Die Rolls or Point-Buy

[rich_f]

My players generate 6 sets of scores by 4d6, drop lowest. I let them arrange they then pick the best of the 6 sets, arrange as wanted, and move points around on a 2:1 basis, but cannot make any score lower than 10.

But I'm thinking point buy next time.

 

[Drawmack]

I use both. I let the players choose from the following methods when building their characters.

1) 32pt. buy. Base all skills at 6 and then spread 32 points around as you see fit.

2) 62 pt. by. Base all skills at 0 and then spread 62 points around as y ou see fit.

3) Roll 4d6 seven times. Drop the lowest score roll each time. Add up the columns and drop the lowest total. Those are your stat scores place them where you like.

I then do something that I call power balancing. This was developed in response to winy players. He's more powerful then me. I'm weaker then blah. So I told them if they continued to complain I would institute this policy and they continued to complain. So I instituted it.

Add up each characters abilities. This represents their power level.
Now add all the abilities together and divide by the number of players. Every players power level must be within 3, above or below, the average powerlevel. They have to subtract or get to add points to make this happen however they must subtract or add one point from each ability before adding or subtracting a second from any ability. Which maintains original relation between the character's abilities.

 

[Sanackranib]

character gen

the big problem with point system is that no matter how many points you have, you always have the potential of rolling better, the last character I rolled up the DM gave us the choice of 80 points or 4d6 reroll 1's drop the lowest die. I rolled and wound up with 3 points better then if I had goe the points route, another pc rolled and got 2 less then he would have gotten if he took the 80 pts.

I'll always roll when I can

 

[Gothmog]

I use a weird way that seems to work really well. First, I have each player roll one set of ability scores using 4d6, drop lowest until we have 6 sets of scores. Then, I form a 6x6 grid of the scores, example shown below.

12 16 8 14 13 15
10 11 17 8 12 14
16 13 15 10 11 10
11 8 18 13 15 9
14 10 9 15 16 13
15 11 10 16 13 10

Then, each player can choose one row, column, or continuous set of six scores from the matrix, in any orientation (top to bottom, bottom to top, left to right, right to left) and place them in order on his character sheet. Usually this works really well- it gives the player some choice in his scores without being as nit-picky as point buy, but can also end up with some character with high or low scores in unusual stats given their class. Give it a try, it works pretty well.

 

[Psion]

I do 4d6 drop low with three permissible mulligans plus the option of GM intervention.

 

[Sanackranib]

character gen

I have a slightly more generous system than the book:
4d6 reroll 1's once then drop the low die. then roll 1d4 and you can add those extra points in however you want with the stipulation that no stat can exceede 18. assign in any order and add racial modifiers.

of course if you roll 4 ones then you ARE stuck with a 3 for one stat. in the 5 years I have used this system its only happened once, and the character turned out to be a real hoot!

 

[RSKennan]

I use a weird way that seems to work really well. First, I have each player roll one set of ability scores using 4d6, drop lowest until we have 6 sets of scores. Then, I form a 6x6 grid of the scores, example shown below.

12 16 8 14 13 15
10 11 17 8 12 14
16 13 15 10 11 10
11 8 18 13 15 9
14 10 9 15 16 13
15 11 10 16 13 10

Then, each player can choose one row, column, or continuous set of six scores from the matrix, in any orientation (top to bottom, bottom to top, left to right, right to left) and place them in order on his character sheet. Usually this works really well- it gives the player some choice in his scores without being as nit-picky as point buy, but can also end up with some character with high or low scores in unusual stats given their class. Give it a try, it works pretty well.

I actually like this. Does each player roll 6 sets of 4d6 or is it a "community chart"?

I took the liberty of adding 0's as place holders for readability.

12 16 08 14 13 15
10 11 17 08 12 14
16 13 15 10 11 10
11 08 18 13 15 09
14 10 09 15 16 13
15 11 10 16 13 10

 

[smetzger]

My favorite method is:
roll 2d6+1d8, 7 times keep best 6, arrange how you want.

Then compare everyones highest roll, the highest of this group then replaces everyones highest roll.

Then compare everyones lowest roll, the highest of this group then replaces everyones lowest roll.

 

[Henry]

Point buy? We don' need no steenking point buy!!!

Of course, I would be happy to use a point buy system, as it makes character generation far quicker to me, and eliminates complaints from people who rolled poorly. (Our most recent game, we had a player who was upset with his character because he rolled a 15, four 12's, and a 10. He had no 'high score' - what I tried to get across is that he had a bonus to almost EVERY ability!)

However, NO ONE in our group likes point buy! It's just the thrill of the roll that forms a new character in their heads.

 

[KnowTheToe]

I personally love the point buy system as rolling can make creating a character that meets your character expectations difficult. I prefer 28-32 points spent as per the DMG.

I have had players that just are not happy with a few 10-12s and a stat below 10. In 3E that can be very detrimental, even with powerful magic items they may be below a character who had hot dice and has an 18,16 and a few 12-14 stats. Anyway, as described above, most players that roll come up with systems that really stack the deck toward power PCs, which voids my argument.

Point buy rocks, you losers!!!!!!!!