Ever see a Strengh 18/00 rolled legitimately?

[Mouseferatu]

Probably about half a dozen times over the years. (Alas, none of those were for my own character.) Yes, legitimately.

A whole hell of a lot more than half a dozen if we take out the strict "legitimate" requirement, and yes, in that category, I count a character or two of my own.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Seen with my own eyes, only once. It was December of 88 and the gang was rolling up characters for a brand new campaign I was about to start in my homebrew world.

I miss the free time I had when 12+ hours at a stretch could be spent just drawing maps.

 

[OnlineDM]

Sorry for being a total newbie, but could someone explain to an unenlightened new-school player like me how the rules for rolling percentage for Strength worked in older editions? I only have any familiarity with the rules for 3e and 4e.

Clearly from the context you roll both 3d6 as well as percentile dice... but what does that MEAN? Is 8 / 99% better than 18 / 5%?

Funny note: When I tried some simple Googling to see if I could figure this out on my own, this EN World thread from 2003 that asks the same question came up!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Never saw one rolled up, but I did play one with DM's permission. He also had 18s for Dex & Con...but his mental stats added up to 18.

The coda to his story was most recently told here: http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/301069-greatest-best-ever.html

 

[Mercurius]

I rolled 18/00 once - yes, three 6s followed by two 0s (I don't even think it was 4d6). It was 15-16 years ago and I was playing a one-on-one game where the other guy and I would switch off DMing. He was a total prick in all facets of life, including D&D--he didn't like the fact that I rolled 18/00 so he killed off my character in the first session - he sent me up against a giant scorpion, I believe (I know, I should have run).

 

[pawsplay]

Twice, I think.

 

[kaomera]

Sorry for being a total newbie, but could someone explain to an unenlightened new-school player like me how the rules for rolling percentage for Strength worked in older editions? I only have any familiarity with the rules for 3e and 4e.

Clearly from the context you roll both 3d6 as well as percentile dice... but what does that MEAN? Is 8 / 99% better than 18 / 5%?

A Fighter (possibly some subclasses of Fighter as well) who scored an 18 in Strength was entitled to make an additional roll of d%, which was then parenthetically noted with this score. Yes, a higher percentile roll was better, and even an 18/01 was better than a straight 18. Note that every percentile score had a different bonus - the gradations in 1e where 01-50, 51-75, 76-90, 91-99, and (of course) the mighty "00".

Compared to a character with a straight 18, a Fighter with an 18/00 enjoyed a +2 to hit, +4 to damage, 2250# of weight allowance, a 2 in 6 open doors chance, and an improvement of +24% to the chance of bending bars or lifting gates.

 

[Greg K]

I had seen it three or four times in twenty years (once being my own character).

The scary thing was that one of those players also rolled 18/99 and 18/98 in front of me. He was also was freakishly lucky with the percentile dice (including those belonging to other people) in combat when we played Rolemaster.

 

[Mercurius]

If I remember correctly, an 18/00 gave a +3 to hit, +6 damage.

Checks PHB...

Yup, at least in 1E. I don't have a copy of the 2E PHB anymore.

 

[jonesy]

I've seen it with my own eyes only two times, and the second character didn't survive long enough to do anything with it.

But I've seen a lot of characters who've arrived to games like that, and the players swore they were legit.