Does 1d12+5 for ability scores work OK?

[necrotizer]

I personally don't like rerolls or redos, unless it's forced rolling. I've offered either rolling or point buy as an option, but if you roll you're stuck with it. This represents the risk of getting higher stats (statistically likely), but with a descent chance of being worse than point buy. Eventually I relented (my players hate point buy), and now allow a rolled character to default to standard array, which is just worse than point buy.

To be fair, standard array is only "worse" than points-buy from a min-max perspective. Points-buy is balanced around a mean ability score of 12 with larger deviations resulting in a lower overall mean. It ranges from a min-max build (15,15,15,8,8,8; mean=11.5) to an average build (13,13,13,12,12,12; mean=12.5). Standard array (15,14,13,12,10,8; mean=12) is just one instance of a points-buy build.

Standard array starts with a 15 and it has even parity. (i.e., if we ignore racial bonuses, your first ASI results in +1/+1 modifiers.)

You can make a strong case that the standard array is one of the most optimal points-buy arrays.

Edit: But I digress. 1d12+5 results in a mean score of 11.5 with a large deviation. That's completely in line with expected ability scores and (if rolled across a party) it should be balanced for most source books. It's likely to result in a party with some players that are objectively more effective than others, but if your campaign is RP oriented and/or your players aren't too competitive... it should be a good time.

 

[rgoodbb]

This thread resolved itself over three years ago.

The @necrotizer reanimated it yesterday for some reason!

 

[Yaarel]

I have been pretty happy with the results from:

6 + 2d6

The results are suitable and tend to generate characters that are roughly balanced with each other.