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

[Bacon Bits]

I don't think point buy is good because it keeps characters average. I think it's good because it means players aren't required to play a poor character if they roll badly. If the character concept I'm excited to play essentially lacks the ability scores to pass basic muster, then six poor die rolls mean I can't play the game the way I'd like to for the next several weeks or months.

I mean, we stopped using 3d6 straight and went to 3d6 arrange to taste and then 4d6 drop lowest and arrange to taste. Why? Because characters that are unable to satisfy the character concept are really unsatisfying. It's not worth it out of 20 campaigns to play 10 boring characters just so that 1 character can be amazingly awesome. Particularly because then when you finally do roll god stats, it's possible you're in a campaign where you don't want to be playing a godlike character or the character concept you're excited about doesn't need those stats.

Sure, sometimes being challenged to make a poor character interesting is fun, but a) having to do that repeatedly is not fun and b) the player should get some ability to choose when they want to do that, not the dice.

Dice are fantastic for resolving events whose consequences can be mitigated, eliminated or reversed through player action. stats are not among them.

 

[Steely Dan]

Never allow away from table rolling:

"…seriously, I rolled this!"

"…I don't know what happened…"

"…really, freakish, my buddy, Hal, was there!"

 

[Mercule]

Just out of curiosity, what do you guys do when someone rolls a horribly low roll like a 4 for their intelligence or strength? I mean I have a tough time making my players want to play characters with crappy rolls. They all love high fantasy tougher characters.

This is the exact reason I don't do rolls. I don't mind some disparity. I mind the absolute suckitude of some situations. But, I also believe that the risk should be appropriate to the reward, so it chaffs me to set too much of a safety net -- that's what the extra d6 in "4d6, drop lowest" is for.

When we played 1e, I also noticed a slow power creep, as people got used to higher and higher stats. The DM would eyeball it and say, "that sucks, roll again". By the time we moved to other games, in the 1990s, "average" stats were in the 14-15 neighborhood. Probably the final straw was that the one and only 18/00 that I rolled, in 15 years of play, was for a mid-level game (10th, IIRC). We were so used to high stats that even the wizard had Gauntlets of Ogre Power. Everyone else, including the Thief had some flavor of Girdle of Giant Strength. Absolutely no chance to shine beyond taking a bigger magic item. Granted, that was a particularly Monty Haul group, but the bad taste remains. The generally high stats of 4E finished off any tolerance I had for characters with multiple 18s. YMMV, etc.

Never allow away from table rolling:

"…seriously, I rolled this!"

"…I don't know what happened…"

"…really, freakish, my buddy, Hal, was there!"

Absolutely. I'm not wholly opposed to rolling dice, just very wary of it. It really, really fits for certain styles.

Where dice are rolled, though, they're always subject to GM observation. I still allow rolls for HP (player option, choose method for each level). Everything else for level advancement is expected to be done between sessions, questions by phone or email. HP are either on your way out the door this week or the way in the door next week. Also established are whether dice on books, mats, papers, etc. are counted. I honestly think some people don't even realize that they get squishy on what they consider a cocked or dropped die.

 

[DMZ2112]

I love rolling (4d6-d6, generally). I love that it creates story (two of my favorite characters are a cleric with a 3 Dex and a wizard with a 9 Int), I love the feeling like you're not creating a person but rather pulling one out of a pre-existing set of people, and most of all I love parties with an average ability score of just under 12. But I only use it in small parties with no class overlap.

Even the faintest hint of two characters doing the same thing and I require point buy. Why? Because low stats might be an annoyance but they make an interesting and memorable character. Someone else in the party who is flat out better than you at your job is by contrast just a terrible feeling.

 

[Ti-bob]

Take the aces through 6s from a deck of cards to get 24 cards. Deal into six stacks of four cards. Drop lowest card from each stack. Assign to stats in order, then optionally swap two stats.
If I recall, this averaged to a 28 point buy (in 3e) with a very tight distribution.

I'm using cards too.

My deck is: 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 7, 7, 8, 8, 9, 9.
Deal 6 stacks of 2 cards, swap any 2 cards if desired and assign each stack to any stat. That's it.

Nice blend of random and control, I find. No complain to date.

 

[Hussar]

I'm using cards too.

My deck is: 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 7, 7, 8, 8, 9, 9.
Deal 6 stacks of 2 cards, swap any 2 cards if desired and assign each stack to any stat. That's it.

Nice blend of random and control, I find. No complain to date.

That's kinda cool. I like it.

Looking at the poll, it's a dead heat between die rolled and point buy. Heh, this is why we have edition wars.