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General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Point Buy vs Rolling for Stats
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<blockquote data-quote="Keravath" data-source="post: 7262541" data-attributes="member: 6916036"><p>I'm not sure if I should dip my toe into this thread or not ... but here is my opinion. </p><p></p><p>1) "Realism" isn't a factor. This is a fantasy role playing game. The players are playing characters that go out and adventure, meet people, travel, deal with challenges. </p><p></p><p>2) If you want to invoke "realism" ... although the general population in the fantasy world may or may not contain some number of people with physical or mental stats of "3". Unless the DM wishes it, you are unlikely to encounter these people either as adventurers or as NPCs because in a "medieval" type of setting these characters would need constant care just to survive and in many cases might not survive at all since they would be unable to either take care of themselves or fend for themselves. </p><p></p><p>3) The world is managed by the DM. If desired or useful, they can assign stats to any creature or being that might be encountered. However, unless there is a game mechanic that requires a number then in most cases there is no need to create any stats or use any particular system to do so. As a result, arguing over which system generates better stats is pretty much a waste of time <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" />.</p><p></p><p>4) In the context of random generation for player characters vs point buy. </p><p></p><p>- Player characters are supposed to be "above average" since they are adventurers ... some people will find it fun to play a disadvantaged adventurer with sub-par stats but not most in my experience. 4d6 drop one will on average generate above average stats ... but not always ... which is a problem when creating a group of characters. Some people will be lucky and roll well and others will not. HOWEVER, due to the bounded accuracy of 5e the variation of stats from random generation has a MUCH larger effect in 5e than in earlier versions. An extra +1 to hit/AC/initiative is a significant boost in this system while in previous versions it was somewhat less important. This means that the character with an 18 attack stat and +4 is better than a character with a 12 attack stat and +1 and will be for most of the character play experience. </p><p></p><p>- This is where the point buy or standard set comes into play. It allows the players to create characters that are more balanced when compared to each other. Everyone has pretty much a common starting level though how the points are allocated are up to the player. It does remove some of the more exceptional characters but it prevents the situation where one person rolls well and another poorly. If the inability to create even more exceptional characters is a problem then just increase the total number of points available to purchase stats. This will allow the creation of even more heroic characters. One other advantage of the point buy system is that if a player really does want to role play a character that has to deal with a particularly low stat then the system can be easily adjusted to deal with that situation. Simple modifications to the point buy concept will allow a complete range of character stats to be generated while keeping the total strength in stats between PCs roughly comparable. </p><p></p><p>- Basically, although rolling a great character is fun, rolling a bad one generally isn't and the point buy system can be easily adapted to create any range of characters you might like to use. </p><p>Examples: </p><p>adventurers usually have 27 points ... exceptional adventurers could have 32 </p><p>average townsfolk could have a total of 5d6 points to spend <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /> </p><p>scores lower than 8 would be special cases since having a score lower than this is probably a significant hindrance for a typical humanoid.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Keravath, post: 7262541, member: 6916036"] I'm not sure if I should dip my toe into this thread or not ... but here is my opinion. 1) "Realism" isn't a factor. This is a fantasy role playing game. The players are playing characters that go out and adventure, meet people, travel, deal with challenges. 2) If you want to invoke "realism" ... although the general population in the fantasy world may or may not contain some number of people with physical or mental stats of "3". Unless the DM wishes it, you are unlikely to encounter these people either as adventurers or as NPCs because in a "medieval" type of setting these characters would need constant care just to survive and in many cases might not survive at all since they would be unable to either take care of themselves or fend for themselves. 3) The world is managed by the DM. If desired or useful, they can assign stats to any creature or being that might be encountered. However, unless there is a game mechanic that requires a number then in most cases there is no need to create any stats or use any particular system to do so. As a result, arguing over which system generates better stats is pretty much a waste of time :). 4) In the context of random generation for player characters vs point buy. - Player characters are supposed to be "above average" since they are adventurers ... some people will find it fun to play a disadvantaged adventurer with sub-par stats but not most in my experience. 4d6 drop one will on average generate above average stats ... but not always ... which is a problem when creating a group of characters. Some people will be lucky and roll well and others will not. HOWEVER, due to the bounded accuracy of 5e the variation of stats from random generation has a MUCH larger effect in 5e than in earlier versions. An extra +1 to hit/AC/initiative is a significant boost in this system while in previous versions it was somewhat less important. This means that the character with an 18 attack stat and +4 is better than a character with a 12 attack stat and +1 and will be for most of the character play experience. - This is where the point buy or standard set comes into play. It allows the players to create characters that are more balanced when compared to each other. Everyone has pretty much a common starting level though how the points are allocated are up to the player. It does remove some of the more exceptional characters but it prevents the situation where one person rolls well and another poorly. If the inability to create even more exceptional characters is a problem then just increase the total number of points available to purchase stats. This will allow the creation of even more heroic characters. One other advantage of the point buy system is that if a player really does want to role play a character that has to deal with a particularly low stat then the system can be easily adjusted to deal with that situation. Simple modifications to the point buy concept will allow a complete range of character stats to be generated while keeping the total strength in stats between PCs roughly comparable. - Basically, although rolling a great character is fun, rolling a bad one generally isn't and the point buy system can be easily adapted to create any range of characters you might like to use. Examples: adventurers usually have 27 points ... exceptional adventurers could have 32 average townsfolk could have a total of 5d6 points to spend :) scores lower than 8 would be special cases since having a score lower than this is probably a significant hindrance for a typical humanoid. [/QUOTE]
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