D&D 5E Rolled character stats higher than point buy?

[FrogReaver]

Why is it that rolled character stats are normally always higher than a character created through point buy? I pretty much never see someone post a rolled character with stats worse than point buy. Does anyone know why?

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[FrogReaver]

That explains many of the higher arrays with point buy. However it fails to answer the question of why you virtually never see poorly rolled characters.

An average rolled (4d6, drop) provides an average advantage of two points, and, more importantly, the advantage occurs with one of the high rolls (you average getting a 16 instead of a 15).

In addition, while there is downside (~15% chance of getting below an 8) there is tremendous upside (~56% chance of getting a 16 or higher). This variance makes it much more likely you're see some extreme (and good) characters.

Finally? People cheat.

 

[Mistwell]

Oh I had a 5e character with craptacular stats...I just never posted him because, well, in what context would I post the stats of a character with low stats?

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Umbran]

However it fails to answer the question of why you virtually never see poorly rolled characters.

I would imagine that few people are enforcing that one play such a character. If you roll 3 stats of 8, your GM is probably going to let you reroll.

 

[Hriston]

If you're using the 4d6 drop lowest method (default for 5e), the average roll (rounded) is 16, 14, 13, 12, 10, 9, with an average score of 12.24. The average score on the standard array is only 12, so 4d6 drop lowest is a little better. With point buy, you can get an average score of between 11.5 (15, 15, 15, 8, 8, 8) and 12.5 (13, 13, 13, 12, 12, 12), so it can actually be a little better than 4d6 drop lowest, but I think what you're seeing might be that players don't want to have close to the same score in every ability. They want to have at least one 15, for which they end up sacrificing more points.

 

[Oofta]

Most people cheat, usually with the approval of their DM. I did some analysis way back and a significant percentage of randomly rolled characters will have a truly bad ability score (4 or less). The average is fairly close to the point buy system.

For example if you have a 3 intelligence you can:
- Ignore the fact that your character has the intelligence of a monkey.
- Play them as if they had a 7 or 8 intelligence - really slow on the uptake but basically functional.
- Reroll the stat.

Most people reroll until they get something they like, or the house rule is that you reroll until you have higher than an 8 or similar.

On a personal note, I've never liked randomly rolling for stats so I may be a little biased. I know some people will praise it up and down but I've never seen the appeal of having some members of the group being Olympic super stars and others only being qualified for the Special Olympics. YMMV.

 

[lowkey13]

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[Bayonet]

Rolled stats = "I made up these stats and will pout if you call me on it."