D&D General Harshest House Rule (in use)?

[pukunui]

Gotta love the player that shows up at the table with 20, 18, 18, 17, 16, 15 stats and max hp. I always make my players roll their stats in the open at session zero.

I was in a 5e game that used the average HPs. I was playing a high-CON tanky paladin. Then it came up that the rogue had significantly more HPs than I did. They said they misunderstood and was rolling. The DM just let them adjust.

Then we checked the math and they couldn't have had that many HPs even if they rolled max every level. More than a little bit sus.

This is partly why I always insist on standard array / standard point buy for stats and fixed hit points. No rolling. Not only is it too tempting to cheat, but it also provides too much variance among the PCs. I prefer everyone to be on equal footing.

 

[R_J_K75]

I've been in games and run them where the DM tracks HP for the PCs. The game was basically set so you were:

I had a DM who did this as well. You never knew how much damage you took, or when you were about to die, just vague commentary after being attacked such as you were hit and took damage. Such as you're getting lightheaded, you feel like you're going into shock or about to pass out. It did make the game more interesting that's for sure.

 

[R_J_K75]

I prefer everyone to be on equal footing.

I always found this made for a pretty sterile game. I like some variance in the party, and sometimes the underdog characters turned out to be the most fun and interesting. We did make players roll 3d6 in order for a time and it made for some unique characters. Some players liked it, and others didn't. One player rolled a 3 for charisma. The DM said he was so disfigured he had to hide his appearance.

 

[pukunui]

I always found this made for a pretty sterile game. I like some variance in the party, and sometimes the underdog characters turned out to be the most fun and interesting. We did make players roll 3d6 in order for a time and it made for some unique characters. Some players liked it, and others didn't. One player rolled a 3 for charisma. The DM said he was so disfigured he had to hide his appearance.

Yeah nah. Any time I've had to roll for my PC's ability scores, my dice have inevitably undermined me, and I've ended up with the weakest PC in the group. I just don't enjoy that. I like to play competent characters, and having a debilitating weakness isn't something I'm interested in roleplaying.

As a DM, I've been using point buy / standard array and fixed hit points for the better part of 20 years now. It's never felt sterile to me.

That being said, I did experiment with a hybrid roll + point buy approach for a 3.5e campaign once. The idea was that you'd roll (4d6 drop lowest) for three ability scores, subtract the point buy value of those rolls from a total point amount,* then use the remainder to purchase the other three scores. A roll of 8 or below was worth 0 points, while a roll of 18 was worth 16 points. This allowed for greater variance (scores below 8 or above 15) while retaining some measure of fairness.

*Looking at my notes for that campaign, I was obviously feeling very generous back then because I gave them a pool of 36 points!

 

[kittenhugs]

I've had a good time starting campaigns with a shared array--we go around and every player rolls one 4d6 drop lowest until we have six scores, and everyone uses the resulting array. Though I will admit that has led to higher-power characters in nearly every instance lol

 

[R_J_K75]

One of the biggest reasons I don't like rolling for stats is because I don't like playing a weak character and inevitably that is what I end up with. I don't find using static numbers instead of random ones to be sterile at all. It's also more fair that way.

Suppose its personal preference. It's just how I remember being taught how to play when I first started. So, I kind of miss those characters and don't really like how the game has made all the characters balanced. I prefer to think of some of those OG characters as challenging rather than weak.

 

[pukunui]

Suppose its personal preference. It's just how I remember being taught how to play when I first started. So, I kind of miss those characters and don't really like how the game has made all the characters balanced. I prefer to think of some of those OG characters as challenging rather than weak.

That's how I was taught to play, too. I honestly have zero nostalgia for the old AD&D mechanics. 5e's not perfect by any means, but I'd much rather play it than any other edition of D&D at this point in my life.

 

[R_J_K75]

I honestly have zero nostalgia for the old AD&D mechanics.

We got sick of 5E a few years back and tried running 2E April of 2022 and the rules were pretty wonky with all the subsystems compared to the d20 system. So, we ditched it.

5e's not perfect by any means, but I'd much rather play it than any other edition of D&D at this point in my life.

D&D since the d20 system came out has done a good job of creating a unified system of mechanics but it just isn't for me anymore.

 

[cbwjm]

We got sick of 5E a few years back and tried running 2E April of 2022 and the rules were pretty wonky with all the subsystems compared to the d20 system. So, we ditched it.

D&D since the d20 system came out has done a good job of creating a unified system of mechanics but it just isn't for me anymore.

You could probably somewhat combine the two. I wouldn't be surprised if it is a common change for 2e players to use ascending AC and an attack bonus. Could easily do the same for saves (hit DC 20, roll a d20 + (20 - saving throw)) and skills could probably do something similar to d20 + X for the skill check.

 

[R_J_K75]

You could probably somewhat combine the two. I wouldn't be surprised if it is a common change for 2e players to use ascending AC and an attack bonus. Could easily do the same for saves (hit DC 20, roll a d20 + (20 - saving throw)) and skills could probably do something similar to d20 + X for the skill check.

I'm sure you could. It just comes down to I don't have the desire to comb through the editions to decide what I like and what I don't and then combine them into a single cohesive system.