D&D 5E Point buy or Dice?

[Ranes]

I prefer rolls. All characters are disposable, as are monsters; I roll their stats too. Yep, from every little kobold to every major NPC. A few years ago, I ran a short campaign in which every PC (and every creature) was rolled 3d6 in order, before being modified accordingly. That particular game was for giggles and curiosity but I do like randomly rolling and tailoring the game to fit. My players know that, whatever they roll, they can be effective, because 'high powered' is always relative. Furthermore, what emerges from this, in our experience, is that what's heroic isn't defined by characteristic score; it's defined by choice of action under a given circumstance.

But I realise I'm in the minority. And whenever a new player joins, there's always that look when my explanation about this quirk sinks in.

 

[Henry]

Going a bit against the grain from this thread, but I'm a die-hard fan of point buy, these days, for a couple of reasons:

1) no character creation session needed, or online dice rollers, or need to trust what someone rolls;
2) the overall power level of each character is close to one another, with no wild variances like one character with all 10s and another with almost all 18s or higher.
3) my dice rolling sucks -- i even bomb the rerolls.

 

[SirAntoine]

I let my players choose, but if they go for random rolls they get other perks.

 

[Herr der Qual]

I let my players choose, but if they go for random rolls they get other perks.

Like what?

 

[SirAntoine]

Like what?

The standard is luck when finding magic items as treasure. I am not sure how this would go in most 5th Edition groups, because I haven't seen the treasure tables, but it used to be you would roll randomly what kind of magic items, including what kind of weapons or armor, for example. So if you're playing a fighter who specializes with the spear, you are reasonably assured a magic spear at some point.

Depending how low the player rolls, they may need some more help. You could roll d10 on the following little table if you want to bring more variety to the game:

1-4: double starting money
5-7: an NPC owes you a big favor
8-9: you were given special attention as a student and start with one extra feat of your choice
10: ever since you were a boy, there seemed to be someone watching you and every once in a while, fortune seems to shine on you and this saved your life once*

(*) In the last case, this is all the player knows, but what's happening is the PC has a special destiny and he or she has a powerful guardian. Somehow, this PC will always manage to survive, against any odds, until that destiny is fulfilled. It's up to the DM, but it should always be something that will work very much in the character's favor as well as have an impact in the setting.

 

[abirdcall]

I used to like rolling.

High stats in 5e makes character advancement less satisfying. +2 should be a big deal and feel like you have gotten a lot stronger.

4d6 drop lowest often results in at least a couple characters having mostly or all 14+ stats. That's not very fun to me.

I really like the idea of using cards. You end up with random stats but they are also balanced.

 

[Nergal Pendragon]

I prefer point buy. It's easier to translate to online games, tends to be easier to balance around, and it avoids a session needed to just generating characters.

 

[Hussar]

I think the most telling part for me is that die rolled characters are almost universally higher point buy value than standard. Yes, there are exceptions, but, generally, anything that's really low gets tossed. Several people in this thread said exactly that. So, it's not so much about getting random stats, although that's part of it, but, IMO, it's mostly about getting better starting stats. I mean, heck, even the OP's die rolled character is significantly higher value than standard with four base scores sixteen or higher.

I hear all about this or that die roll method, but, again, funnily enough, all of them skew to higher than standard value. Other than the 3d6 in order hardcore version which gets some notoriety, I've yet to see someone start promoting a random chargen system that would baseline at standard point buy or even baseline lower than standard.

I'm not really convinced that it's all about playing to weaknesses when the OP's character is basically the equivalent of a level higher because of its stats.

 

[SirAntoine]

Since there are no ability score minimums in 5th Edition, I don't see why someone would reroll at all. Just take what you roll and play the character to your scores. They're there to tell you what kind of character you get. If he has a low intelligence, play him stupidly, if he has a low dexterity, make him clumsy, etc.

 

[Diamabel]

2) the overall power level of each character is close to one another, with no wild variances like one character with all 10s and another with almost all 18s or higher.

A thousand times this.
Some people may be ok with large power disparities in a party.. I am not.

Same for hitpoints: Woo! the front line fighter has less health than the 10 constitution Wizard from poor HP rolls! ... Just no.