D&D 5E How Will You Be Generating Stats in 5E?

[mach1.9pants]

As always The Organic Method from 3E

Roll six times recording in order using the best 3 of 4d6. Re-roll any one ability score taking the best of the two. Then switch any two scores.

I often let everyone use each others rolls. So everyone rolls 4d6d1 in order. And that is a pool everyone can use for their swap/re-roll

 

[YourSwordIsMine]

Since the default method is choose Race and Class first then do Stats, I chose 4d6 drop Lowest and arrange to suit.

Preferred method?

3d6 six times, in order. Play Race and Class my Abilities would be best suited for.

 

[The Grand User]

I'll probably start out with the standard 4d6 drop lowest, arranged as desired, or point buy, player's choice.

I am contemplating adding an extra option of 2x 5d6, 2x 4d6, 2x 3d6, arranged as desired.

Another thing I'm thinking of is everyone roll 4d6l1 as normal, then the highest valued roll in terms of point buy sets the limit and players can advance their stats to match.

Or even 3d6 in order plus bonus feat as one more choice to the above (they'd still roll the initial 4d6l1 to set the point buy limit if that was being used).

 

[Lanefan]

4d6 drop lowest, arrange to suit; or

5d6 drop lowest 2, arrange to suit (like we've done for 30+ years now).

Lan-"but never, never anything other than random roll"-efan

 

[Dausuul]

Hmm... I should really have broken down the options more in the poll (4d6 only, point buy only, elite array only, 4d6 and point buy, point buy and elite array, etc.).

Anyway, my own answer: I'm thinking I will allow either point buy or 4d6 drop lowest. If you choose 4d6 and dislike the results, you can discard them and do point buy instead, but you only get 24 points instead of 27.

 

[Keldryn]

As always The Organic Method from 3E

Roll six times recording in order using the best 3 of 4d6. Re-roll any one ability score taking the best of the two. Then switch any two scores.

This is my preferred method as well. I love that it produces some stat combinations that you would rarely see otherwise while still allowing PCs to excel in their chosen classes.

When I'm DMing, I often give players the choice of either the Organic Characters method or the standard 4d6, drop the lowest, arrange as desired. When I finally get the chance to run a 5e game, I might just stick with Organic.

 

[keterys]

This discussion is making me tempted to try something more outlandish, like -

Choose 2 stats, roll 5d6 drop 2 lowest
Choose 2 stats, roll 5d6 drop highest and lowest
Choose 2 stats, roll 5d6 drop 2 highest

 

[GX.Sigma]

At my table, I've successfully soft-banned the array/pointbuy. "Sure you can use the array, if you want to be LAME."

For my upcoming supercampaign, I'm considering different tiers of character randomness. Like, you can roll [highest 3 of 4d6] in order, or 3d6 arrange to taste, or an array of 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8.

 

[TheGorramBatman]

If it is a one-shot or otherwise short game, I use some sort of roll method. Usually 4d6 drop the lowest, but maybe 3d6 if I'm feeling saucy.

Otherwise I find randomization inadequate for long term play. There's always one superstar at the table with great rolls and someone with terrible rolls. Over a long enough timeline it isn't worth trying to balance encounters to challenge the superstar without outright killing the sucker. Too much work fiddling with the nuts and bolts of the encounters when I could be fleshing out the story or pursuing one of my many other interests.

Everything is escalation of force. As the players improve a DM needs to up the ante to keep the players from falling asleep at the wheel. The DM will continue to up the ante until a good balance can be found. After a long period with 3.5 and watching tables where one player is bored by lack of challenge while one or more other players are hanging on for dear life, I've decided that point buy is a preferable method of creation.

Seriously, I've seen some bad games. They were like reading those really old DC comics where Superman teams up with useless peon of the week and laughs heartily while his buddy is getting his butt kicked before going off to win some cake baking competition or something.

The more even the characters are at creation, the less likely a character is to be completely overshadowed. If characters don't get overshadowed then players remain enthusiastic and are more likely to continue playing and contributing.

...also using point buy or standard array means that the time I spend tweaking encounters goes from hours to minutes. It makes the game much easier to improvise and run on the fly. Overall my life becomes a hell of a lot easier.

 

[TheGorramBatman]

This discussion is making me tempted to try something more outlandish, like -

Choose 2 stats, roll 5d6 drop 2 lowest
Choose 2 stats, roll 5d6 drop highest and lowest
Choose 2 stats, roll 5d6 drop 2 highest

Most ridiculous I've seen was -

Roll 24d6.
drop the 6 lowest.
arrange in 6 groups of 3 as you like.
distribute those 6 groups as you like.

I wouldn't recommend this method for long campaigns.