'Balancing' rolled characters

[Malin Genie]

While I have tended to like point-buy in the past, for the inherent balance of the method, I wanted to try rolling, to get the unpredictability, occasional odd score, and inspiration for a character very different from what you might have created given 'free choice' that it gives.

Of course, rolling a 23-point character when the next player rolls a 41-point character (what happened with two of the players last night) can be frustrating.

I wondered about 'balancing' the points by XP penalties/bonuses - e.g. a player with average ability scores (as measured by averaging the point totals of each of the characters) gets normal starting and earned XP, with each point above or below the average giving a 2%-3% penalty or bonus to XP.

Do you think that would work as a balancing tool (very high stat characters woiuld tend to lag a level or even two; very low stat characters might be a level ahead..) or not? Any other suggestions for how balance might be obtained?

 

[hong]

One fix that comes to mind is to let the low rollers gain an ability score increase each level, until they're on par with the high rollers. It would be like the increases everyone gets at 4th, 8th, etc.

Of course, if you can't hack the bad rolls, then you should have just stuck with point buy, you piss-poor excuse for a gambler.

 

[Celtavian]

re

I think you should allow the person rolling the low character should reroll or you should give him additional points to bring him somewhat closer to the others, kind of like a handicap in golf.

An xp penalty will not make up for the lack of stats compared to the other players, especially that much of a gap. People do not like to play a character with the level of difference you have listed.

 

[boxstop7]

What's your highest ability score? What's your total modifier?

According to the PHB, if your total modifier (before racial adjustments) is 0, or your highest score is a 13, you can re-roll. (if you're playing strictly by the rules)

Usually, if all my players but one roll killer characters, I'll allow that one player to re-roll a killer character, then just adjust the difficulty of the game. But if some are slightly above average and some are slightly below average, it can be fun to play.

What are your abiltiy scores, by the way? Is there one score that's really good, and the rest just suck?

~Box

 

[Malin Genie]

Actually, I'm the DM; it was two of my players that rolled the above. The 23-point character was viable (ST 8 DX 13 CN 12 IN 11 WS 13 CH 14) but it was more in comparison to the other character that it was obvious she would be less effective for a given level.

I quite like the idea of giving extra stat raises to the lowest-point characters - like 1 raise/3 levels if below X points and 1 raise/2 levels if below Y points instead of 1 raise/4 levels...

Any other thoughts?

 

[Dimwhit]

Personally, I wouldn't worry about it. We've had drastic differences in character scores in several of my campaigns, and it didn't throw anything off.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

It's never been a problem in my games. I let each player roll 3 sets of stats and choose the best one. They are never "balanced" and it's never been an issue, even with the most hack and slash gamers I've played with.

 

[Zerakon]

In the past, I've given "low-rollers" some story-based benefits, for example:

You are related to an important noble and thus have access to the King's court.

Your father was an adventurer and has given you his (+1 magic) battle axe to use on your journeys.

You have weird supernatural abilities; you're not sure what they are, but you've always been a little different from the rest of your people. [Then as they attain levels, I give them more information on their special powers, which might be psionic-like abilities, precognition, maybe even some free sorcery spells.]

In the Will Power game system I'm working on now, I'm using a character generation method that is a blend of dice-rolling and point buy:

a) Choose a race.
b) Choose one of the 6 attributes as a safe stat.
c) Roll 3d6 to determine your OTHER 5 attributes, in order.
d) Sum the stat bonuses of the five rolled attributes = X.
e) Assign to your safe stat a value equal to 15 minus X.
f) You may swap any two attributes' values.
g) Choose a starting class from those allowed in the Will Power setting.

-- Zerakon the Game Mage

 

[Rashak Mani]

In the few occasions we do roll stats the DM usually establishes that you roll or get 30 points for example. If your rolled stats suck badly you get to do a 26 point character.

This doesnt balance out high rollers thou...

Maybe you should not allow high stat players any min maxing in a voluntary basis.

 

[billd91]

I wouldn't worry about it either. Unless the players in your group are particularly cut-throat, they'll tend to balance things out themselves as they go up in levels. There are some who might say that the best weapon should go to the strongest fighter, but I think there's compelling reasoning behind attempting to grow multiple competent fighters (or whatever class) and so giving the best weapons and items to the character with the fewest natural gifts makes good sense until they're under closer footing.