5d6
Sorceror......4d6....7d6.....6d6......5d6....3d6.....8d6
Wizard........3d6....7d6......6d6.....8d6....5d6.....4d6

I was sad when I saw that they didn't include it in the UA. That's a UA Sacred Cow if there ever was one. And it's not an issue of power gaming, because there is stuff MUCH MORE powerful in the 3.5 UA (i.e. Gestalt Characters).

 

[CCamfield]

But the Gestalt Characters aren't even supposed to be balanced with regular classes. This is... well it sounds very powerful, and I also don't like it because it forces particular numbers of dice on each attribute for a character class. Sometimes people like to play atypical characters. What if I would like my ranger to be smarter?

You could just say "you get 8d6 on one stat, 7d6... down to 3d6 for the sixth; choose which and roll".

 

[Crothian]

I agree, would anything be wrong with just alloowing the character to decide which stats they want which dice pool for?

 

[ichabod]

In case anyone's interested, here are the means and quartiles for the above rolls:

9d6      8d6      7d6       6d6      5d6      4d6
15.77    15.39    14.90     14.27    13.43    12.24
17       17       17        16       15       14
16       16       15        15       14       12
15       14       14        13       12       10

 

[doghead]

I would second (third?) CC and C: TwwL. If you want to use this, let the players decide where to place the rolls. The game is already very rigid as is, without forcing the same basic stat profile on all the classes. With that number of dice you are going to get a lot of look-alikes in the key areas.

Why the desire to play such high stat characters?

 

[Trainz]

It's not supposed to be flexible. Don't you guys remember the table from 1st Ed Unearthed Arcana ? It's the same thing !

This is a generation system for someone who wants to play a typical single classed individual of any given class. If you want a PC with high stats in non-typical places, you must pick a different system (4d6, 5d6 or point-buy).

Ichabod: my die rolls go from 8d6 to 3d6. Your table goes from 9d6 to 4d6.

I am very interested about what your table represents, but I am statistically impaired, so please spell it out for me.

 

[LightPhoenix]

I am very interested about what your table represents, but I am statistically impaired, so please spell it out for me.

As am I... especially how the mean of 9d6 is 15.77 when the average roll on 9d6 is 31.5...

 

[Kalanyr]

9d6 drop the lowest 6 I assume is what he's calculating for. 8d6 drop lowest 5 etc.

The mean is the 'average' stat that will come up ie giving a whole heap of rolling of stats using those dice and averaging it out that is what the mathematical average would be.

The quartiles represent that 25% of scores on the 9d6 method will be 15 or below.
Another 25% is between 15 and 16. Another 25% is between 16 and 17. And the last 25% is between 17 and 18. <- I think this is right its been a while since I did this.

 

[Heretic Apostate]

I'm pretty sure that the high-end scores from 1E/2E days corresponds to medium-high scores from 3E/3.5E.

For example (pulling numbers out of a hat), a CON of 16 in the old days gave you a bonus of +1 hp per level (up to 9th or 10th level). Now, you can get +1 hp per level at a CON of 12 or 13.

 

[CCamfield]

It's not supposed to be flexible. Don't you guys remember the table from 1st Ed Unearthed Arcana ?

Well, actually, no, not really. It's 2004, not 1984 or whenever the original UA book comes out. I myself want to have some flexibility in character generation, not be shackled to the traditions of the past. YMMV.