D&D 5E How do you generate ability scores for PCs?

[AaronOfBarbaria]

I've never seen anyone do that with point buy ever.

I'm not sure what significance you are meaning for this statement to have. Are you just sharing an anecdote? If so, let me share one of equal value: I've never seen anyone eat Cheetos and drink Mountain Dew while playing D&D.

 

[Zardnaar]

4d6 drop the lowest, maybe a reroll if it is complete rubbish.

 

[Psikerlord#]

So basically like I said. You will end up with a Uber character with no weaknesses. That's more cookie cutter than having to make a choice. I'm guessing you would never choose dex as a dump Stat over it to get a high int pally.

It is not about uber pcs, just more varied ones, but rolling does tend to result in higher scores overall (which i have no issue with, as long as the whole party is in the same ballpark).

 

[Li Shenron]

Other: fixed array.

I don't want to start another point buy vs roll thread

You just did...

 

[Mercule]

I go with standard, by the book point buy... mostly. What I mean by that is that I have essentially sold the standard array as being the baseline and then you can buy or sell stats based on the point buy numbers. Since I have a mix of grizzled veterans and casual gamers -- none of whom have the time to spend like when we were in college -- it works well. The gear-heads have zero problem with the math and the casual folks just arrange and go.

I tried allowing "pick between 4d6, vanilla, and point buy" but those who chose 4d6 (the veterans) ended up at the extremes of randomness; one was noticeably better at almost everything and the other was noticeably weaker than everyone else. The group ended up deciding all the characters had to be rebalanced.

 

[ChrisCarlson]

If a player wants to apply only two die results to an ability score, let's say because it matches her character concept, she can. The "no more than three results" rule is in place to prevent players from applying two results to a dump stat with the intention of then applying four results to a prime stat.

Huh, okay. Why not just avoid the discarding of six entirely? Then grabbing exactly 3-per-stat can allow for potentially lower desired scores by choosing smaller results as needed. Just struck me as a little odd the way you worded it, is all. "Klunky," may be the word I'm looking for. YMMV, one supposes. <shrug>

 

[Oofta]

It is not about uber pcs, just more varied ones, but rolling does tend to result in higher scores overall (which i have no issue with, as long as the whole party is in the same ballpark).

As far as I can tell, higher overall scores only occur if you allow rerolls. Standard 4d6 drop lowest is very close to (within a couple of points) standard 27 point buy.

If you allow people to reroll stats they aren't happy with, then most people will roll until they have average or better stats.

 

[Oofta]

You need to re-read my post a few times. I said very clearly that point buy produces a cookie cutter environment, not that you do it or people "always" do it. It's like living in California. California produces a sunny environment. Does that mean that there aren't quite a few cloudy/rainy days? No. Does it mean that there are a lot more sunny days than Seattle gets? Absopositively.

You are going to find a lot more cookie cutter character generated by point buy and arrays than by rolled stats. That's a fact.

One of my pet peeves is people stating that their opinion is a "fact". It's not. It's your personal observation and your opinion.

You've had multiple people post now that they don't see it. I certainly don't see it in any of my games.

You do see people following certain patterns - people are going to assign ability scores to what make the most sense for the class of characters (or picking a class that will play to the strength of their ability scores). That's all.

But even if people tend to have similar stats (an assumption I don't agree with), so what?

 

[Oofta]

Basically, the entire "build your scores with 20 points" rule was actually playing out as if it actually said "you have a 16, two 14s, and three 10s to assign",

I wonder if that's partly due to Pathfinder's point buy system?

In any case, it kind of seems like having a problem with strength based melee fighters all wearing heavy armor and swinging a sword, hammer or axe of some sort. I don't see why it matters.

But to each his own. Personally I've weighed the pluses and minuses of random vs point buy, I prefer point buy.

 

[delericho]

As far as I can tell, higher overall scores only occur if you allow rerolls. Standard 4d6 drop lowest is very close to (within a couple of points) standard 27 point buy.

If you allow people to reroll stats they aren't happy with, then most people will roll until they have average or better stats.

I've never encountered a DM who, when it came down to it, didn't allow a reroll in at least some circumstances. The only question was whether those circumstances were stated ahead of time, or if it depended on being one of the DM's favourites.