D&D 5E Different Methods for Rolling Ability Scores (8-15 range)

[DND_Reborn]

Highest 3 of 6d5 (make it 8 if it isn't) is pretty -- except for needing a bunch of d5s.

Yep.

Similarly, highest 4 of 6d4 truncate between 8 and 15... but d4s are kind of annoying.

Yep again!

 

[guachi]

3d4+5. Any score above a 15 is set to 15. A 14 and 15 will both have a 15.63% chance of being rolled. Average score is 12.42.

Alternative #1: Any points over 15 that are lost by the above method can be added to any other score. Average is 12.50.

Alternative #2: Any points over 15 that are lost are given to the player with the lowest total of all his ability scores.

 

[DND_Reborn]

3d4+5. Any score above a 15 is set to 15. A 14 and 15 will both have a 15.63% chance of being rolled. Average score is 12.42.

That is pretty good, too, and has a higher chance of getting an 8...

I am not thrilled about capping every score at 15 if you roll higher, though. Still, some more food for thought.

 

[Flamestrike]

Absolutely correct.

But since I am trying to get a range of 8-15 with an average of 12 or so, how does that help exactly?

1d8+7 (no bell curve). 8-15 range, average 11.5.

Do you want a non linear distribution? I mean you could just roll percentile against a chart with 8 values (8, 9, 10 etc), and create whatever probability curve you desired with values of each.

Eg:

%	Stat
01-05 (5 percent)	8
06-15 (10 percent)	9
16-30 (15 percent)	10
31-50 (20 percent)	11
51-70 (20 percent)	12
71-85 (15 percent)	13
86-95 (10 percent)	14
96-00 (5 percent)	15

That creates a nice even bell curve, sets the average stat at exactly 12, but you can adjust the % to whatever you want (to make high stats harder to get, or extreme stats harder to get, or low stats harder to get, or whatever).

You could also work into the chart a fail-safe to prevent successive poor rolls (or successive good ones) by having a high roll penalize the next roll, and/ or having low rolls providing a boost to the next roll (roll a 03 and get a Stat of 8? Congratulations, for your next roll you get +50% (meaning a Stat of at least 12 is assured).

 

[Jacob Lewis]

6 + 1d3 + 1d6.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Back in ADnD we had some luck with 3d6 and roll some more d6 to add to any number you like, but it has to stay below 18.

So my method would be:

6 times 7 + 1d8 (average of 11.5)

Then you add d4s. Since every d4 increases the total by 2.5. You want to add 0.75 on average to get to 12.25.
So you have to add 0.75*6 = 4.5

This means that you have to roll 2 d4, which adds 5 to the average. If you consider that in edge cases you might not be able to add something extra because you rolled to well, your average should be somewhere between 12.25 and 12.5 with some flexibility.

If you want to be exactly at 12.25 you might consider rolling a single d8, chop it into two parts and add those to your stats as you wish (high risk but a lot of flexibility if you roll good).
You might consider rolling 7d8 and you may use the median of those rolls, or even flip the middle one over, to counter out bad luck a bit.

You can even increase the number of d8 rolls by any even number you like and drop as many highest and lowest as you wish to get more average stats.

Example: roll 9d8:

3, 5, 7, 8, 1, 1, 8, 2, 4.

Sort it:

1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 8.

Scrap the lowest, highest and mark the middle one:

1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 8.

Add 7 to all unmarked rolls and flip the middle one over:

8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15.

4 -> 5

Then assign the numbers to stats as you like, chop 5 in two halves and add the to the stats you like:

Str: 12 + 2
Dex: 8
Con: 14
Int: 10
Wis: 15
Cha: 9 + 3

This will be our war cleric.

 

[DND_Reborn]

I mean you could just roll percentile against a chart with 8 values (8, 9, 10 etc), and create whatever probability curve you desired with values of each.

This has the same issue as Methods 2 and 3 in the OP. I know you can do it with a table, but I would rather not have to require players to look up their results to determine their scores.

I'm guessing you didn't read the spoiler? (Which is fine, after all, it IS in the spoiler...)

 

[DND_Reborn]

6 + 1d3 + 1d6.

LOL you really don't get the part about wanting the average to be 12-12.5, do you???

(FYI, your method still has an average of 11.5.)

 

[DND_Reborn]

Back in ADnD we had some luck with 3d6 and roll some more d6 to add to any number you like, but it has to stay below 18.

So my method would be:

6 times 7 + 1d8 (average of 11.5)

Then you add d4s. Since every d4 increases the total by 2.5. You want to add 0.75 on average to get to 12.25.
So you have to add 0.75*6 = 4.5

This means that you have to roll 2 d4, which adds 5 to the average. If you consider that in edge cases you might not be able to add something extra because you rolled to well, your average should be somewhere between 12.25 and 12.5 with some flexibility.

If you want to be exactly at 12.25 you might consider rolling a single d8 to add to your stats and divide those points as you wish (high risk but a lot of flexibility if you roll good).
You might consider rolling 7d8 and you may use the median of those rolls, or even flip the middle one over, to counter out bad luck a bit.

Yeah, this follows the same line of thought for the best solution I came up with yesterday.

D&D 5E - Different Methods for Rolling Ability Scores (8-15 range)

Start with a 12 as your number in each attribute. For each attribute, Roll a d6 and 3d12. Discard all 1s and 2s and 3s. For 4 to 6, Subtract 1 from your number. For 7 to 12, above, add 1 to your number. The d6 has a 50% chance to be nothing, and a 50% chance to reduce (net reduction: 66%)...

www.enworld.org

I suggested the extra d8 added to the lowest roll, capped at 15, but I like your idea of a d4 or maybe 2d4 also. I'll have to look at that.

Thanks!

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Yeah, this follows the same line of thought for the best solution I came up with yesterday.

D&D 5E - Different Methods for Rolling Ability Scores (8-15 range)

Start with a 12 as your number in each attribute. For each attribute, Roll a d6 and 3d12. Discard all 1s and 2s and 3s. For 4 to 6, Subtract 1 from your number. For 7 to 12, above, add 1 to your number. The d6 has a 50% chance to be nothing, and a 50% chance to reduce (net reduction: 66%)...

www.enworld.org

I suggested the extra d8 added to the lowest roll, capped at 15, but I like your idea of a d4 or maybe 2d4 also. I'll have to look at that.

Thanks!

I edited my post a bit with some changes and an example.

A d3 and a d4 will also get you to exactly 12.25.
And thanks for this thread, I like playimg with dice statistics.