D&D General How Do You "Roll Up" Ability Scores?

[FitzTheRuke]

When we used to roll this, our rule was your modifiers had to total +3 or better, otherwise you could reroll.

Right. So what do you do when a player rolls a -1 total, and another player rolls a +3 total, then you let the first player roll again, and they get a +7 total. The other player gets stuck with the +3, but the one who rolled BADLY gets a much more powerful character, right?

Essentially, you can get rewarded for rolling terribly and "punished" for rolling average. Seems like the definition of "unfair" to me.

I don't like the "roll and if you roll badly use Standard Array" either, because you're now basically saying "if you roll awesome, then you keep that, otherwise you just take perfectly competent rolls. Seems a little power-gamey to me.

I like some of the solutions that I've seen here, though. OtOH, they can get a bit complex.

 

[ezo]

Right. So what do you do when a player rolls a -1 total, and another player rolls a +3 total, then you let the first player roll again, and they get a +7 total. The other player gets stuck with the +3, but the one who rolled BADLY gets a much more powerful character, right?

Essentially, you can get rewarded for rolling terribly and "punished" for rolling average. Seems like the definition of "unfair" to me.

Frankly, if the second player who rolled the +3 whines about it, I'll tell them to leave if they don't like it. They knew the rules going in, all of them do, and whining about it won't help. Next time, don't roll if you don't like how it works.

Also, if a player is that focused on the bonuses to enjoy the game, they need a hard reset on their priorities when it comes to playing.

Anyway, tt really is completely fair, because they all know it going in.

 

[Li Shenron]

Many people have multiple tables, so multiple options would have helped the poll...

As a DM, I recommend standard array and I actually usually provide pre-gens or partial pre-gens to new players, but I allow also the other two PHB methods: point-buy for players who want something more customized and 4d6 drop lowest (not recommended unless you have fun playing a crippled character, because I won't allow retries).

As a player, whatever the DM recommends.

 

[Bill Zebub]

3d6STDL or death.

Well, and death, really.

 

[Parmandur]

I really find it bizarre that people are fine with randomising the character power. Makes all those balance threads seem a bit silly, as it seems the first thing most players do is to intentionally throw the balance out of the window when they start creating a character...

Not really? The math of the game is designed around a possible -4 to +5 spread, wildly out of the norm Rolla don't actually break anything.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Not really? The math of the game is designed around a possible -4 to +5 spread, wildly out of the norm Rolla don't actually break anything.

It breaks the balance between the characters.

 

[prabe]

Not really? The math of the game is designed around a possible -4 to +5 spread, wildly out of the norm Rolla don't actually break anything.

I've DMed where someone had a 20 in Tier 1, and it does ... warp the game more than a little--at least, it seemed to. Though I'm more concerned about balance within the party than balance against the world, if that makes sense.

 

[ezo]

It breaks the balance between the characters.

Characters are rarely balanced IME regardless of ability scores. Choices of race, class, subclass, etc. as well as how you play your PC and how lucky you roll are all larger factors IMO.

 

[Parmandur]

It breaks the balance between the characters.

No, not really. The attribute bonuses are not a significant part of the balance intraparty, and the game again works fine even when one player is "behind" or "ahead" here.

 

[Parmandur]

I've DMed where someone had a 20 in Tier 1, and it does ... warp the game more than a little--at least, it seemed to. Though I'm more concerned about balance within the party than balance against the world, if that makes sense.

It can allow a character to shine a little bit more at their Thing, sure. A +5 means that 25 DC become somewhat doable even early on, but are hardly guaranteed. But even someone with a -4 and no relevant proficiency has a shot at a 15 DC. The "balance" really isn't that tight here, there is room for impressive scores and unimpressive scores to shine at the same table.