D&D 5E Point buy or Dice?

[delericho]

I vastly prefer point-buy stats, but random rolls isn't a deal-breaker if that's what the DM chooses. However, I detest rolled hit points, after a streak of rolling nothing but '1's that lasted through the whole of 3e (now thankfully broken). Playing the 'weak' character is fun once, but after several such characters I reached the point that I absolutely would cheat on that roll.

When I'm DM, each player get a choice of random roll OR point buy OR standard array for stats. But everyone gets fixed hit points.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

My personal preference is rolling for disposable PCs that I will play for 1 to 3 sessions, but I strongly lean towards point buy for long campaigns.

Someone in our group found "Roll 4d6 by cards no replacement" on the internets, and it seems to find the sweet spot -- it has enough randomness that it can help player's creative juices, but the randomness is boxed in enough that there is no remarkable differences between PC power due to stats.

(1) From a deck of playing cards pull out the 24 cards A(1)-2-3-4-5-6
(2) Shuffle and deal into 6 piles
(3) Reveal and pick three, in pre-determined stat order (yes, you may pick low number if you want )
(4) You may swap two numbers
(5) If you really do not like what you got, you may use a standard array

As you can see, it is very much like rolling 4d6, except because of "no replacement" the numbers tend to even out -- in other words, if you have a 17 or 18, you probably also have a couple low numbers somewhere.

 

[Herr der Qual]

My players always want to roll stats but what they are really saying is they want great stats!

If they roll 18,16,14,12,11,10 they will be happy as all get out but let a 3,5,7,8,9,10 come up and it's "I don't want to play this character, let me roll again or use point buy.

Also they have AMAZING luck rolling as long as I'm not looking at there dice rolls for stats.

It's just better to tell them to use point buy and be done with it.

See, I agree that there are players that are like that but I love rolling because there are no guarantees. When I roll a character I expect them to have at least one terrible stat that I have to manage with. I love that challenge.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

I allow my players to roll or take the array, but if they roll, they must keep the result. Same for HP. All my players have chosen to roll without even looking at the array.

Someday I will run a game of 3d6 in order. But not a major campaign.

The more disposable the PC is, the fewer the downsides and greater the upsides to rolling.

The more invested the Player is in the PC, the greater the potential downsides* to rolling.


* A "potential downside" is not necessarily a downside you will see at your table. It depends a lot on the play style of the group.

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

I just started LMoP with three players and each of them wanted to roll their stats. We used the 3d6 re-roll lowest, stats in order no swapsies technique. One ended up with 18 Con and 16 Str, played a Dragonborn and thus boosted himself to Tank status before he decided Barbarian was the path for him! His 7 Dex actually kind of works for the character race. The second player chose to be a Human and rolled pretty average across the board (11s and 12s with one 16) and chose Druid. he's now level 2 and chosen Moon Druid path, so we have a second tank. The third guy rolled absolute toilet. Think Lewis from Full Frontal Nerdity. I decided to let him re-roll everything (nothing above 10 was not going to fly!) and he ended with a 17, a 14, some averages. Went for Gnome Ranger. Interestingly, each of them decided what race they wanted to be before picking up the dice (and in the druid's case, what class too).
We did everything random, Traits, Flaws, even what colour dragon heritage. Worked out nice, and I have to say the Trinkets work nicely too for extra characterisation - especially the pipe that blows bubbles going to the hard as nails Dragonborn Barbarian who, we decided, likes to look at his pretty scales reflected in the bubbles when he isn't stoving someone's head in.

 

[Herr der Qual]

We did everything random, Traits, Flaws, even what colour dragon heritage. Worked out nice, and I have to say the Trinkets work nicely too for extra characterisation - especially the pipe that blows bubbles going to the hard as nails Dragonborn Barbarian who, we decided, likes to look at his pretty scales reflected in the bubbles when he isn't stoving someone's head in.

That ^^ is fantastic roleplaying if I've ever seen it!! Hahahahaha! I really like the random percentile tables that add flavour like that, I applaud your embracing the roleplaying tools built into the PHB to allow for a fuller experience for your players.

 

[Tommy Brownell]

I have my group roll dice for attributes, but use the formula for hit points.

 

[Sunseeker]

I want that array...

I run high-powered games so the players need to be able to stand up to the stuff I like to throw at them. Plus, I know everyone loves to have an 18!

 

[Herr der Qual]

I have never considered using the formula for hit points, I really don't like that system, it feels like such a rip-off.

 

[Psikerlord#]

In our current game, I had the three players roll 4d6 drop lowest, in order, twice. This generated six stat sets that anyone could use, or you could take a slightly beefed up standard array and put the scores in any stats. This let the dice roller types get their randomness AND maintained balance in that no one's stats were automatically better/worse than anyone else. Requiring the rolled stats to be recorded in order made for some more unique combinations than you normally see.

Since one player rolled an 18 in Strength AND Charisma, the party has a paladin and a bladelock who have the exact same stats. We almost had all three use that array with a bard, but my wife eventually decided on a rogue instead and went with the dex/con heavy set.

For HP we use max on 1st 2 levels, then average +1 afterwards. I do roll non-boss monster HP (and usually max or double max boss types).

I prefer more randomness in task resolution, less in character generation resources. I do try and let the party randomly roll for treasure at least once per adventure though.

We use something like the above.

Everyone rolls. Anyone can take anyone else's rolls but with a d4 penalty. Eg someone rolls 17, 12, 13, 14, 16, 8. Someone else can take that array, but first rolls d4 and gets a 2, he has to take 2 points off somewhere, eg he might reduce the 14 to 12, or reduce 8 to 7 and 13 to 12.

Keeps the fun randomness (avoids cookie cutter builds, point buy's disad) and maintains PC stat balance (point buy's adv). Win win.
It does tend to result in more powerful PCs, but I also find that a positive thing.

As for HP we have always used the minimum roll of 1/2 - if you roll less than half your HD, roll again. Nothing worse than rolling a 1 for your HP increase.