If we all rolled the normal way for stats, how come he has three 18's?

[The Shaman]

If randomness were always a good thing, we should just randomly generate all encounters in the dungeon and dispense with this silly superstitious thing called writing up adventures, right?

You know that is actually a viable way to run a game, right?

My own preference is for systems that use random statgen, but give player characters a little bump - Top Secret and Boot Hill come to mind. In both systems, character stats are rolled using d%, and for a range of results, a character stat is adjusted upward: if a player rolls a 16, then +25 is added, making the stat a 41, but if the player rolls 76, then the bump is just +5. It brings up low scores without pushing up high scores too much.

In my experience one of the problems of random gen is that for some systems low scores in key stats become a barrier to using class abilities, such as a cleric whose WIS is too low to use higher level spells. That's really the only one that bugs me.

One pet peeve about point-buy, particularly in some d20 games: gamers who complain that the game is "broken" in some way, but don't see the connection between the fact that the rules are written with the standard array in mind, and allowing their players to create 36-point superheroes. I've seen this quite often with d20 Modern in particular - for example, gamers whine that the game isn't "lethal" enough, but miss the fact that the high point-buys effectively nerf the massive damage rule by allowing higher than normal CON scores.

 

[Nadaka]

My brother has an inordinate amount of dice luck. He would never roll a character with less than 2 18s, once he had 5 in one of my games (6 in somone elses game). We tried everything, making him roll in front of witnesses, using the dice of someone else, etc.

I eventually gave up and use point buy exclusively.

 

[pawsplay]

If randomness were always a good thing, we should just randomly generate all encounters in the dungeon and dispense with this silly superstitious thing called writing up adventures, right?

I have run adventures that way before. It's fun.

 

[robberbaron]

OK, the impression I get from this thread is that rolling for stats is bad and point buy is good.

I disagree.

Point Buy is boring and seems to produce clones of the same character.
Rolling dice is fun (by comparison, at least).

When I started my current 3.5 game I went with point buy. Not because I liked it but because I had never tried it before and thought it might make backup characters quicker to produce if I had lots of character death.

Should I have a TPK I shall re-start with rolled characters.
Why? Because the players prefer it and, if they are happy, my job is easier.


On the point of rolling and cheating: So what? I expect every group has someone who fudges dice rolls; sometimes it is the DM.
If I suspect my players have been less than honest with their rolls (and it happens) I punish them with harder encounters.
Bottom line for me: If everyone is having fun => win win.

I have rolled characters with 2 18s and a few 17s/16s. I have also rolled plenty of 3s and 4s. Generally, however, my rolling produces both high and low. Luckily, most classes have a good dump stat.

 

[Alaric_Prympax]

Since the moment I started playing we have always rolled for stats by rolling 4d6, drop the lowest die; rolled 7 times drop the lowest roll. I have rolled and seen rolled super stats like 2 18's, 1 17, 1 16 and stats where the character would never have survived childhood such as several 5's, 4's, ect.

I have always liked rolling for stats over point buy because as robberbaron said (empahasis mine).

Point Buy is boring and seems to produce clones of the same character.

My group used point buy once, out of 6 characters 4 had these stats (not in final order for their character): 14,14,12,12,12,12 because that way every ability had at least a +1. I didn't do that, I had a 16 for one of my stats.

Also using point buy to me takes some of the wonder/fantasy out of the game.

 

[Gothic_Demon]

I have to say that my players like the random stat rolls. They all play characters with whatever stats they get. Let's face it, after a couple of levels even 18 in every stat is drowned out by having tons of bonuses to everything anyway.

In 18 years of playing I've always rolled 4d6 drop lowest. I've seen everything from a barbarian with a 3, 4, 6, 18 and two middle stats in 3e, to a girl playing 2e who rolled 18, 18, 18, 18, 17, 16 in front of about 20 witnesses, to a dwarven fighter in 1e with a genuine 18/00.

And finally, my wife's current Eberron character, whose genuine stat rolls were:
13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13

Like the dice or hate them, don't just assume that the rolls are dodgy (though I'll admit in this case, they probably are! )

 

[werk]

*cough*POINT BUY*cough*

There is a better way...

 

[sjmiller]

Addressing rolling vs. point-buy:

<snip very interesting analysis of both methods>

Personally, I think both approaches are fun.

I have to agree, they can both be fun, and for entirely different reasons. I won't even say that one method is better than the other. I will say that I have a preference (rolling) and everyone I know prefers that for D&D. The only advocates for D&D point-buy I have ever seen are online. I am sure there are some folks around here (Minneapolis/St. Paul Metro) who prefer that, but I have not met them. I can't imagine that my dice obsessed group would ever allow point-buy for D&D. I can't blaim them, actually.

 

[amethal]

In our current campaign, I got one guy to roll the stats in front of me, then they all used the numbers he rolled (arranged in whatever order they liked)

Results were 17,15,15,15,11,11

Its a very high point buy, but of course you'd have to be insane to "buy" six odd numbers!

 

[Greg K]

Using 4d6 and subtract the lowest, my two best stat sets dating back to 1e were

18, 18, 18, 17, 17, 16
17, 17, 16, 16, 16, 15