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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CapnZapp" data-source="post: 9351579" data-attributes="member: 12731">Regarding high ability scores. Everyone's game is different, but in my experience, the better (at system mastery, not actually playing a role) you are, the more of a detriment it becomes to randomly roll for ability scores. That is, the difference between one player rolling 18, 17, 16, 10, 9, 8 and another rolling 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13 is greater in a group with people that invest time and energy to create effective characters.To the point where it can completely break a game. Recently my friend told me about a campaign I'm not involved in, where the barbarian rolled great - so great, in fact, that the player and DM agreed on level 3 to voluntarily lower the stats.The combination of that player probably having the group's highest system mastery, and the best stats, meant that the character came across as one or two whole levels higher, completely dominating play, easily handling challenges that even two other characters struggle with.The point is: if your experience is that these discrepancies aren't an issue and you love random rolling, please don't dismiss the possibility this is because none in your group prioritize system mastery, and that you should not dismiss the complaint out of hand.Starting with the default array (or, to be more precise, every character starting with the exact same array) actually is a significant requisite to gain a good gaming experience. Not to everybody, but for those that can run away with greater scores, it is essential.Conversely, just because I am convinced my and my friends need a level starting field (and rules supporting this) doesn't mean you need to. Either way it is wrong to claim "the game shouldn't include rules for random rolling" or "the game shouldn't include rules for default array".Likewise, the argument "true D&D gamers roll 3d6 in order" is non-sensical. Just becaause that might work with your preferred flavor of old-school doesn't mean it works with 5th Edition. While 5th edition (thankfully) is no 4E or PF2, balance isn't exactly unimportant. Randomly rolling opens the window for skill mastery to translate into outright victory, and that's no way to play the game. Same with +3 items. In a group that skillfully defeats monsters, focuses its fire, and methodically attempts to maximize monster weaknesses, the Monster Manual becomes nigh unusable with high-powered magic items. Monster Manual monsters might present a challenge to new or casual gamers, but very few of them scare a level-appropriate party of veteran optimizers.So if someone says, say, that "don't hand out shields with bonuses" (because the issue is rarely with character damage output, it's nearly always too-high character defense that breaks the game) that might be true even if YOU and your group doesn't need the advice: if you play with a gaggle of chaotic school children, they might even NEED +3 shields to not melt away against even middling monster opposition...! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

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