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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Guest 7034872" data-source="post: 8657589">On one hand I favor the position of those here who dislike huge variations in PC stats, but on the other hand I do still like having players roll for stats. Seems a bit off to hold both those preferences, right? Lemme explain it.The described dilemma faced by [USER=6801845]Oofta[/USER]'s wife put a sour taste in my mouth; I don't think I would ever respond to her situation in that way as DM or want to play a PC under a DM who did. We're all supposed to be bonding with each other around the table and, if not being or becoming friends, at least being mutually friendly, aren't we? I take "Yes" as an axiomatic premise and will not entertain forms of play that do not. So that whole situation with her sucked. Accordingly, no "3d6 in order as rolled and if you don't like it, suck it up, babycakes!" Not in my games, thank you.But now on the other side I don't really want a point-buy system, either. As DM, I'd always be happy to allow a player to use that option, but I don't want to enforce it on everyone. A lot of players enjoy the excitement of rolling for stats in the initial character build and I think the randomness it introduces does give each player an interesting range of possibilities and dilemmas to solve that we wouldn't find in point-buy. For instance, I have a player who rolled very high on his primary stat, but also very low on WIS. This has resulted in some wildly entertaining game play when decisions about diplomacy and social interaction are made, because he's intentionally playing this guy to be very, very tone deaf in the social universe. We had another player who rolled a FIVE for his character's INT and yessir, he conscientiously played that character to be dumb as a fence post. It was great. I want players to have this opportunity for wild-and-woolly characters whose woolliness is not just by choice, but by design. Having at least some really low stats facilitates this.So here's what we've done in my current campaign: I let them roll 4d6 and drop 1d6 seven times instead of six. They each then discarded their lowest stat. I still kind of dislike that approach, though, because it feels a little too soft and cuddly. The next time I DM, I think I'll go for rolling all six stats with 4d6 and drop 1d6, but have them do the whole sequence twice (or even roll once and build the other with point-buy). They'll then choose whichever of the two sets of stats they prefer. What's the advantage to this? Well, it preserves the excitement and randomness of rolling, but it also keeps alive the very real possibility of one's favorite set including one or two stats that are notably low. Min/maxers can go for broke with that, but players who shy away from major weaknesses in their characters don't have to.Anyway, this is where my head is today.</blockquote>

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