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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Olaf the Stout" data-source="post: 5831808" data-attributes="member: 13703">My group is about to start the Age of Worms adventure path after having just completed the Shackled City AP.  For the SCAP I had the players use point buy for the very first time.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 had hoped that point buy would at least put everyone on a similar footing power-wise.  It did.  However, it resulted in characters that I would consider a little cookie cutter.  No players had a stat with an odd number in it.  The key stats for each class were high.  The stat least relevant to a particular class was either an 8 or a 10.I wasn't surprised by this outcome.  Only 1 of my players is a real min-maxer but, given the choice, not many players are going to make their characters less effective by having 2 odd stats.  Similarly, they are not going to put a 14 in Int for their Fighter unless they want to take a feat like Improved Trip.Which leads me to my current position.  What I am going to do is a stat draft.  I first came across this concept <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/180349-second-son-second-son-stat-draft.html" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/156917-character-creation-stat-draft-trial-draft-complete.html" target="_blank">here</a> when el-remmen conducted one for his group.My draft will be slightly different to the way el-remmen ran his though.  Firstly, I will not be rolling up a set of stat blocks ahead of time.  Instead we will roll them up as a group and then pick.Picking order will be random for round 1.  For round 2 the picking order will be reverse total point value order.  So the player with the lowest value stats will pick first and the player with the highest value will pick last.We will go through the process twice.  At the end of it players will have 2 complete sets of stats.  They will pick which set to keep.  The 5 sets not chosen (I have 5 players) will be put aside and used for replacement PC's for any deaths.What I'm still undecided on is how to generate the stats.  I'm tossing up a couple of different options.<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Roll 3d6 for stats.  Number of rolls = number of players (so with 5 players there will be 5 Strength stats to choose from).  There will also be a set of Wild stats.  This Wild stat can be picked as any stat.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Same as option 1, except the number of rolls = number of players +1.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Same as option 1, except the Wild stat is rolled using 4d6, drop the lowest.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Same as option 1, except the number of roll = number of players +1 and Wild stat is rolled using 4d6, drop the lowest.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Same as option 1, except all rolls are made using 4d6, drop the lowest.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Same as option 1, except all rolls are made using 4d6, drop the lowest and there is no Wild stat.</li> </ol>At the moment I am leaning towards Option 4 (Roll 3d6 for stats (4d6 for Wild stat.  Number of rolls = number of players +1).It may have just been bad luck, but the first stat block I rolled using Option 1 (5 complete stat lines + 1 Wild stat for 5 player using 3d6) and got a very average set of rolls.  There were two 17's and one 14 rolled.  Everything else was 13 or lower.Rolling an extra set of stats got a 16 and a couple of 13's (i.e. it was now effectively Option 2).  The Con stat line was particularly horrible (6, 10, 5, 17, 7, 13) and the Dex stat line wasn't much better (9, 10, 8, 9, 13, 10).On top of that the Wild stat line was:  9, 12, 10, 10, 6, 12.  So the Wild stat will help offset big negatives, but not much more.  So I'm thinking that making the Wild 4d6, drop the lowest will help avoid lots of low rolls in 1 particular stat.Power-level wise, I'm aiming for characters around a 28-ish point buy level.  Some high stats and some low stats is what I'm after, rather than all stats being average or thereabouts.  I find it just makes for more interesting characters when they have strengths and weaknesses.One other option I am considering is, at the end, allowing a +2 to be put into any stat (can't make any stat higher than 18).Thoughts?Olaf the Stout</blockquote>

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