Character Generation - Stat Draft Method

[Michael Silverbane]

Olaf, I feel your pain. I struggled with this for years and finally tossed the whole stat generation system and just let the Players pick their stats. I then make sure that no one is too powerful or too weak and work with the players to adjust their stats up or down as needed.

This is the method that I've switched to, also. Even my blatant power gamers haven't had the urge to abuse it too badly.

 

[Water Bob]

The reason why I went with point buy was the previous campaign used 4d6, drop the lowest (which is what I have always used since starting playing D&D in the early-90's). I noticed in the pre-SCAP campaign though that there was a big stat disparity between some characters. Some had rolled really high during character generation, while a couple of others had been pretty unlucky and had average-to-low stats. The difference in character effectiveness wasn't huge, but it was definitely noticeable.

I never have been a point buy fan. I mean, roleplaying is about...well, roleplaying. And, indiviuals, by definition, are different.

Just as much fun can be had with an average stat guy as with a high stat guy.

Just my two Septims

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I never have been a point buy fan. I mean, roleplaying is about...well, roleplaying. And, indiviuals, by definition, are different.

Just as much fun can be had with an average stat guy as with a high stat guy.

Just my two Septims

Last campaign was my first experience with point buy. I really disliked the cookie cutter stats it produces so I'm unlikely to use it again in the future.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Water Bob]

Last campaign was my first experience with point buy. I really disliked the cookie cutter stats it produces so I'm unlikely to use it again in the future.

I find that point buy is good for certain types of games. For example, the old Victory Games James Bond RPG from the 80's used point buy. In that genre, that's a good thing, though. Characters in that universe are archetypes. Who wants to play a 00 agent with average or below average stats?

But, for most games, I love random roll. I've always found that there's more "character" to be had among random roll characters than with point buy. If you get an odd string of rolls, it's interesting to figure out why? What does it say about the character. Sometimes, entire backgrounds are developed just because of randomly rolled dice resulting in strange stats.

Like a character with high STR and high DEX, but low CON. You start to get a real feel for who this guy is.

I'm sure the point buy lovers will have their own take on it, but for me, when there is choice, it's usually random roll.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I find that point buy is good for certain types of games. For example, the old Victory Games James Bond RPG from the 80's used point buy. In that genre, that's a good thing, though. Characters in that universe are archetypes. Who wants to play a 00 agent with average or below average stats?

I haven't played the James Bond game but if point buy in that meant that every single 00 agent the PC's created ended up with the same numbers in the same stats (or close to it), then I still wouldn't like it.

I don't mind that point buy means that you have high Dex Rogues, high Wis Clerics, high Int Wizards, etc. I get that and it makes sense.

What I didn't like about point buy was that Cleric A, Cleric B, Cleric C and Cleric D for a given point buy level almost always have the same numbers in the same stats. This isn't the case for some classes, where you may have 2 very different archetypes for the same class (i.e. the high Dex archery Ranger vs the high Strength dual wielding Ranger), but it is for many of them.

Similarly, the stats across classes tend not to vary much for a given point buy level. For example, I can't remember how many points I gave the PC's when we used point buy but all but 1 of the PC's had stats such as: 16, 14, 12, 12, 10, 10. The only difference was the stats that they put them in.

So you get cookie cutter by class as well as cookie cutter by actual stat numbers. My experience meant it also made my players focus a lot more on how they could min-max their numbers, rather than just thinking about what might be a cool character to play.

Olaf the Stout

 

[mhensley]

Here's the method I'll be using the next time I dm. It's a kind of group based drafting that doesn't take any more rolling than normal and is pretty simple.

1d8: Group Stat Rolling

Everyone roll up 6 stats (using your preferred method) and combine all the rolls in one list. Example-

player 1 rolls- 12 15 16 14 13 11
player 2 rolls- 17 14 14 9 14 15
player 3 rolls- 12 14 9 13 18 14
player 4 rolls- 15 8 8 11 6 11

list-
12 15 16 14 13 11 17 14 14 9 14 15 12 14 9 13 18 14 15 8 8 11 6 11

Now players take turns selecting the stats for their pc from the list. Who goes first? Roll init for it or go with whoever had the highest stat roll. In this case, player 3 goes first because he rolled an 18. Now the trick to this is that the stats picked have to be in order and the same exact 6 numbers can't be picked twice. So considering everyone wants that juicy 18, they might pick stats like this-

player 1 picks- 18 14 15 8 8 11 fighter
player 2 picks- 13 18 14 15 8 8 rogue
player 3 picks- 14 9 13 18 14 15 mage
player 4 picks- 12 14 9 13 18 14 cleric

This way everyone gets a really good chance at decent scores that are in line with everyone else's scores and the results still produce interesting, organic-feeling characters.

 

[Water Bob]

Here's the method I'll be using the next time I dm.

This is akin to a system I used to use call The Slide.

Here's how it works.

1. Player rolls up six stats. Record in order as he rolls them. I usually use 4d6, drop lowest.

2. A stat Array could look like this: 15 13 8 16 17 10

The player must then keep the stats in order, but he can start apply them any way he likes. There are always six possibilies.

For this set of rolls, the player can choose from:

Choice 1--

STR 15
DEX 13
CON 8
INT 16
WIS 17
CHR 10


Choice 2--

STR 13
DEX 8
CON 16
INT 17
WIS 10
CHR 15


Choice 3--

STR 8
DEX 16
CON 17
INT 10
WIS 15
CHR 13


Choice 4--

STR 16
DEX 17
CON 10
INT 15
WIS 13
CHR 8


Choice 5--

STR 17
DEX 10
CON 15
INT 13
WIS 8
CHR 16


Choice 6--

STR 10
DEX 15
CON 13
INT 8
WIS 16
CHR 17



So, if you wanted to play a thief, you might look at choices 1, 3, 4, and 6.

If you wanted to play a fighter, you might look at choices 1, 2, 4, and 5.

And so on, depending on your character goals.

 

[GSHamster]

My preference is for very low-value point buy. It tends to produce characters that hover around the average, with a couple good stats. Because getting a very high stat costs too much, most players settle for a decent stat and minor boosts to other stats.

 

[Aluvial]

This is my new character generation system that I just employed. I have 7 characters rolled so far. 5 have +12 ability modiers, 1 has a +11 and one has a +13. Essentially, they average out really, really nicely.

The trick is the combo of rolling, applying racial mods, and then using point buy to finish the characters off. You can add more points in step 6 to make more powerful characters. You can delete the rerolls of 1 in step 2 to get slightly lower scores.

Character Generation

1) Characters start with a 3 x 3 grid of possible stats. Across the top of the grid, you list Str, Dex, and Con, and down the side, you list Int, Wis, and Chr.

2) Roll 3d6 to fill the boxes, starting with the top left, moving left to right, top row, then middle row, and last row. When rolling, you may reroll any one 1, once. So if you rolled 5,1,1 you could reroll one of the 1's one time. If the reroll is a 1, then that 1 stands. Ability scores must be rolled in front of the DM.

3) Select six of the scores. Str must come from the Str column, Wis from the Wis row, etc. You may only choose a box score once. You will have three discarded "boxes" when you are finished.

4) If do not like these scores, you may scrap them for a 2nd attempt. If you dislike the 2nd attempt, you can scrap them for a 3rd attempt, but you must keep the final attempt. Once a set of ability scores is scrapped, you cannot go back to it if you don't like your new rolls. I've not had a player yet roll the third set.

5) Once you determine your initial stats, then apply racial modifiers. We are using Pathfinder races, so that usually means you get a +2 to a body score, a +2 to a mind score, and -2 to some racial weakness. Note, this is the only time you can raise a score to over 18. You can never lower a score below 3.

6) Once racial modifiers are in place, you can pick add ability points using the point-buy system. You get 6 points. Raising a 3 to 13 score by 1 costs 1 point. Raising a 14 or 15 by 1 costs 2 points. Raising a 16 or 17 score by 1 costs 3 points. You cannot raise a 18 or higher score using the point buy. You must spend all of your points.

Hope you try it. Let me know what you think...

Aluvial