D&D 5E Point buy vs roll

[Parmandur]

The problem I find with rolling, especially in pick up games, is people might fudge their dice. Point buy and standard array ensures everyone is honest and everyone is on equal footing. Otherwise, with a group you trust, rolling is fun. If anyone has crappier stats, most of my GMs will allow a reroll or a random boost of a stat.

the interesting thing about The Holy Grail method that I mentioned earlier, is you have the same spread as standard array but you can have stats that range from 6 to 18 instead of 9 to 15. More variety and the excitement of ‘rolling’. Even though you are drawing cards.

Never played a pick up game: always with close friends and family. And there would be issues much more significant than character generation if someone is willing to chest at the start.

 

[Helldritch]

Never played a pick up game: always with close friends and family. And there would be issues much more significant than character generation if someone is willing to chest at the start.

Yeah... when I was DMing for many different groups, it was a bane. This is an RPG where there are no winners but some people don't get that. This is what led us to the 4d6 once for each players. It works quite well. Also, all dice in the open and having your neighbour declare the result removes cheaters quite fast.

 

[Cadence]

Worlds most boring random stats generator?
5 total modifier, 27 points, and 2 odd stats, with the arrays approximately occurring in the proportion they'd happen by rolling and throwing out any that didn't meet that criterion.

Roll a d100 and take the array
01-03 = 8, 9, 13, 14, 14, 14
04-28 = 8, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15
29-31 = 8, 11, 11, 14, 14, 14
32-46 = 8, 11, 12, 12, 14, 15
47-59 = 9, 9, 12, 14, 14, 14
50-55 = 9, 10, 11, 14, 14, 14
56-73 = 9, 10, 12, 12, 14, 15
74-79 = 10, 10, 10, 13, 14, 15
80-100 = 10, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15

If you want them in a random order, roll the d6 to see where each value goes.

Worlds most boring point buy system?
Choose one of the nine arrays above.

 

[Mezuka]

Clearly the best method is the first one, in OD&D. The DM rolls 3d6 in order for each player and tells them what they have to work with to create their character. Best way to avoid cheating with the dice, I guess.

(joking)

 

[Hriston]

The only time I've limited players to non-rolling methods was when they were creating characters for a PbP game. Previous experience had given me the notion that low rolls increased the likelihood of ghosting in that particular format.

 

[Plaguescarred]

I use both methods depending on the game. For pick-up games, i tend to use point buy/standard array and for campaign i tend to use roll.

 

[Lyxen]

Which is not necessarily a bad thing.

It really depends on your players, we've had some who refused to play if they did not have the highest stats of the group, meaning that point-buy was expected so that every one had equal opportunities.

In some games, yes. But with 5th edition in particular, I don't think it's really possible to get truly awful stats.
There is a 0.5% chance to get a character with one or more scores of 3. That's one in 200 characters.
There is a 7% chance to get a character with one or more scores of 5 or lower. That's one in 14 characters.

Which means on average on one unlucky guys out of every 2-3 parties, it's not that rare.

But if you really use the method, you can get characters which are "worse" than that, just totally average all over.

At 4th level, you can increase that 5 to a 7, for a -2 modifier. And -2 is not terrible. Especially when you can decide your worst stat goes into an ability your chosen class does not rely on much.

The thing is that a -2 really sucks compared to a +5, especially in a game with bounded accuracy.

And if by that point you still really hate your character, you can always start a different one. Nobody is being forced to stick with the same character just to play in the campaign.

And that is another problem, our campaigns are really about the story of the characters, changing characters is a really big thing as it breaks continuity.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Always point buy. (My campaign uses a modified version.)

I really see no point in rolling, especially in modern style where you just rearrange the scores to go where you want. You're just randomising character power. You might just as well randomise the starting level, if you want some characters to be randomly better than others.

At least in the old school roll in order method you're randomising what kind of character you get, and not only power. Though I think a better way to do that would be to randomise your class, race and background.

 

[Yaarel]

I use a choice of several arrays.

But each array is calculated according to point buy, so I put point-buy only.

 

[Li Shenron]

I'm curious about what is the general preference (if any) on this forum for the method to generate stats in 5e.

You forgot the 3rd method: fixed array. Which is even more standard than point-buy which is presented as an optional variant in the PHB.

Fixed array (which doesn't necessarily mean exactly the array given in the PHB, you can come up with your own) is my favourite method as a DM for a few reasons:

• it's the fastest
• it is the most difficult to cheat
• it is the most equal to all PCs

As a player I often choose to roll only because it amuses me - and I am such a good player that I kick ass even if I roll horribly - but as a DM I always recommend point buy (but allow all 3 if you really want).