Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Point Buy vs Rolling for Stats
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Ilbranteloth" data-source="post: 7211603" data-attributes="member: 6778044"><p>3d6 swapping rolls won't.</p><p></p><p>And anything that allows you to drop the lowest die makes it even more unlikely to roll a 4.</p><p></p><p>While it could happen, two 18s (without racial modifiers) would be very rare, although the probability increases the more dice you roll (then drop). The 18 and 4 character even moreso because of the bell curve nature of rolling dice.</p><p></p><p>Also, the maximum human Intelligence at 1st level remains 18 as it has since the beginning of D&D. It's 16 only if you opt to use the standard array or point buy systems. Note that the "default" in 5e is roll 4d6k3, with a statement that "If you want to save time or don't like the idea of randomly determining ability scores, you can use the following scores instead: 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8." The point buy is a variant. In AL, rolling isn't an option as far as I know, so in that case the maximum is 16.</p><p></p><p>AD&D defined the categories, with an 18 as genius, and a 19-20 as supra-genius. So no, you aren't smarter than Einstein. Furthermore, what makes you think that Einstein didn't "get smarter" (gain ASI's) during his from when he started? Strength is easier to consider. You maximum lift is 30x your Strength. So an 18 is 540 lbs, which is a bit less than the world record of just under 580 lbs. The 16 Strength is a full 100 lbs less. And the strongest human ever is also not limited to 18 in the game. The natural limit is 20, which is actually pretty close (max lift 600 lbs) (19 is 570). </p><p></p><p>The argument against how unrealistic two 18s are seems entirely irrelevant to me when <em>every</em> standard array character in the world can have two 18s by their third ASI (two for every race except humans). And if you're going to mention time and training, keep in mind that using the 5e rules as written, you can reach level 20 in 33 adventuring days. While adventuring days don't equate to calendar days, you're still talking months to potentially go from a 16 to 20 in an ability score in the game world.</p><p></p><p>Which leads to another controversial opinion - I'm still on the fence about allowing ASIs (versus feats/skills and other learned things). Level advancement in my campaign remains glacial compared to RAW. </p><p></p><p>Yes, something like Strength makes some sense, since you can train to be stronger. But I'd argue that the training required to go from, say, being able to lift 480 lbs and 540 lbs requires an enormous amount of time dedicated to nothing but training, can't be achieved by most regardless of the training, and even those that reach such a pinnacle can do so for a very short period in their lives. So adventurers that are out adventuring are probably not putting in the training needed (and for that matter, the proper sort of training didn't exist in a pseudo-medieval world anyway).</p><p></p><p>So in addition to our horrible preference for rolling dice, in order, they very well might be the stats <em>for the rest of your character's life</em>. You'll be happy to know that I don't use the AD&D style modification of abilities due to aging. Instead, you start suffering from ailments such as impaired hearing and/or vision, contracting diseases, dementia, or permanent levels of exhaustion. Oh wait, I lied. Checking my table it's also possible to lose a point in a random ability (10% chance). </p><p></p><p>And that 57-year old grizzled veteran? He doesn't quite have what he had in his prime. I've even seen a comment that somebody else made someplace that it would be interesting if you lost levels of your class due to old age. More food for thought...</p><p></p><p>We're such gluttons for punishment! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ilbranteloth, post: 7211603, member: 6778044"] 3d6 swapping rolls won't. And anything that allows you to drop the lowest die makes it even more unlikely to roll a 4. While it could happen, two 18s (without racial modifiers) would be very rare, although the probability increases the more dice you roll (then drop). The 18 and 4 character even moreso because of the bell curve nature of rolling dice. Also, the maximum human Intelligence at 1st level remains 18 as it has since the beginning of D&D. It's 16 only if you opt to use the standard array or point buy systems. Note that the "default" in 5e is roll 4d6k3, with a statement that "If you want to save time or don't like the idea of randomly determining ability scores, you can use the following scores instead: 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8." The point buy is a variant. In AL, rolling isn't an option as far as I know, so in that case the maximum is 16. AD&D defined the categories, with an 18 as genius, and a 19-20 as supra-genius. So no, you aren't smarter than Einstein. Furthermore, what makes you think that Einstein didn't "get smarter" (gain ASI's) during his from when he started? Strength is easier to consider. You maximum lift is 30x your Strength. So an 18 is 540 lbs, which is a bit less than the world record of just under 580 lbs. The 16 Strength is a full 100 lbs less. And the strongest human ever is also not limited to 18 in the game. The natural limit is 20, which is actually pretty close (max lift 600 lbs) (19 is 570). The argument against how unrealistic two 18s are seems entirely irrelevant to me when [I]every[/I] standard array character in the world can have two 18s by their third ASI (two for every race except humans). And if you're going to mention time and training, keep in mind that using the 5e rules as written, you can reach level 20 in 33 adventuring days. While adventuring days don't equate to calendar days, you're still talking months to potentially go from a 16 to 20 in an ability score in the game world. Which leads to another controversial opinion - I'm still on the fence about allowing ASIs (versus feats/skills and other learned things). Level advancement in my campaign remains glacial compared to RAW. Yes, something like Strength makes some sense, since you can train to be stronger. But I'd argue that the training required to go from, say, being able to lift 480 lbs and 540 lbs requires an enormous amount of time dedicated to nothing but training, can't be achieved by most regardless of the training, and even those that reach such a pinnacle can do so for a very short period in their lives. So adventurers that are out adventuring are probably not putting in the training needed (and for that matter, the proper sort of training didn't exist in a pseudo-medieval world anyway). So in addition to our horrible preference for rolling dice, in order, they very well might be the stats [I]for the rest of your character's life[/I]. You'll be happy to know that I don't use the AD&D style modification of abilities due to aging. Instead, you start suffering from ailments such as impaired hearing and/or vision, contracting diseases, dementia, or permanent levels of exhaustion. Oh wait, I lied. Checking my table it's also possible to lose a point in a random ability (10% chance). And that 57-year old grizzled veteran? He doesn't quite have what he had in his prime. I've even seen a comment that somebody else made someplace that it would be interesting if you lost levels of your class due to old age. More food for thought... We're such gluttons for punishment! :) [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Point Buy vs Rolling for Stats
Top