Generation: rolling vs. point buy

[Crothian]

IME, Rolling stats lead to munchkinism.
Players whinning about poor rolls,
and characters dying "accidentaly"
so the player could reroll a new char.

That sucked.

Hint: the problem is not with rolling..... :\

 

[Darkness]

My original comment was for the general discussion in comparison to the point buy totals recommended in the book.

Then you should have said so in the first place. Instead, you said how you dislike "point-buy."

 

[Tauric]

Personally, I like the way my current group does it: roll 4d6 seven times, drop both lowest die and lowest roll. Works pretty well, overall

Here's something I find interesting that I wonder if anyone else has noticed:

First some background. I have been playing DnD since around 1989, so I was raised, so to speak, on rolling.

I got out of the game in 96, and came back to in when 3.0 came out. I was in California at the time. I tried three groups before I found one I liked. Each used point buy (even the one I ended up with). When I spoke of "rollling up a new character", they either looked at me like I was crazy, or went, as one girl put it, "aw, that's so cute that you still call it that".

Now I'm back in Michigan, and if I mention point buy, they say, and I quote "sacriledge! heresy!".

Does anyone else notice any geographical differences.

The gamers I was with in Cali ranged from age 20 to 26 (same age as me at the time), so I don't think age was a factor.

 

[Mercule]

Point buy. I wouldn't play a "serious" game using die rolls.

Beer and pretzels game is a different matter. But, then it'd have to be one where you don't get to rearrange and just make what you can out of what you were dealt.

 

[Dracomeander]

Then you should have said so in the first place. Instead, you said how you dislike "point-buy."

You've missed the point again. The fact that some of the groups use point buy does not invalidate the statement that I really dislike it. From my experiences, there is a definite "cookie cutter feel" to the way the characters end up as they are presented on the sheet. At a 36 point buy, the feel is lessened but still there. At the lower point totals, they tend to become exaggeratedly one dimensional.

Those are my observations of several different groups of very diverse people. It is not just a single individual or even a single group developing those characters.

 

[Abraxas]

Howdy Tauric, I'm another Michigander and in my neck of the woods I don't know anybody that uses point buy.

I dislike point buy for 3 reasons

1) The averaging effect. I can accept randomly generated rolls that have high and low extremes, but I really dislike the requirement for a low score to get a high score created by point buy.

2) Point buy favors classes that can really shine with only 1 high score. And no this isn't a problem with number of points assigned - because if you bump the number of points to help classes that need multiple high stats to really shine (and yes this is shine in a game mechanic sense) the classes that need only the one high stat are stellar.

3) I have never gone into a game with a mindset of wanting to play a specific type of character. I have always used the scores generated by the die rolls and gone "Hmmm, what character would be interesting given these scores."

 

[James Heard]

Always use point buy, of course I'm one of those weird gamers who actually loathes dice. Seriously, I've been known to show up to run a game without 'em and make the players roll the monster's attacks and damage. If you want to give someone the joy of rolling dice all the time, just do that and arrange for encounters with 30+ goblins every so often.

 

[Bad Paper]

I got out of the game in 96, and came back to in when 3.0 came out. I was in California at the time. I tried three groups before I found one I liked. Each used point buy (even the one I ended up with). When I spoke of "rollling up a new character", they either looked at me like I was crazy, or went, as one girl put it, "aw, that's so cute that you still call it that".

Now I'm back in Michigan, and if I mention point buy, they say, and I quote "sacriledge! heresy!".

Does anyone else notice any geographical differences.

I live in California. A friend and I started up a group, from scratch, a little over a year ago. (We are now at something like 14 people in four groups! Ack! How did that happen?) Anyway, my friend and I are transplants from New Jersey, and in NJ we knew only the 3d6 AD&D v.1 rollup. So here we do the 4d6-drop-lowest, but it's still a rollup. Perhaps we are the only people in California who roll. (insert unsubtle joke about what we roll here)

Maybe the geographical division is the Mississippi or the Continental Divide. How do people in Kansas generate their characters?

 

[moritheil]

Sounds like a lot of players in that campaign deserve to be kicked out. No player should be allowed to die 3 or 4 times and keep rolling up new characters, unless the campaign is really bizarre.

And the DM doesn't have to prove anything, incidentally. One replacement character, sure, that's fine. Two or more is pushing it.

IME, Rolling stats lead to munchkinism.
Players whinning about poor rolls,
and characters dying "accidentaly"
so the player could reroll a new char.

That sucked.

 

[FreeTheSlaves]

...
2) Point buy favors classes that can really shine with only 1 high score. And no this isn't a problem with number of points assigned - because if you bump the number of points to help classes that need multiple high stats to really shine (and yes this is shine in a game mechanic sense) the classes that need only the one high stat are stellar.
...

Wait a second, the classes were playtested with default array ability scores which suggests that this is not an issue. Perhaps the issue here is that in core combat statistics (AB, Dam, AC, hps) you are expecting the Paladin to perform like the Fighter, or the Monk like the Rogue, when they're expected to not be similar.

I'm playing a campaign with 25pt buy and my Paladin gets his fair share of time in the sun - I just needed to realize that the 2 fighters outshine me in pure damage output but I still form the core of the defensive frontline.