Is this character too pwerful?

[Viashimo]

I'm too dubious of my players stats to see it as a real roll, but rolling in front of people sort of fixes that anyway. There's some insane things I've seen come across my table, one character had three 18s and nothing below a 15 or a 16. He ended up with something like a 72 point buy equivalent... grossness in rolls.(on 4d6 drop lowest)
The stats are high, but I guess it happen.

 

[S'mon]

I'm not an expert, but here's what's worked well for me in the past: Run an anti-virus program (here is a good free one if you need one)

BTW Darkness thanks _hugely_ for this link, I used it earlier today and it seems to have zapped some malware that's been on my PC a week and had resisted all my prior attempts to be rid of it.

 

[LordSkull]

Personally I feel Characters should have pretty high stats. I am of the philosophy that characters are the elite members of their respective cultures (Heros) and thus should be some of the most genetically superior members of their races. In my games I EXPECT my players to have at least one 18 and preferably nothing below a 10 or 12 depending on the campeign I plan to play. I find more exotic characters to be my greatest creative challenge as a DM to my creativite and working the balance around them. I have always encouraged my players to be creative and come up with something new and different around which I can wrap my mind and spark my own creativity. Lets face it the story is all about the players. They are the focal point of any adventure. They are the ones making our storys come alive. If the players are not having fun then it takes away from the campeign as a whole. Some players like the freedom to play something unusual or powerful. Its not really that difficult to get high stats with a 3d6 or 4d6 drop method. Try rolling up 5 sets of stat blocks and see what you get. I can almost garuntee that you will have one very low block and one very high one. If one of my players says they rolled something I believe them. I find it can put some bad blood between DM and players when they feel you do not trust them to be honest. Even the dishonest ones will be outed in short order when approached with a air of trust sometimes even realizing how much fun they loose by cheating. As for the probability of certain rolls. A friend of mine was playing in a battletech tournament at a convention and needed 6 20's to win the match. And be damned if he did not roll all 6 and win the match to the shock of the other players who thought they had him beaten. And that was at a convention in front of hundreds of people who witnessed it. So don't be so quick to say someones' rolls are automatically cheating because they are somewhat improbable.

I would allow this player into one of my games also provided that the other players were similarly decked out. I agree with the issue of too much wealth but aparently the previous DM was uber generous with the magical goodies. That is easily remedied trough the story itself. All those goodies do you no good when confronted with creatures who can nullify magic or even feed on magical goodies. Creativity can over come all obsticals and still make the game fun. If something is lost in an interesting way then the players do not mourn the loss too long. I can only speak from my 20+ years of DMing and I know everyone has their own style.

As for the permenancy on the Darkvision. A wish and possibly a miracle would take care of that nicely even if it is forbidden with a standard permenancy.

Just my input on this debate. Sorry for the novel but there was a lot to reply to.

 

[Celebrim]

Personally I feel Characters should have pretty high stats. I am of the philosophy that characters are the elite members of their respective cultures (Heros) and thus should be some of the most genetically superior members of their races.

I like somewhere between 28-32 point by both as a DM and a player. Any higher point buy than that and I think the effective level of the party goes up, and the only net result is that you have to throw higher CR challenges against the party than usual. Also, typically if the PC's have a 40+ point buy, then you can pretty much expect that some of the NPC's do too, so the net result is that you are no more extraordinary than you would be otherwise.

If you are a 32 point buy character, I'd like to think you've got a point buy as good as anyone you are ever likely to meet. Typical NPC's in my campaign are 15-20 point buy, and seldom have any stats above 14.

A friend of mine was playing in a battletech tournament at a convention and needed 6 20's to win the match.

I wasn't aware that Battletech used a D20 mechanic.

And be damned if he did not roll all 6 and win the match to the shock of the other players who thought they had him beaten.

Rolling 6 20's in a row at a Battletech convention would be pretty impressive, considering most of the time you are throwing 2d6.

And that was at a convention in front of hundreds of people who witnessed it.

There was this guy at a MtG tournament who was in desparate straights until he had a moment of inspiration and tore up his Chaos Orb and tossed the peices into the air.

So don't be o quick to say someones' rolls are automatically cheating because they are somewhat improbable.

It's not the somewhat improbable ones that I question. It's the somewhat impossible ones that really get me to raise my eyebrows.

As for the permenancy on the Darkvision. A wish and possibly a miracle would take care of that nicely even if it is forbidden with a standard permenancy.

Yes, that would do it. But then Wish can do alot of things that normally aren't in the rules. It's a rare DM that grants wishes to low level characters.

No need to apologize; I like novels.

 

[Wild Gazebo]

There was this guy at a MtG tournament who was in desparate straights until he had a moment of inspiration and tore up his Chaos Orb and tossed the peices into the air.

"Um, yes. I'ld like a deck-count for my opponent please."

 

[LordSkull]

I guess I'm old fassioned. I prefer good ole dice rolling for stats as opposed to point buy. I understand and respect the way point buy streamlines the whole process somewhat as you do not have to worry about fudged dice rolls and such. But hell some of my greatest fun is the rolling and randomization. Maybe I'm a closet gambling addict who never had the cash to go to Vegas so I get my fix rolling up NPCs and PCs


Could have been d6. It has been many many years since the incedent and my memory is not what it once was. Never spent much time with battle tech personally so not very familiar with the rules.

Chaos orb wasn't that from the unhinged set or unglued or something.

Agreed it is a rare DM to allow a wish to low level characters. I am not one who would.

 

[Votan]

Well, I would not believe most people (except a very select few), if they claimed to have rolled these stats. Especially not on 3d6.

But I'm not the DM.

I once watched a player roll 18/00 (this was 2nd edition where exeptional strength on an 18 waqs possible) using the 3d6 method (only once but it was amazing). Interestingly, this was when we were reacting to overpowered characters and so did 3d6 in order.

However, things like this are actually why I loathe rolled statistics. The last time I played a character it was a psion with something like 15 14 12 8 8 8 as rolled statistics (the DM nicely allowed rolls of under 8 to count as 8 preventing the hopeless character clause from working). This was the flip side of this approach and it really hurt.

Point buy or array, I say.

 

[focallength]

I take feats that develop the character, same with weapon choices. This character was trained by an orc paladin who used the Bastard sword, thus this character uses it, plus I didnt want a overly huge weapon. Many people think endurance is a waste, but believe me when you can sleep in medium armor without being fatigued thats a boon. Plus getting bonuses to swimming and running is a great bonus also. Anyway Diehard came in to play because the first few games he was in he got smacked for negatives often, so I figured he learned how to take the hits and keep on trucking. Plus being able to mave away or drink a potion and not have to worry about stabilizing is just about the best thing you can have. Instead of lying their bleeding out failing your rolls, hoping that someone with a potion or healing can get to you b4 you die and have to make a new character. I dont play to min/max and optimize every little detail, I take what I feel the character has grown into. As for improved overrun, well when you can break through a line of fighters to get to the juicy wizards their screening for, well...the look on the mages face as a charging paladin w/a THW rumbles through the D-line, straight at him for a charge attack, is just priceless. Most people just fight through the baddies taking their hits and letting the non-front line combatants (who usually do the most damage) fire away at them, I think tactically and usually totally destroy anyones battle plans within the first 2 rounds.

As for the links, I saw that start happening a little while back, just didnt think anything of it, every once in a while a word would be highlighted. Do you people always click on strange links? I didnt think they were advertisements (I dont click strange links) just my computer was being goofy.

 

[Seeten]

"Um, yes. I'ld like a deck-count for my opponent please."

Dont forget the guy who got caught with the cadaverous bloom in his lap. It strangely reminds me of tha stats in post #1.

 

[Seeten]

Oh, yes, speaking of which, I was asked to start gaming with a new group lately, and told the chargen rules. I told the DM I'd be rolling under the name Dracha on Invisible Castle, and rolled. Go look up Dracha for the results. He checked the username prior to rolling to ensure it was my only roll.