D&D General How Did You Generate Your Most Recent Character's Stats?

[Maxperson]

what would they have a problem with…?

Someone PICKING high stats rather than rolling high stats. It's not a problem with high stats. If I were in a game and rolled as 12's and you rolled all 18's, I wouldn't care in the least. If I rolled all 12's and you just picked all 18's, I would have a major problem with it.

 

[Charlaquin]

Someone PICKING high stats rather than rolling high stats. It's not a problem with high stats. If I were in a game and rolled as 12's and you rolled all 18's, I wouldn't care in the least. If I rolled all 12's and you just picked all 18's, I would have a major problem with it.

That’s bizarre to me. It’s the exact same result.

 

[Maxperson]

That’s bizarre to me. It’s the exact same result.

Not even close. It's not about high stats at all. You've never heard the well known phrase, "It's not about the destination, it's about the journey?" Only one of those methods feels like cheating to a lot of us. I'm plenty fine with high stats resulting from the journey of rolling. I'm not at all fine with high stats(or any stats) that result from the journey of just pick whatever stats you feel like.

 

[Lanefan]

If no one cares, was it really a rule to begin with?

If one or more people at the table care, then you roll at the table in front of everyone.

IME everyone cares. to the point where it's just naturally assumed they care.

 

[Lanefan]

As the GM, I basically dont allow rolling, in D&D anyway. A bigger part of that than policing cheaters is actually I find it a real chore to challenge a party that has a major disparity in stats.

???

If you can challenge a party with some disparity in level (which 5e can certainly handle; it's only 3e and 4e that had problems with it) then surely you can challenge a party with some disparity in stats.

While the payers might not realize it, going array or PB can protect the integrity of the game in ways that are not always obvious.

Only if you're trying to fine-tune the challenges a bit too much IMO. 5e, like the TSR editions, is quite forgiving as to party makeup, level, and stats.

 

[Lanefan]

That’s bizarre to me. It’s the exact same result.

It is, but what matters in this case is how the result was achieved.

If I roll all 12s and you roll all 18s that's great for you, meanwhile I can rest assured that next time (unless you cheat like a demon) you're not going to repeat that.

If I roll all 12s and you pick all 18s, however, that somewhat forces me into plcking all 18s myself next time in order to keep up because it's very likely you'll pick all 18s at every opportunity.

The whole idea of random is just that: sometimes you're better, sometimes I am, and sometimes we're roughly even.

 

[TwoSix]

IME everyone cares. to the point where it's just naturally assumed they care.

In my experience, people don’t really care unless people are being egregious in their stat picks.

15,15,16,17,18,18 will get some pushback.

7,9,10,15,16,17 is totally fine.

 

[Charlaquin]

It is, but what matters in this case is how the result was achieved.

If I roll all 12s and you roll all 18s that's great for you, meanwhile I can rest assured that next time (unless you cheat like a demon) you're not going to repeat that.

If I roll all 12s and you pick all 18s, however, that somewhat forces me into plcking all 18s myself next time in order to keep up because it's very likely you'll pick all 18s at every opportunity.

The whole idea of random is just that: sometimes you're better, sometimes I am, and sometimes we're roughly even.

Why do you care if another player gets high stats every game? It’s a collaborative game, your other party members having high stats is good for you, you don’t need to “keep up.”

 

[CleverNickName]

Why do you care if another player gets high stats every game? It’s a collaborative game, your other party members having high stats is good for you, you don’t need to “keep up.”

For some folks, all characters in the party need to be equally "good" at things (have equally good stats, in this case) for the players to have equal amounts of fun.

That has never been the case at my table, we're more of a "rising tide lifts all ships" sort of team, but I hear about it on the Internet a lot. I can see from that point of view.

 

[AlViking]

Why do you care if another player gets high stats every game? It’s a collaborative game, your other party members having high stats is good for you, you don’t need to “keep up.”

I've seen games where one person had very high scores across the board and another's were pretty abysmal. You may not care, but to the person with the low scores they never felt like they could ever contribute as much to the team. Being in the shadow of another character made the game less enjoyable to them.

It's pretty basic human nature. Two people doing the same tasks and one is superior to the other, knowing you will never be as good because of something outside of the control of either one isn't great. I think it's also completely unnecessary myself.