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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Oofta" data-source="post: 7221686" data-attributes="member: 6801845">My hypothesis is simple.  Ability scores matter, and there can be a fairly significant difference between the most powerful and least powerful member of a party if you use straight 4d6 drop lowest.So to try to add some proof to this other than anecdotal evidence, I wrote some code.  What the code does is roll up a group of 6 characters, find the "best" and "worst" of the group and does a straight up face off with a Hell Hound.  I picked a hell hound because at CR 3, it's a creature they could be expected to fight (admittedly normally not solo, but <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=":)" /><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=":)" /><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=":)" /><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=":)" /> happens). Tactics, environment don't really matter for the basic hypothesis.  This doesn't speak to whether one player (Tom) might have better strategy than another player (Joe).  If the claim is that "Tom may do better than Joe even with a lower score character" then Joe will have even worse if he rolls up the character with lower scores.  Individual player ability does not affect the basic math.This also has nothing to do with which system is "better". Better is in the eye of the beholder, I'm just comparing the person with the highest overall ability scores to the person with the lowest overall ability scores to get a concrete measure of effectiveness in battle.So, after way too much time coding, and somewhere around a million simulated fights ...Assumptions<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Dwarven fighters because it's one of the better options for a low(er) stat character</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Strength gets highest roll, Con gets next best</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Dex is assigned the lowest roll available</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">AC 20 (plate + shield)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Dueling fighting style (+2 damage)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Level 4, add to Strength and Con instead of taking a feat (adding 1 to strength and con if strength is odd, limit 20 of course)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">No other limitations, if the low roll was a 3 it was assigned to dex, if highest was an 18 the dwarf had a 20.</li> </ul>ResultsIt's been a tough fight.  Lorne and Max, dwarven comrade in arms are separated from their party when they see two pairs of red glowing eyes in the darkness.  With no chance to run, each faces off against their foe.  Who will win?Lorne, who was low man on the ability score results for the group wins the fight 20% of the time.Max, who was high man on the ability score results for the group wins the fight 42% of the time.ConclusionTwice as likely to survive the deadly fight is a significant difference IMHO.[EDIT] Just to be clear I wrote up 100 groups of 6, and the two poor dwarves each fought their hell hound 10,000 times.</blockquote>

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