Just rolled up my new character and (someone with math skills needed)....

[Creamsteak]

I had this same problem one time, just not so extreme. Some DM wanted 5d6 drop lowest 2, and so I did.

Had 18, 18, 16, 14, 14, 11 if my memory is correct.

But I was a Cleric, so I said, "well, everyone IS counting on me."

And dealt with it. I'm fond of ability scores closer to 28 pb personally.

 

[ichabod]

Whoops, missed some conversation. Anyway, if you can reroll any die, even if you kept it before, and reroll <5 then <4, the mean is 13.39 with standard deviation of 2.49. If you reroll <4 then <4, it drops slightly to 13.32 and 2.49. In either case, the ordinal medians are the same, at 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 10. That's 35 point buy. That's slightly worse than 5d6 drop (which has a 17 in place of the 16).

Give me a minute and I'll recode to take into account not being able to reroll kept dice.

 

[ichabod]

If you can't reroll kept dice, and reroll <4 then <4, the mean is 11.97 with a standard deviation of 2.65. The ordinal medians are 15, 14, 13, 11, 10, 9. If you reroll <5 then <4, the median is 12.09 with a standard deviation of 2.66. The ordinal medians are slightly better, with a 12 instead of a 10.

I got these numbers using a python program that brute forced all the possible combinations, although the ordinal medians are from a spreadsheet I made.

BTW, Merak, the ordinal percentiles for you rolls are 93rd, 97th, 99th, 99th, 99th, and 99th.

 

[MerakSpielman]

I talked to my DM. She said that I could keep the rolls, but I was expected to roll play those abilities properly.

I'm going to roll-play him as thinking he is less wise than he really is. After all, the priests told him he was unwise, right? So he will often know better than to do something, but have so many doubts in his own common sense that he does it anyway.

My D&D group has a habit of giving quirks to their characters, and this will be one of mine.

My other quirk is my characters name: Resarchacksandran. He will stubbernly insist that everybody call him by his full name and ignore them if they mispronounce it or try to abbreviate it.

What fun, what fun...